Engineering topics
Vittal, Vijay
Publications and source records attributed to Vittal, Vijay.
Transmission Grid Integration
The SunShot Initiative is focused on reducing cost to improve competitiveness with respect to other electricity generation options. The goal of the Sandia Transmission Grid Integration (TGI) program is to reduce grid access barriers for solar generation. Sandia’s three-year TGI work was divided into five objectives.
Final Report to the National Energy Technology Laboratory on FY09-FY13 Cooperative Research with the Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions
The Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS) was formed in 1999 in response to a call from U.S. Congress to restart a federal transmission reliability R&D program to address concerns about the reliability of the U.S. electric power grid. CERTS is a partnership between industry, universities, national laboratories, and government agencies. It researches, develops, and disseminates new methods, tools, and technologies to protect and enhance the reliability of the U.S. electric power system and the efficiency of competitive electricity markets. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE). This report provides an overview of PSERC and CERTS, of the overall objectives and scope of the research, a summary of the major research accomplishments, highlights of the work done under the various elements of the NETL cooperative agreement, and brief reports written by the PSERC researchers on their accomplishments, including research results, publications, and software tools.
Topic 5: Power System Operation and Planning for Enhanced Wind Generation Penetration
This project dealt with the development of a range of educational resources dealing with wind energy and wind energy integration in the electric grid. These resources were developed for a variety of audiences including; a) high school student, b) undergraduate electrical engineering students, c) graduate electrical engineering students, and d) practicing engineers in industry. All the developed material is available publicly and the courses developed are being taught at the two participating universities, Arizona State University and Iowa State University.
Characterization and Impact of Extreme Forecast Errors on Power Systems
Extreme events in the electrical power system, caused by the load and wind forecasting errors, can impact the power system infrastructure via two main avenues. The first avenue is a sudden and significant power unbalance exceeding reasonable operating reserve capacity. The second is a sudden increase of power flows on the system critical paths causing transmission violations. The challenge in managing these system unbalances is more significant for a standalone balancing area operation. The consolidation of balancing authorities into a single balancing area can offset the operating reserve problem but this strategy enhances incremental power flows on the transmission interfaces, potentially leading to more unpredictable transmission congestion. This paper evaluates the expectancy of occurrence of tail events due to forecast error extremes using California ISO and BPA data. Having this type of information, independent system operators and operating utilities could be better prepared to address the tail events by exploring alternative reserve options such as: wide area control coordination, new operating proce-dures and remedial actions.