Power and Energy Systems
Mission
Integrate power systems research/programs at UCSD
Enhance power systems community at UC San Diego
Facilitate collaborations among students and faculty across departments/centers
Provide feedback to students’ work
Graduate students career mentoring
Research themes
Long-term renewable energy transitions
Control scheme designs for low inertia real-time operations
Market designs better integrated with engineering realities
Integration and control of distributed energy resources (DER)
Safe learning for control in power systems
Optimization, machine learning, big data
Overview
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Faculty Labs
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$39M NSF Facility: DERConnect (microgrid)
Advance the integration of renewables and distributed energy resources
Real-time data analytics, machine learning and distributed control algorithms
Outreach: schools, community colleges and training for Native American tribes who rely on microgrids
DERConnect establishes, for the first time, a grid-connected, customizable, and dedicated power system with all the required components and distributed energy resource (DER) types for large-scale resilient distribution networks in one place. DERConnect, by 2023, will feature actual (i.e. functional devices at scale in addition to hardware emulators) and advanced DERs; testing equipment linked with a communication system; operation in grid-connected and islanded modes; and real-time remote access. DERConnect controllable loads include Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning systems, lighting, solar photovoltaic, battery energy storage, and EVs. DERConnect will enable near real-time distributed control trials on several levels of hierarchy via multiple separable sub-units and up to 2,500 actual DERs and 2 million independent simulated DERs.