Distributed Algorithms for Wide-Area Monitoring of Power Systems Using Synchrophasors

Date: Friday, November 6, 2015

Time: 12:20pm – 1:10pm EST

Location: Room 404, Min H. Kao Building, Knoxville, TN

Title:  Distributed Algorithms for Wide-Area Monitoring of Power Systems Using Synchrophasors

Presenter: Dr. Aranya Chakrabortty, FREEDM (North Carolina State University)

Abstract: With the number of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) in the North American power grid scaling up into the thousands, system operators are gradually inclining towards distributed cyber-physical architectures for executing wide-area monitoring and control operations using Synchrophasors.

Traditional centralized approaches are anticipated to become untenable soon due to various factors such as data volume, security, single point of failure, communication overhead, and failure to adhere to real-time deadlines. In this talk, Dr. Chakrabortty will propose three such distributed communication and computational architectures and their associated distributed algorithms, for one of the most critical applications run by utilities namely, wide-area monitoring of power flow oscillations. In these architectures, the estimators located at the control center of a utility company run local convex optimization and consensus algorithms using Alternating Directions Multiplier Method (ADMM), and thereafter communicate with other control centers to reach a global solution. Both synchronous and asynchronous communication will be considered. Dr. Chakrabortty will discuss the convergence and accuracy trade-offs for each ADMM implementation, and also illustrate their architectural resiliency against denial-of-service attacks using case studies from the recently federated DETER-WAMS testbed between NC State and University of Southern California.

Dr. Chakrabortty is a senior member of IEEE, and contributes actively to the North American Synchrophasor Initiative (NASPI). He received the NSF CAREER award in 2011.

Bio: Dr. Aranya Chakrabortty is an Associate Professor in the Electrical & Computer Engineering department of North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. He received his BE degree from Jadavpur University, India in 2004, and his MS and Ph.D degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY in 2005 and 2008, respectively, all in Electrical Engineering. From 2008 to 2009 he was a post-doctoral research associate in the Aeronautics and Astronautics department of the University of Washington, Seattle. From 2009 to 2010 he was an Assistant Professor in the Electrical & Computer Engineering department of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX. His research interests are in all branches of control theory, and their applications to power system dynamics and control using emerging technologies such as Wide-Area Measurement Systems (WAMS). Dr. Chakrabortty is a senior member of IEEE, and contributes actively to the North American  American Synchrophasor Initiative (NASPI). He received the NSF CAREER award in 2011.