The need to move the electric power supply from its dependence on fossil fuels is rapidly transforming the architecture of the electric power grid. As part of this transformation, power system flexibility has become a priority. Not meeting this need will increase rolling blackouts and hinder the integrations of renewable energy. Microgrids (MGs) are evolving to become fundamental building blocks of this transformation, and their proliferation has incentivized utilities to revisit the existing grid management paradigm. MGs offer operational flexibility for large-scale power grids to realize the benefits of variable distributed energy resources more effectively. Electric grid is a large and complex systems. Control strategies are usually for this type of systems, an afterthought when the required performance is not reached. This approach is costly and not efficient. There is an opportunity to reimagine the power supply, where the control system should be part of this design process. In this presentation I will propose a framework to revisit the grid structure concurrently with the design of the model based stochastic control strategy. A grid structure that is an interconnection of networked of microgrids.

Speaker Bio:

Maryam Khanbaghi is the director of Power Systems and Sustainable Energy Program and associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Before joining Santa Clara University, she was at Corning Inc. holding several positions in research, engineering and manufacturing. She created and led Corning’s first-ever advanced control group serving all Corning businesses with cutting-edge technology to improve quality while reducing costs. She also worked several years for Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada in Montreal and Vancouver as a research engineer where she worked on design and implementation of different estimation method and advanced control systems. She was the recipient of Technology All Star award in 2002. She was named among 88 of the U.S.’s “Brightest and Inventive Young Engineers” participating in the National Academy of Engineers, 2005 at the U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. She was awarded NSF CAREER award in 2023. She received her BS from Universite de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France, and MS and PhD from École Polytechnique, Montreal, Canada.