Sustainable Energy & Power Systems

The lab is developing a comprehensive approach to system reliability and power quality under widespread renewable generation. By developing techniques for both centralized cloud-based coordination and distributed peer-to-peer networks, the group enables coordinated response of many local units to adjust consumption and generation, satisfy physical constraints, and provide ancillary services requested by grid operators.

The work applies nonlinear and robust control theory to design self-organizing power systems that effectively respond to grid events and variability. A key feature is a flexible plug-and-play architecture in which devices and small power networks can easily engage or disengage from other power networks or the grid. The design approach has been tested across many scenarios using more than 100 actual physical devices — photovoltaics, battery-storage inverters, and home appliances.

Current threads include grid-forming (GFM) and grid-following (GFL) inverter design with robust H-infinity control, distributed apportioning of energy resources for ancillary services, virtual-impedance shaping for low-voltage microgrids, power-hardware-in-the-loop validation, and non-intrusive load monitoring at high frequency. A growing cyber-physical-security subthread addresses resilience against false-data injection, malicious agents in consensus algorithms, and cyber-topology attacks on electricity markets.

The area is supported by ARPA-E (NODES program, Rapidly Viable Sustained Grid), DOE, NSF, and industry partnerships including NREL and Dynapower.