ISO-NE invited to share research and experiences at influential 2015 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting

4/19/17 update: Hyperlinks to conference papers updated.

ISO engineers make strong showing, receive accolades on research related to new technologies for “Powering Up the Next Generation”

As in past years, several ISO New England power system engineers were asked to share their expertise, findings, and business-case experience at the 2015 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting in July. The Power & Energy Society (PES) is a highly regarded international association for leaders in the field of electric power engineering and is part of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)—the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence. Through their participation in the PES, ISO employees help expand the knowledge base and advance the industry.

Contributions by the ISO’s “think tank”

From among a highly competitive and distinguished pool, four papers by the ISO’s Business Architecture and Technology (BAT) group were awarded “Best Conference Paper” recognition. BAT is like the ISO’s think tank, exploring innovative ways—often in partnership with university researchers and other experts—to apply the latest advances in computing and other technologies to improve ISO performance and efficiency in meeting the demands of today’s complex, evolving electricity industry. The selected papers were as follows and can be found on the IEEE digital library:

• “Cloud Computing: An Innovative IT Paradigm to Facilitate Power System Operations”
• “Transmission Contingency-Constrained Unit Commitment with Uncertain Wind Generation via Interval Optimization,” authored in collaboration with Yaowen Yu and Peter B. Luh from the University of Connecticut
• “Fast Computing Method for Two-Stage Robust Network Constrained Unit Commitment Problem,”  authored in collaboration with Wei Yuan and Bo Zeng from the University of South Florida
• “A Stochastic Unit Commitment with Derand Technique for ISO’s Reserve Adequacy Assessment,” authored in collaboration with Yanchao Liu, Sears Holdings Corporation, and Michael C. Ferris, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Of particular note, the cloud computing paper documents an ISO initiative that is the first of its kind for large-scale power system simulation studies in the industry: the use of cloud computing for creating complex models to satisfy new North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) requirements while saving costs. The project is already yielding successful early results.

BAT members also participated in one of just four prestigious invitation-only supersessions at the conference, the “Future Economics of the Grid,” and were asked to deliver presentations at three panel sessions, chair two sessions, and participate in 14 meetings of IEEE committees, task forces, or working groups. Additionally, Eugene Litvinov, ISO Chief Technologist, was one of a handful of well-recognized experts from the industry and academia chosen as an instructor for a tutorial on the methods, technologies, and tools that are currently being used to predict, detect, mitigate, and restore from cascading failures on power systems.

Other ISO contributions

Members of the ISO’s Regional Planning and Coordination group presented at or chaired conference panels covering the use of probabilistic analyses for transmission system planning; system planning in the smart grid era; and the inclusion of solar generation in system adequacy studies.

ISO New England President and CEO Gordon van Welie also delivered a presentation on the transformation of the New England power system and the implications for resource adequacy and gas/electricity coordination.