Dr. Eric A. Udren of Quanta Technology LLC

The seminar will review legacy designs of substation protective relaying and control with centralized control center operation, now evolving into the advanced unified grid control platform (UGCP).  UCGP integrates the latest networked substation protection and control designs, interconnected via enterprise WAN with distributed holistic wide-area protection and control functions, rapid and deployment of functional updates, monitoring of complex configurations, and management of the state and performance of transmission and distribution grid infrastructure.  The discussion will focus on expanding applications of time-synchronized high-speed wide-area voltage and current measurements known as synchrophasors, used for functions ranging from fault protection to centralized grid monitoring and control.

Biography:

Eric A. Udren has a distinguished 54-year career in design and application of protective relaying and control (P&C) systems for electric power transmission and distribution systems, wide-area grid monitoring and control systems, phasor measurement unit (PMU) and synchronized measurement applications, and data communications systems for grid control including IEC 61850 standard protocols and modeling.  Eric appeared as PACworld Magazine Industry Guru in 2016.  He has been elected in 2019 as member of the US National Academy of Engineering ‘for leadership in advancing protection technologies for electric power grids.’

Eric received his BSEE with honor from Michigan State University in 1969, with graduate study at Cambridge University (UK) and MSEE from New Jersey Institute of Technology. Eric is Life Fellow of IEEE and 50-year work leader in the standards-writing IEEE Power System Relaying and Control Committee (PSRC). He is also works in the Power System Communications and Cybersecurity Committee (PSCC), is US leader for IEC protection system standards, and leads technical strategy development for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).  He wrote over 100 technical papers and book chapters and holds 12 patents.

Eric held technical leadership positions at Westinghouse, ABB, Eaton Electrical, and KEMA T&D Consulting.  He programmed the world’s first computer-based transmission line protective relay in 1971 and led development of the first LAN-based substation protection and control system in 1978.  He works today with major utilities on new substation protection, control, communications, and remedial action scheme designs.  Eric is Executive Advisor with Quanta Technology LLC of Raleigh, North Carolina since 2008 with his office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.