Prof. Anil Pahwa of Kansas State University

The power grid has evolved from Edison’s first electric grid in 1882, which provided sufficient electricity to 59 customers to light one lamp each in one-square-mile area, to today’s that provides electricity to millions of people around the world. While the grid become a complex machine in the 20th century, it suffered from collapse and blackouts. The concept of smart grid evolved in the wake of several blackouts, such as the one of 2003 in the Northeast USA. The basic idea is to leverage progress in communications, computing, sensors, power electronics, cybertechnologies, and data analytics to make the grid a cyber-physical system for higher reliability, resiliency, efficiency, and flexibility. Cyber-physical power systems also allow larger penetration of renewable energy resources, both large and small scale. Continued innovation and integration of these technologies will have unprecedented effects and the digital grid of the future will be very different from the grid of today. Some possible scenarios suggest that customers will be more engaged. They will own electric vehicles, and could have generation and energy storage in homes. There could be real-time prices and market at the distribution level. Implementation of artificial intelligence and advanced machine learning techniques, and advanced power electronics will enhance real-time control and operation of system both in normal and emergency states to improve efficiency and resiliency. The system will rely less on fossil fuels and battery storage will be widespread. This presentation will provide a brief history of power systems and some projections for the future power distribution systems supported by examples of recent research to advance the digital grid.

Biography:

Prof. Anil Pahwa received the B.E. (honors) degree in electrical engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, in 1975, the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from University of Maine, Orono, in 1979, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, in 1983. He has been a faculty member in Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Kansas State University since 1983, where he is currently University Distinguished Professor and holds the Logan-Fetterhoof Chair. The National Academies selected him for the Jefferson Science Fellowship in 2014. He served as a Senior Scientific Advisor in Economic Policy Office of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau of the U.S. Department of State as a part of the fellowship.  He served as Program Director for power and energy at the National Science Foundation from 2018 to 2020.  He has served in several officer positions in IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) including chair of Power and Energy Education Committee from 2012 to 2013, and an editor of IEEE Transactions on Power Systems from 2010 to 2015.  He has received several awards over his professional career including the IEEE PES Douglas M. Staszesky Distribution Automation Award in 2012, IEEE PES Prize Paper Award in 2013, KSU College of Engineering Distinguished Researcher Award in 2020, and Outstanding Alumni Award from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in 2014.  He is a Fellow of IEEE.  His research focuses on reliability, automation, and optimization of power distribution systems. His research has provided innovative and practical solutions for application of advanced communication and cyber technologies for automation of electricity distribution to customers and large-scale integration of renewable energy resources in the system. 

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