Massively Digitized Power Grid: Opportunities, Dangers and Challenges
The next presentation in the Texas A&M Energy Institute Lecture Series, featuring Dr. Le Xie, a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University and the Texas A&M Energy Institute’s Assistant Director of Energy Digitization, will be held on Monday, May 11, 2020, from 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. through an online Zoom meeting. The topic will be “Massively Digitized Power Grid: Opportunities, Dangers and Challenges.”
Abstract
Driven by major trends such as decarbonization of generation and electrification of vehicles, the electric power sector across the globe is moving to a future where massive digitization and information flow is used to compensate for the resulting reduced operating reserves. Such digitization presents both major opportunities and major dangers. To exploit the former, while combatting the latter, will require an appropriate combination of market mechanisms and regulatory framework to realize technological solutions that are becoming available.
The opportunities presented by digitization will be illustrated through a risk-quantifiable market-clearing mechanism that incorporates massive renewables and aggregate demand response from individual end-users. The dangers that arise will be illustrated by examining cyberattacks on automatic generation control (AGC) in power systems through malicious interception and manipulation of information flow over feedback loops. The challenge that arises is of developing an appropriate framework of market mechanisms and regulations so that the needed investments are made by the appropriate stakeholders to implement the technological solutions, and thus realize the potential of the massively digitized power grid. This talk ends with a brief overview of the initiative on Energy Digitization at Texas A&M Energy Institute.
Biography
Dr. Le Xie is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Assistant Director of Energy Digitization at the Texas A&M Energy Institute. He received a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2004, S.M. in Engineering Sciences from Harvard in 2005, and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon in 2009. His industry experience includes ISO-New England and Edison Mission Energy Marketing and Trading. His research interest includes modeling and control in data-rich large-scale systems, grid integration of clean energy resources, and electricity markets.
Dr. Xie received the U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and DOE Oak Ridge Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. He was awarded the 2017 IEEE PES Outstanding Young Engineer Award. He was a recipient of a Texas A&M Dean of Engineering Excellence Award, ECE Outstanding Professor Award, and TEES Select Young Fellow. He is an Editor of IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, and the founding chair of the IEEE PES Subcommittee on Big Data & Analytics for Grid Operations. His group received the Best Paper awards at North American Power Symposium 2012, IEEE SmartGridComm 2013, HICSS 2019, and IEEE Sustainable Power & Energy Conference 2019. He chaired the 2018 NSF Workshop on Real-time Learning and Decision Making in Dynamical Systems.