On May 30, Dr. Adam Birchfield, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University presented on the topic, Applying Network Synthesis Methods to Long-Term Transmission Planning. Growth in bulk electric demand, largely driven by datacenters, and the interconnection of new renewables, will require a major expansion of the electric transmission grid in the near future. Dr. Birchfield discussed an approach to scalability for transmission expansion planning (TEP) based on network synthesis methods, which are able to efficiently balance various desired properties in the selection of new transmission lines.
Dr. Birchfield’s research is in power system modeling, large system transient dynamics, applications of synthetic power grid datasets, and the resilience of power systems to high-impact, low-frequency events. He is a recipient of the 2025 NSF CAREER award.