12 units
The basic premise of this course is that much can be gained by introducing more automation in today's and future electric energy systems. Instead of over-designing, the basic idea is to rely on flexible responses by the smart electric power grids, energy sources and energy users for extracting often low-hanging fruits measured in terms of reliable, efficient and clean electric energy services. This course considers technical foundations necessary for transforming today's electric utility systems to the highly sensed and adjustable electric energy systems.
The course offers an advanced presentation of modern electric power systems, starting from a brief review of their structure and their physical components, through modeling, analysis, computation, sensing and control concepts. Great care is taken to avoid presenting "practical" techniques built on dubious theoretical foundations and also to avoid building elaborate "mathematical" models whose physical validity and relevance may be questionable. Mastering both principles and relevant models is important for those who wish to seriously understand how today's electric power grids work and their challenging technical issues. This prepares students for working on applying many novel information processing concepts for designing and operating more reliable, secure, and efficient electric energy systems. Students interested in both applied physics and signals and systems should consider taking this subject.
Once the fundamentals of today's power systems are understood, it becomes possible to consider the role of smart electric power grids in enabling evolution of future electric energy systems. Integration of intermittent energy resources into the existing grid by deploying distributed sensors and actuators at the key locations throughout the system (network, energy sources, consumers) and changes in today's Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) for better performance become well-posed problems of modeling, sensing and controlling complex dynamic systems. This opens opportunities to many innovations toward advanced sensing and actuation for enabling better physical performance. Modeling, sensing and control fundamentals for possible next generation SCADA in support of highly distributed operations and design are presented.
Prerequisite(s): 18-418 (or equivalent), 18-771 (or equivalent)
Last updated on October 16, 2008
Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Control
S09
Please note that the course history information is incomplete and/or may reflect different courses offered under the same course number.