Skip to main content Skip to navigation
ESIC banner

ESIC Seminars Fall 2019

Photo: Dave Bakken.

David E. Bakken
Washington State University

Tuesday, September 3
2 PM – 3 PM

Coordination in Decentralized Grids

Overview

Increasing penetration of DERs and other factors are making the centralized control (CC) model inadequate. Localized voltage regulation involving reactive power support is increasingly required, and network connections to control centers are reaching their physical limits as new DERs are deployed. CC-based monitoring and control has many challenged, including large amounts of measurement data, large sets of system variables, and slower responses of control actions. However, completely local control is based only on local disturbances, has limited network visibility, and can cause cascading effects on neighboring areas. What is required is more power computations being pushed to the edges (substations) to provide fast and scalable hierarchical control. However, decentralized coordination (including consensus) is inherently very complicated for computer science experts, let alone those without such training. In this seminar we explain the coordination issues involved with such coordination that is required by decentralization. We then overview our coordination platform and a number of decentralized power algorithms, including decentralized state estimation, distributed voltage stability, and decentralized remedial action schemes. This is joint work with Prof. Anurag Srivastava.

Bio

Dr. David E. Bakken is a Professor of Computer Science at Washington State University. His expertise is in distributed computing, mainly middleware platforms. Since 1999 he has worked closely with WSU’s power program on helping improve information and communication technology (ICT) for the grid. This has included GridStat, a publish-subscribe framework offering high enough performance and fault tolerance for RAS and distributed control; the remote testing framework Erkios, the distributed coordination platform DCBlocks, the cloud platform GridCloud (with Cornell), and others. Prior to WSU he was a DARPA PI at BBN, the company that built the first internet (the ARPANET) in 1969 and the first middleware starting in 1979. Dr. Bakken also worked at Boeing (Commercial) in Seattle as a software engineer.

Photo: Anjan Bose.

Dr. Anjan Bose
Regents Professor
Energy Systems Innovation Center
Washington State University

Tuesday, September 10
11 AM – 12 PM
ETRL 101

Evolution of Control Centers for the Power Grid

Overview

Soon after Edison started supplying electricity to customers and power companies proliferated, they started interconnecting for economic and reliability benefits, resulting in today’s continent-wide power grids. What made it possible to plan and operate these grids, the largest man-made machines ever developed, is the utilization of computers, communications and controls. These control centers for the power grid became digital in the 1960s and have continued to evolve with the increasing sophistication of information and communication technologies.

Bio

Dr. Anjan Bose has over 40 years of experience in industry and academia as an engineer, educator, and administrator. He is well known as a technical leader in power grid control, and as a researcher in electric power engineering. Dr. Bose is Regents Professor at Washington State University, where he also served as Dean of the College of Engineering and Architecture. In 2012-13, he served as senior advisor to the US Department of Energy in the Obama administration.

Dr. Bose is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the IEEE. He was the recipient of the Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award, the Third Millennium Medal, and the Herman Halperin Electric Transmission and Distribution Award from the IEEE

Photo: Zhi Chen.
Dr. Zhi Chen
Assistant Professor
School of Engineering & Computer Science
Washington State University – Vancouver

Tuesday, September 17
11 AM – 12 PM
ETRL 101

Recent Power Research Projects at WSU Vancouver

Overview

With increased penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) and microgrids, electric power systems are transforming from traditionally passive radial networks to more sophisticated active networked topologies, and in turn, are facing with new operational and planning challenges such as bidirectional power flows and resilience issues. We will talk about key characteristics, new challenges, and potential solutions in power research projects at WSU Vancouver.

Bio

Dr. Zhi Chen is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Washington State University Vancouver. He received the PhD in electrical and computer engineering from Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, in 2014. He worked as summer visiting faculty at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 2018. His research interests include Optimization, Resilient Operation of Grid, Market design, Consumer Behavior, Microgrids, Energy Efficient Buildings, Solar, Wind, and Storage Devices Integration with the Grid. He has extensive experience working with the industry including Portland General Electric, Bonneville Power Administration, Lewis County PUD, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is the co-author of over 20 research papers; recipient of Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSERC) grant in 2019, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Visiting Faculty Program award in 2018, and Energy Systems Innovation Center (ESIC) seed grant at Washington State University in 2017. Dr. Chen also serves as reviewer and editor of several internationally recognized journals.

Photo: Anamika Dubey

Anamika Dubey
Washington State University

Tuesday, September 24
11 AM – 12 PM

Network-level Optimization for Unbalanced Power Distribution Systems

Overview

The U.S. power grid is rapidly evolving from a network characterized by large, centralized fossil-fueled generation plants and passive customers to a system with significant distributed energy resources (DERs) and proactive customers. A critical aspect of these rapid transformations is a large amount of demand and generation variability introduced in the power distribution systems leading to unprecedented operational challenges. A reliable and efficient grid operation requires effective management of the distributed energy resources via coordinated control of the grid’s decision-making agents. Driven by the availability of network models, granular measurements, remote control capabilities, and advanced analytics, model-based methods have recently emerged as a viable mechanism to optimize grid operations. This talk will present network-level optimization methods for large-scale multi-phase unbalanced power distribution systems. The proposed algorithms to achieve scalability, the specific applications, and results will be detailed, followed by remaining challenges and the direction for future work.

Bio

Anamika Dubey received a Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2015. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Washington State University, Pullman, WA. Her research interest is on the analysis, operation, and planning of the modern power distribution systems for enhanced service quality and resilience. She is a member of IEEE, IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES), IEEE Women in Power (WIP), IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE). She is serving as Secretary of IEEE Working Group on Distribution Management Systems and PES Chapter Chair of IEEE Palouse Section.

Photo: Assefaw Gebremedhin.

Dr. Assefaw Gebremedhin
Assistant Professor
School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Washington State University

Tuesday, October 1
11 AM – 12 PM
ETRL 101

Learning and Graphic Analytics in Power Systems: Case Studies in Load/DER Disaggregation and Synthetic Cyber-Power Distribution System Model Generation

Overview

The power grid is witnessing increasing adoption of photovoltaic (PV) generation. Meanwhile distributed PV generation is largely “invisible” to power system operators since it is behind the meter on customer premises and not directly monitored by the utility. It essentially adds an unknown negative demand to the system, which injects additional uncertainty into operators’ net load forecasts. This has direct effects on system reliability, cold load pickup, load behavior modeling and hence cost of operation. Thus, it is important to create effective methods of estimating power generation from these invisible sites behind the meters. In the first part of this presentation, we discuss a customizable machine learning framework we have developed to disaggregate PV generation and load from the net measurement. The framework estimates PV generation and load based on measurements collected from transformer, smart meter and weather station data. It uses historical data of PV generation to build a generalized estimation model that can be used in situations with a different weather condition and/or variable PV capacity than the situation in which the model was developed. We discuss the data processing, feature extraction, feature selection, and model training phases developed as part of the framework. Using both real-world (from Maui) and simulation (GridLab-D) data, we show that PV generation can be estimated with accuracy as high as 98% using our framework. The second part of the presentation will give highlights of an ongoing work on a graph-theoretic tool for generating synthetic cyber-power distribution system models.

Bio

Assefaw Gebremedhin is an assistant professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Washington State University, where he leads the Scalable Algorithms for Data Science (SCADS) Lab. His broad research interests encompass data mining and machine learning, including their use in power grids; network science; high-performance computing; pervasive computing; and bioinformatics. He received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2016 for work on fast and scalable combinatorial algorithms for data analytics. He earned his PhD and MSc in Computer Science from the University of Bergen, Norway and his BSc in Electrical Engineering from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.

Photo: Greg Zweigle.

Dr. Greg Zweigle
Fellow Engineer
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratory (SEL)

Tuesday, October 8
11 AM – 12 PM
ETRL 101

Synchrophasors in the Utility Control Center: Today and the Future

Overview

The idea of synchrophasors dates to the 1980’s and wide-scale phasor measurement unit (PMU) roll-out began in the 2000’s. Today, thousands of PMUs are deployed worldwide. Yet, the adoption rate of synchrophasors in the control center remains slow. To bridge this gap, in 2018 Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories began developing new software for power system operations. Development is with utility collaboration.

This presentation will share the principles behind this new software and how it will improve the simplicity, safety, and reliability of power system operations.

Bio

Greg Zweigle serves as a Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Fellow Engineer and leads a research team developing wide-area power system analytics and control solutions. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, a Master of Science degree in Chemistry, and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering—all from Washington State University. Greg also has a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Northwest Nazarene University and he is a Senior Member of IEEE.

Photo: Tom Overbye.

Tom Overbye
Texas A&M University

Tuesday, October 15
11:00-12:00 P.M.

Enhancing Power System Innovation Through the Use of Highly Detailed Synthetic Electric Grids

Overview

A key challenge in doing effective electric grid research and education is lack of common access by researchers and educators to realistic electric grid models, scenarios and datasets. Industry often has these models and data, yet because of legitimate considerations much of this information cannot be effectively shared. Over the last few years this need is being addressed through research funded primarily by the US APRA-E on the development of large-scale, realistic, and now highly detailed synthetic electric grids. This talk covers some of the recent developments in this exciting field, including the creation, validation and application of these grids. Results are demonstrated utilizing synthetic electric grids with many thousands of buses in application areas including transient stability, geomagnetic disturbance analysis, visualization, and coupled infrastructure simulations. The talk also considers how synthetic grids can be used to demonstrate problems faced by industry, helping to develop new solutions to the large-scale, realistic problems faced by industry.

Bio

Thomas J. Overbye is a TEES Eminent Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University (TAMU). Prior to joining TAMU in January 2017 he was the Fox Family Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He received his BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was employed with Madison Gas and Electric Company from 1983 to 1991. Dr. Overbye is the original developer of PowerWorld Simulator and co-founder of PowerWorld Corporation. He is also the recipient of the Alexander Schwarzkopf Prize for Technological Innovation, a University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering Distinguished Achievement Award, the IEEE Power and Energy Society Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award and is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering.

Photo: Alexandra Sascha von Meier.

Alexandra “Sascha” von Meier
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
University of California – Berkeley

Monday, October 21
11 AM – 12 PM
ETRL 101

Phasor-Based Control for Scalable Solar PV Integration

Overview

This talk will present a new paradigm for controlling distributed energy resources on the basis of direct phasor measurements on the distribution circuit. Phasor-Based Control (PBC) is presently being developed at UC Berkeley with DOE ENERGISE funding (DE-EE 0008008). In PBC, resources adjust real and reactive power injections to maintain a target voltage phasor difference (magnitude V and angle δ) between a pair of locations. We propose a hierarchical architecture, where one or more layers of supervisory control compute phasor targets at specific nodes, and local controllers drive resources to track phasor targets. This allows us to explicitly prioritize local network constraints over economics and separates the tasks of disturbance rejection (faster) and optimization (slower), regardless of solar penetration level. The presentation will discuss the rationale for PBC along with early simulations, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and challenges.

Bio

Alexandra “Sascha” von Meier is an adjunct professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and directs the Electric Grid Research program at the California Institute for Energy & Environment (CIEE) at UC Berkeley. She is also a faculty scientist in the Grid Integration Group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Her work is driven by the vision of a nimble and resilient electricity infrastructure that recruits intermittent renewable resources, energy storage and electric demand response to support a carbon-neutral energy sector. Among other research efforts, she has led an influential ARPA-E project to develop high-precision micro-synchrophasors (μPMUs) for distribution systems. Sascha was previously a professor of Energy Management & Design in the Department of Environmental Studies and Planning at Sonoma State University. She holds a B.A. in Physics and a Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from UC Berkeley.

Photo: Michael Legatt.

Dr. Michael Legatt
CEO & Founder
ResilientGrid, Inc.

Tuesday, October 29
11 AM – 12 PM
ETRL 101

Human Factors and the Control Room of the Future

Overview

As the number of new technologies and interdependencies on the electric system continue to grow, the system operator is becoming increasingly critical to the reliability and resiliency of the system. This talk will discuss the role of human factors in the control room of the future, as complexity and complicatedness continue to grow. The grid of the future cannot succeed without the operator being set up for success, in a world where continuous improvement and collaboration are increasingly important. As technologies (e.g., PMUs) already exceed human information processing capabilities, the growing role of teaming between operator and technology (whether automation, AI/ML, and other systems) becomes increasingly important. Ultimately, the same paradigm of strengthening situational awareness and mental models is still in force, but is harder to achieve in a “big data” world.

Bio

Michael E. Legatt is Founder and CEO of ResilientGrid, Inc., whose mission is to empower critical infrastructure operations to continually strengthen resiliency and reliability. Dr. Legatt has PhDs in both Energy Systems Engineering and Clinical Health Psychology/ Neuropsychology. He has used the integration of these fields in his approach to building software solutions and management techniques which focus on optimizing human performance in complex technical operating environments.
ResilientGrid has been selected by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) as the software platform for Situational Awareness for NERC, FERC, and the Regional Entities (SAFNRv3). This deployment will facilitate shared situational awareness, providing a geospatial view of the bulk power system, and improved communications capabilities among those entities responsible for the reliability and resiliency of the bulk power system. It was the 2003 blackout in the Northeastern United States which sparked his interest in the psychology of critical infrastructure management. He provided emergency communications as an amateur (ham) radio operator during the event, and was recognized with a commendation from Westchester County, New York for his participation.
In 2018 Dr. Legatt was honored as one of the U.S. Army’s “Mad Scientists”, by Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), for his work focusing on the future of situational awareness and common relevant operational pictures around the cyber/physical nexus. In 2016 he became a Certified Performance Technologist. He holds a patent for a neuropsychological instrument measuring visual attention.

Photo: Alejandro D Dominguez-Garcia.

Alejandro D. Domínguez-García
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Tuesday, November 5
11:00-12:00 P.M.

Data-drive Coordination of Distributed Energy Resources

Overview

The integration of distributed energy resources (DERs), e.g., rooftop photovoltaics installations, electric energy storage devices, and flexible loads, is becoming prevalent. This integration poses numerous operational challenges on the lower-voltage systems to which the DERs are connected, but also creates new opportunities for provision of grid services. In the first part of the talk, we discuss one such operational challenge – ensuring proper voltage regulation in the distribution network to which DERs are connected. To address this problem, we propose a Volt/VAR control architecture that relies on the proper coordination of conventional voltage regulation devices, e.g., tap changing under load (TCUL) transformers and switched capacitors, and DERs with reactive power provision capability. In the second part of the talk, we discuss one such opportunity – utilizing DERs to provide regulation services to the bulk power grid. To leverage this opportunity, we propose a scheme for coordinating the response of the DERs so that the power injected into the distribution network (to which the DERs are connected) follow some regulation signal provided by the bulk power system operator. Throughout the talk we assume limited knowledge of the particular power system models and develop data-driven methods to learn them. We then utilize these models to design appropriate controls for determining the set-points of DERs (and other assets, e.g., TCULs) in an optimal or nearly-optimal fashion.

Bio

Alejandro Domínguez-García is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he is affiliated with the Power and Energy Systems area. Also within ECE Illinois, he is a Research Professor in the Coordinated Science Laboratory and in the Information Trust Institute, and has been a Grainger Associate since 2011, and a William L. Everitt Scholar since 2017. Professor Domínguez-García received the degree of “Ingeniero Industrial” from the University of Oviedo in 2001, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT in 2007. Prof. Domínguez-García received the NSF CAREER Award in 2010, and Young Engineer Award from the IEEE Power and Energy Society in 2012. In 2014, he was invited by the National Academy of Engineering to attend the US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, and was selected by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Provost to receive a Distinguished Promotion Award. In 2015, he received the U of I College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research. He is currently an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems. He also served as an editor of the IEEE Transactions on Power Systems and IEEE Power Engineering Letters from 2011 to 2017.

Photo: Mary Rezac.

Dr. Mary Rezac
Dean
VCEA, Washington State University

Photo: Brent Carper.

Dean Brent Carper
President
3AC Engineering

Tuesday, November 12
11 AM – 12 PM
ETRL 101

On Top of the Sine Wave: Tips for Professional Success and How to Stand Out from the Crowd

Overview

Most of the graduate students and even other professionals extremely busy with classes and research often overlook one of the most important things about building a successful professional life. Professional success is a subjective term at best but typically the reason you spend your time, money, and energy in your selected field. A well-thought out strategy is needed for a path to a successful career and realizing your potential. Getting the right job is very important for a successful career. Job searches and interviews can be stressful and landing a great engineering job may not be as easy as you think. While the job market for power engineers is strong, the best prizes go to the students who understand the game and make all the right moves. Advice you may have received from other sources may not be relevant for our industry and our times. Mistakes and missed opportunities can be fatal in this job market. For this seminar, Dr. Rezac and Mr. Carper will discuss best practices for a successful professional career and share inside knowledge from first-hand experience in resume screening, interviewing, and hiring power engineers.
For this seminar, Dr. Rezac and Mr. Carper will discuss best practices for a successful professional career and share inside knowledge from first-hand experience in resume screening, interviewing, and hiring power engineers.

Bios

Dr. Mary Rezac has served as the dean of Washington State University’s Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture since 2017. The Voiland College serves more than 7000 students on five campuses around the state with an annual budget of more than $80M. Rezac obtained degrees in chemical engineering from Kansas State University and the University of Texas. She has held research and academic appointments with the Phillips Petroleum Company, Georgia Tech, Kansas State University, and Washington State University. Dean Rezac has received multiple teaching and research awards and has mentored more than 100 student researchers–including numerous undergraduates. She has provided service to professional organizations including AIChE, ACS, ASEE, the National Academies, and the North American Membrane Society. She is an expert in the transport of small molecules through polymeric materials and has collaborated with industrial partners for the development of synthetic membrane and barrier products.

Mr. Brent Carper has worked in the electric power industry for 23 years. His work experience has been in all sectors of the industry, including equipment manufacturers, electric utilities, and engineering firms. In 2017 he co-founded 3AC Engineering which provides protection and control engineering and consulting services to electric utilities for substations and power plants. Brent has extensive experience in renewable energy, especially wind farms, and is a licensed professional engineer in eight states.

Photo: Mojdeh Khorsand Hedman.

Mojdeh Khorsand Hedman
Arizona State University

Tuesday, November 15
2 PM – 3 PM

Data-Enabled Modern Resource Management: From Risk Management to Socially-aware Solutions

Overview

Distributed energy resources (DERs) and residential prosumers (i.e., a consumer and producer in one) play critical roles in smart grids. To date, smart grid design has largely followed a technology-centric track with minor consideration of socioeconomically diverse individuals and social structures even when the inclusion of DERs goes down to the grid edge and the residential customer, not structured firms. Analysis of customers’ behavior has been classified to the domain of behavioral economics in research communities. Communication infrastructure, data, smart devices, smart home energy management systems, and recent advances in artificial intelligence empower characterizing prosumers’ behaviors to enable design of socially-aware engineering solutions without modeling the behavior itself. This webinar discusses the concept of socially-aware engineering solutions. Novel methodologies, based on machine learning, will be presented to categorize and aggregate customers with similar characteristics and behavior to achieve predictable responses to grid services. Such prediction and analysis empower power system operators to utilize available capacity and flexibility of DERs in order to improve operational efficiency.

Bio

Mojdeh Khorsand Hedman is an assistant professor in the School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering at Arizona State University. She received her PhD, MSc, and BSc degrees in power and energy system engineering from Arizona State University, Iran University of Science and Technology, and University of Mazandaran respectively. Her research expertise includes power systems operations and planning, renewable energy integration, application of artificial intelligence for energy systems, energy and society, smart cities, transient stability studies, protection systems, power flow control technologies, stochastic optimization, and electric energy markets. She has published several journal and conference papers in these areas.

Photo: Brian Johnson.

Dr. Brian Johnson
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of Washington

Tuesday, November 19
11 AM – 12 PM
ETRL 101

Nonlinear Oscillators for Modular Power Electronics Architectures

Overview

Power electronics systems are commonly built by interconnecting multiple converters together. The particular way in which the converters are controlled is largely dependent on whether the system is ac or dc. For instance, parallel-connected ac converters must be synchronized to produce sinusoids of identical frequencies. Conversely, parallel dc-dc converters are often controlled such that the phases of their periodic switching are evenly dispersed or “interleaved.” Here, we consider a nonlinear control strategy that takes the form of an oscillator and show that a simple sign flip on the measured feedback signal yields either synchronized or interleaved behavior in multi-converter systems. This insight allows us to repurpose the same nonlinear controller for both dc and ac applications.

Bio

Brian Johnson obtained his MS and PhD degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, in 2010 and 2013, respectively. He is the Washington Research Foundation Innovation Assistant Professor within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Washington. Prior to joining the University of Washington in 2018, he was an engineer with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. Dr. Johnson was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship in 2010 and currently serves as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion. His research interests are in renewable energy systems, power electronics, and control systems.

Photo: Krishnanjan Gubba Ravikumar.

Krishnanjan Gubba Ravikumar
Principal Engineer
SEL Engineering Services, Inc.

Tuesday, December 3
11 AM-12 PM
ETRL 101

Resetting Protection Complexity

Overview

In 1962, A. R. van C. Warrington wrote in his seminal book, Protective Relays – Their Theory and Practice: “Whereas the main requirement of instrumentation is sustained accuracy, the most important requisite of protective relays is reliability since they may supervise a circuit for years before a fault occurs; if a fault then happens, the relay must respond instantly and correctly. For this reason, the designers should always attempt to use simple constructions and simple connections of relays. In spite of good intentions in this respect, there is a tendency to extend the operation of relay schemes by adding additional features until complexity results and then it becomes necessary to re-design. In other words, a graph of the progress of relay engineering as regards complexity tends to follow a saw-tooth shape.”

In 1984, the world’s first microprocessor-based relay reset our industry with simpler construction methods, self-tests, better fault-detection sensitivity, and simple human-machine interfaces consisting of serial ports, a modest set of commands, and less than a page of settings. The new technology was solidly embraced; however, the desire for the inclusion of more features began to drive up complexity that included capabilities such as integration, automation, metering, SCADA protocols, synchrophasors, and sampled values.

Today, the amount of code performing automation and communications in a protective relay is nine times larger and more complicated than the code performing the protection algorithms. As Warrington predicted, the saw-tooth shape of protection complexity has continued to increase, so it is fair to ask: a) Is today’s power system protection too complex? b) Is complexity a natural and unavoidable consequence of advancing power system protection? c) Is protection, automation, and communication in single devices advantageous, or should these functions be separated into dedicated devices?

Bio

Krishnanjan Gubba Ravikumar received his Ph.D. degree from Washington State University, M.S.E.E. degree from Mississippi State University and his B.S.E.E. degree from Anna University, India. He is presently working as a principal engineer at SEL Engineering Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc., in Pullman, Washington, focusing on the design, development, and testing of protection systems. His areas of expertise include protection systems, real-time modeling and simulation, synchrophasor applications, remedial action schemes, power management systems, and power electronic applications. He has extensive knowledge of power system controls and renewable distributed generation. He is a senior member of the IEEE and a member of the Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society.