Reimagining the Electric Grid One Microgrid at a Time

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: Maryam Khanbaghi is the director of Power Systems and Sustainable Energy Program and associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Editor's Note: This speaker was originally scheduled for May 5, 2025