Projects & Research
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Projects -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ISO New England - Serverless Computing for Cloud-based Power Grid Emergency Dispatch (2019.6 - 2020.6)
ISO New England - Enhanced Cloud Computing Platform for Large-scale Power System Simulations (2017. 1 - 2020.1)
Designed and implemented an industry-grade cloud computing platform for large-scale power system offline studies, such as N-1, N-1-1 analysis using PowerGEM TARA, resource adequacy analysis using GE MARS and Bulk Power System (BPS) test using PSS/E. The cloud platform is user-friendly, secure, and has limitless ability to scale up computing resources to meet the needs of various compute-intensive power system studies.
· Integrated all the user-defined models delivered by Powertech with our Online-TSAT program to replace the wind generators netted by TSAT
· Updated the generator mapping table to the latest EMS network case
· Upgraded the Online TSAT Data Preparation Tool (DPT) to validate the UDM parameters against the real-time power flow solution in order to produce correct dynamic output, which significantly enriched the output quantity of the existing OnlineTSAT program by introducing more dynamic modeling details into the New England system
· Proposed and developed a big data analytics platform on top of scalable Hadoop clusters running on Amazon Web Services for historical data mining (PMU data, SCADA data, weather data, market data)
· Demonstrated the value of this platform in big data mining through an application on historical PMU data. This application can quickly identified the occurrence time of abnormal frequency excursions from an extremely large amount of historical synchrophasor data for engineers’ further investigation. ISO has benefited and could benefit more from such a platform by digging more patterns out of its huge volume of archived data
· Validated the feasibility of “PMU-based Emergency Generation Dispatch” through a TSAT/ePMU simulation to show the efficiency of proposed emergency dispatch scheme using synchrophasor measurements in case of any EMS failure
· Developed an in-house application on top of open source code of PMUConnectionTester to dispatch participating units for the area balance
· Built a simulation platform based on the in-house application and TSAT ePMU to perform the closed-loop near real-time validation. Simulations have demonstrated that the proposed dispatch scheme could help balance any multi-area system in the case of EMS outage emergencies
· Drafted the project proposal with schedules and potential deliverables specified
· Implemented a new feature in Fast Network Analysis (QKNET) to provide indicators about line trips, breaker transitions and personnel in hazardous areas in Alstom’s situation awareness solution e-TerraVision
· Updated network model to include mapping of equipment status with correct SCADA measurements
· Added callback functions to respond user-triggered commands and acknowledge alarms of device status change
· Developed a tool named Outage Evaluator to provide quantitative assessment of scheduled outages in FPL system
· Redesigned the code structure of Multiple Time-point Network Analysis (SMTNET) to incorporate Outage Evaluator as a plugin module for evaluating outages in batch mode
· Developed APIs to extend Oracle SQL dynamic linked library for querying outage information in OE
· Implemented a line switching scheme in Security Constrained Dispatch and Security Constrained Contingency Planning to prevent branch violations in both base case and contingencies
· Devised a scoring system to evaluate the alleviation on security violation with line switching applied
·Designed user interface to present line switching effect to operators
· Developed an application to calculate the total transfer capacity of nine interties that connect US and Canada
· Implemented TTC tool in real time mode, hourly mode, daily mode and weekly mode for various purposes of study
· Wrote a flat file parser to retrieve data regarding load reserve balance, outage schedule and load forecasting for TTC
· Developed an agent to monitor the TCP/IP communication between EMS server and PowerTech DSA-Manager and to present DSA-Manager case queue status to operators
· Created a Perl script to securely transfer mandatory (network, dynamics, transaction, and etc.) files from EMS server to DSA-Manager and to transfer stability analysis results from DSA-Manager to EMS
· Modify the Procman model to incorporate the tool with real time state estimation and real time contingency analysis in the sequence of periodic network analysis
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Research ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stability Analysis & Control Design
Improved Grid Resiliency through Interactive System Control (sponsor: U.S. Department of Energy)
· Studied how to fully leverage federal government investment in deploying synchro-phasors for control purpose.
· Designed fault-tolerant stabilizing controls to guarantee power system stability in the event of communication failures
· Conducted large scale system modeling and numerical evaluation using PSLF and PowerTech TSAT
· Wrote white paper and research reports submitted to US Department of Energy
Power Plant Monitoring & Control
Prevention of Steel Mill Shutdown due to Motor Stalling (Sponsor: John Undrill LLC)
· Developed a 20-bus steel mill plant model with induction motors included in PSLF
· Conducted power flow analysis and unbalanced short-circuit analysis using PSLF
· Carried out customized analysis to evaluate the motor’s performance using EPCL language
Transmission Planning
Transmission Planning for Arizona Considering increased Solar PV Resources (sponsor: IEEE ASU Branch and Arizona Public Service)
· Studied the transmission adequacy for Arizona with increased high level solar photovoltaic resources
· Performed unit commitment for re-dispatch of generators to minimize the operating costs with multiple constraints.
· Performed N-0, N-1, N-1-1 contingency analysis using MATLAB and AMPL
· Recommended the location of an additional transmission line to improve the system stability
Power System Protection
High-speed Transient Protection for HVDC System (sponsor: National Science Foundation of China)
· Proposed a novel ultra-fast (< 5ms) line protection scheme for HVDC system
· Conducted High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) system and related control devices modeling using RSCAD
· Developed user-defined lightning strike model using PSCAD with Fortran
· Implemented the proposed protection algorithm on the platform of SIEMENS SIMADYN-D and ABB MACH2
· Evaluated the protection performance via hardware-in-the-loop RTDS test
Smart Grid
Design of Smart Meters Management System based on Zigbee Wireless Technology (sponsor: 863 High-tech Program)
· Lead a 5-member team to implement automatic meter reading and control in full-duplex mode via the module ADE7755
· Created a human machine interface using VB.Net for displaying real-time power usage
· Formed a mesh-topological network to manage and monitor each smart meter in the system
·Built electricity usage and billing system using MySQL database
Power Quality
Power System Harmonics Analysis Software (sponsor: Zhejiang Electric Power)
· Lead a 4-member team to design and configure GUI for harmonics analysis tool using C++ MFC
· Wrote codes for calculating the harmonics and inter-harmonics at common coupling points
· Provided the graphic solution to reducing harmonics due to various rectifiers such as intermediate frequency furnace, electric locomotives and HVDC converter valves, etc.
· Crafted user manual and functional specification documents