Professor Keyhani retires after 33 years with Ohio State
Ali Keyhani, professor of electrical and computer engineering, has retired from The Ohio State University after 32 years of dedicated service, but that doesn't mean his research into green energy will be ending.
Instead, Keyhani will be working on developing a green-energy co-operative to help reduce the carbon footprint of regional electric power generation, reduce members' electric bills, and make money selling power to the electric utilities. According to Keyhani, membership in the co-op would be open to purchasers of electric power, including individual home owners, landlords, tenants, businesses and worship centers.
The co-op would achieve its goals by various means, including bulk purchase of equipment for saving and generating energy, arranging financing, and negotiating with electric utilities to sell peak and off-peak power to them, Keyhani said. The co-op would engage in small-scale distributed generation of power, including solar photo-voltaic generation and high-value quick-response “virtual generation" that will help utilities meet peak demands by using smart-grid technology to communicate with, and briefly turn off, air conditioning, refrigeration and similar equipment for which such interruptions would be unnoticeable.
Co-op members would buy and install smart-grid technology, possibly manage their own virtual smart grids, and sell virtual peak power to the utility at rates attractive to the utility.
"A win-win-win opportunity exists," Keyhani said. "Members would win by reducing energy costs and getting paid for generation. The planet would win from reduced carbon dioxide production."
Keyhani's group meets every Monday at 7 p.m. at 93 West Weisheimer Road between Morse and Henderson Road. People interested in the group can get more information at http://www.meetup.com/Columbus-Community-Solar-and-Smart-Grids-Cooperative/messages/boards/
Keyhani was appointed by former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland to the Public Utility Power Board Commission of Ohio in 2008-2009.
His research interests are in the areas of distributed solar and wind generation, and the design and control of micro and smart grids.
"Professor Keyhani has had a very prolific career as a researcher," said Robert Lee, department chair for ECE. "We very much appreciate all the work he has done fort the department."
In 2011 Keyhani published the book Design of Smart Power Grid Renewable Energy Systems, a guide for the design and modeling of smart grid energy systems. He is also the author of Integration of Green and Renewable Energy in Electric Power Systems and Smart Power Grids.
Keyhani is a fellow of the IEEE and was a recipient of The Ohio State University College of Engineering Lumley Research Award for 1989, 1999 and 2003. He is the past chairman of the Electric Machinery Committee and past editor of the journal IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion.
He has worked for Westinghouse Electric Co, Hewlett-Packard Co. Columbus Southern Ohio-AEP, Foster Wheeler Engineering, and TRW Control. He has performed research and worked as a consultant for Accuray, Combustion Engineering, Asea Brown Boveri, TRW Controls, Harris Controls, Liebert, Delphi Automotive Systems, Mahab Engineering, IRD, General Electric, General Motors, Ford and Foster Wheeler Engineering.
Keyhani has authored numerous papers in IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, and IEEE Transactions on Power Systems Engineering in area of green energy, distributed generation, electric machine modeling, parameter estimation and system identification, power electronic systems, design of virtual test beds for power electronics systems and control of power systems.
Keyhani received his PhD in electrical engineering from Purdue University in 1975 after graduating in 1971 with an undergraduate degree from Ohio State. He came to Ohio State as a visiting professor in 1980, became a tenure-track assistant professor in 1981 and an associate professor in 1984. He became a full professor in 1990.
