Seminar by Dr. David Schoenwald, Sandia National Laboratories

This talk will present results on two applications of energy storage for the improvement of power system dynamic performance that will become necessary as more intermittent renewable energy sources are incorporated into the electric power grid.  The first application is the design and implementation of a battery-based control system to reduce the variability of photovoltaic (PV) power output at the generation site.  The control system is challenged with the task of reducing short-term PV output variability while avoiding the overworking of the battery, both in terms of capacity and amp capability.  A full-scale implementation was deployed in a demonstration project, in partnership with an electric utility and a battery manufacturer.  Both simulation and experimental results will be presented.  The second application is the analysis and design of a decentralized control system to increase the damping associated with inter-area oscillation modes.  These modes arise from the swinging of many generators in one part of the power grid against generators in another part of the grid.  Analysis and simulation results for the control  system design will be presented for both a reduced-order model of the WECC (Western Electricity Coordinating Council) and a full-scale PSLF (Positive Sequence Load Flow) model of the WECC.

Dr. David A. Schoenwald is a Principal Member of the Technical Staff in the Energy Storage & Transmission Analysis Department of Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). Dr. Schoenwald has spent the last 13 years at SNL with emphasis on large-scale systems including the electric power grid, macro-economic models, infrastructure interdependencies, military logistics, and collectives of  autonomous robotic vehicles.  His current research focuses on the modeling, control, and optimization of grid-scale energy storage for alleviating power quality issues associated with a high degree of penetration of renewable energy sources on the large-scale electric power grid and micro-grids.  Prior to SNL, Dr. Schoenwald was a Development Staff Member in the Instrumentation & Controls Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) working primarily on industrial control applications.  He was also an adjunct assistant professor in the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Tennessee where he taught a course on nonlinear control systems.  Dr. Schoenwald currently serves as an associate editor on the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS) Conference Editorial Board.  He has served as a member of the IEEE CSS Board of Governors and as an associate editor for both IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology and Control Systems Magazine. Dr. Schoenwald received the BS degree at the University of Iowa in 1986, the MS degree at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1988, and the PhD degree at The Ohio State University in 1992, all in electrical engineering.

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