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
Faculty Labs
$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.