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WSU hosts major power industry event [Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Moscow, Idaho :: ](Moscow-Pullman Daily News (ID) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sept. 08--Washington State University is hosting the 46th North American Power Symposium through Tuesday. More than 200 students, researchers and energy industry professionals will participate in two more days of panels, seminars and networking. Sunday, early arrivals were given a tour of portions of the Energy Systems Innovation Center. "The Department of Energy chose Pullman to demonstrate smart grid technology," said Sayonsom Chanda, a power system engineer. This includes expanding on existing electric infrastructure and testing new smart grid technology. With so much emphasis on energy solutions going on at WSU these days it's "a great place to host one of the top conferences in energy engineering," he said. His expertise is in modeling and simulation of microgrid, microgrid reliability and resilience, but on Sunday he was a tour guide to a group of academics from around the globe, although most are now based on U.S. campuses, such as Iowa State and Tennessee Tech. Because researchers, industry representatives and government organizations work together at the center, they all seemed at ease talking about what they do and how it affects the present and future of the power industry. Engineers and scientists on the tour were quick on the draw with their smart phones, taking pictures and recording parts of presentations to share with academics at their own universities. The Control Center Lab with huge computer screens is highly visual, for example. Power outages are solved more quickly with help from smart meters. A mundane demonstration of what happens to power delivery when a vehicle strikes a power pole or vault was followed by a more intricate cyber security display. The Renewable Energy Lab is the site of undergraduate study of wind energy, as well as fuel and solar cells. And the Smart Grid Demonstration and Research Investigation Lab, using real-time digital simulation, develops, tests and validates smart grid algorithms as well as devices. The Power Electronics Lab designs, tests and validates strategies for integration of wind and solar energies into the power grid. Topics during the symposium will include: power system stability, security, reliability and economics; cyber communications on the electric power grid; and the U.S. Department of Energy's Northwest Smart Grid demonstration project. There are 26 WSU faculty members working at the center. Only eight focus on power, energy and computer science. The rest specialize in related disciplines of sociology, economics, psychology and public policy. They are "helping bridge the gap between science and society," the university states in literature explaining the purpose of the center. Helena Khazdozian is a graduate research assistant at Iowa State University specializing in wind energy science, engineering and policy and was taking the center tour. She explained that in the U.S., modernizing its antiquated system would require getting the power industry interested enough to allocate the money to make it happen. This requires getting the attention of many parties, however, because various regional interests control delivery of power in specific areas of the country. But the work going on at WSU, such as the smart grid research, eventually should make the system better, she noted. The center has significant support from such area power companies as Avista Corporation and Puget Sound Energy, university officials point out. And Adeniyi Babalola, a research assistant at the Center for Energy Systems Research, Tennessee Technological University, said he was seeing a variety of "applicable technologies for conserving energy" during the tour. Especially for third world countries. What they saw Sunday are things that will be "implemented 10 years into the future," Babalola also said. The University of Idaho hosted the event in 2004. Terri Harber can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to [email protected]. ___ (c)2014 the Moscow-Pullman Daily News (Moscow, Idaho) Visit the Moscow-Pullman Daily News (Moscow, Idaho) at www.dnews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |