Renewables modeling and dynamics studies

Engineer IIISouthern Company ServicesTransmission Planning-StabilityI am responsible for performing dynamic simulations of the Southern Balancing Authority transmission system. These simulations comprise studies to evaluate the system protection changes required to comply with reliability standards and transmission planning stability criteria. I also perform studies to verify generator out of step protection and control systems are operating properly. Additionally, I conduct studies in support of the evaluation of new generator interconnections, the effects of high penetration renewable resources and electric vehicles on system performance, and system susceptibility to geomagnetic disturbances.

I am a graduate research assistant in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a member of CURENT. I conduct research on microgrid protection with the Power and Energy Systems group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL. My current project is creating a simulation model of the microgrid being constructed in the Distributed Energy Communication and Control lab. The simulation uses a real time digital simulator, RTDS, and a custom hardware testbed I designed and constructed. This testbed features multiple widely used relays and an automation controller. The goal of this project is to test and develop microgrid protection strategies using commonly used equipment.I will also be modeling part of the ORNL electric distribution system as a precursor to larger research efforts. In the past I was also one of the primary developers of the IGATE-E tool which is used to provide assessments of potential demand response contributions by industrial electricity customers. This tool creates these assessments using a bottom up approach and actual data along with assessments of representative plants. The results can be displayed for an individual plant anywhere in the United States, or aggregated into balancing areas for a high level study.I was also heavily involved in creating the visualization to accompany IGATE-E which presents the data graphically in a way that is meaningful to researchers and plant operators. In the past I have also assisted in data visualization for a wind energy study.

As the electrical engineering intern I assisted the project management team on the TVA-Kingston dry fly ash project. My primary responsibility was maintaining the electrical construction drawings as project management and the design firm made changes. I was also responsible for disseminating the new drawings to foremen and removing old drawings from circulation. As the project progressed I also became responsible for identifying design changes or errors, maintaining the cable database, creating work packages, and maintaining logs and employee files.