Events 2018

TRS Project Workshop for Smart Energy Distribution and Utilization 2018

Keynote Speech: Real-time Control and Optimization of Power Networks

Speaker: Prof. Steven Low, Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, USA

Date: 28 May 2018 (Monday)

Time: 11:30 - 12:20

Venue: TY Wong Hall, 5/F, Ho Sin Hang Engineering Building, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Shatin, NT, Hong Kong SAR

Abstract:

Power flow equations are nonlinear and hard to solve.  Yet, the grid is solving power flow equations for us in real-time at scale.  We describe how to make use of network dynamics to perform real-time control and optimization.  On a slow timescale, we present real-time algorithms that explicitly exploits the grid as a power flow solver and characterize their performance in tracking time-varying optimal power flow problems.  On a fast timescale, we present frequency control algorithms that use swing dynamics as a primal-dual algorithm for achieving primary and secondary frequency control goals.  Finally, in practice, not all network nodes have sensors or can be controlled.  We characterize controllability and observability of power flow dynamics in terms of the spectral properties of its Laplacian matrix.  This characterization can be used to optimize the placement of sensors and actuators in the grid.

(Joint work with Andrey Bernstein, Janusz Bialek, Emiliano Dall’Anese, Daniel Guo, Enrique Mallada, Yujie Tang, Changhong Zhao)

Bio:
Steven Low is a Gilloon Professor of the Department of Computing & Mathematical Sciences and the Department of Electrical Engineering at Caltech, and holds visiting professorship in Australia and China.
Before that, he was with AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, and the University of Melbourne, Australia.  He was a co-recipient of IEEE best paper awards and is an IEEE Fellow.   His research on communication
networks has been accelerating more than 1TB of Internet traffic every second since 2014.  He was a member of the Networking and Information Technology Technical Advisory Group for the US President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) in 2006. He received his B.S. from Cornell and PhD from Berkeley, both in EE.

Prof. Low's professional profile: http://www.eas.caltech.edu/people/slow