The Evolving Power Grid: Challenges and Solutions for Renewable Energy Integration
On February 18, 2025, Qianxue Xia from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will present a seminar titled “The Evolving Power Grid: Challenges and Solutions for Renewable Energy Integration” at 11:00 a.m. in 258 Fitzpatrick Hall of Engineering.
In today’s rapidly changing energy landscape, our power grid faces unprecedented transformations driven by the widespread adoption of renewable energy sources, the rise of data centers, and the rapid growth of electric vehicles. While these developments promote sustainability and technological advancement, they also pose significant challenges in maintaining a reliable and efficient electricity system.
Dr. Xia’s talk will delve into the design, advanced modeling, and control of hybrid power plants that integrate solar photovoltaic and energy storage systems. She will highlight innovative control strategies such as machine learning-assisted control and model predictive control, which can enhance system efficiency by up to 22% and improve dynamic performance during grid disturbances.
Additionally, the seminar will introduce high-fidelity modeling and simulation techniques that achieve performance speeds up to 10,000 times faster than traditional methods. This foundation will be used to scale up the analysis to the broader power grid through electromagnetic transient simulations, which model large-scale renewable energy integration. This methodology allows for comprehensive assessments of grid-connected power electronics, including solar and wind power, particularly under weak grid conditions. Such insights are essential for understanding control interactions in renewable energy integration.
These advancements are vital for the design of control and protection systems in future grids, ensuring a secure and reliable power system as renewable energy penetration continues to rise.
Dr. Qianxue Xia serves as an R&D Associate Staff Member in the Grid Research Integration and Development Center at ORNL, where she previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2022, she earned her Ph.D. in electrical engineering with a minor in computer science, specializing in machine learning, from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She also obtained her master’s degree in electrical engineering from Arizona State University in 2018. Dr. Xia’s research interests include renewable energy integration into the grid, the design and modeling of grid-connected power electronics, power system electromagnetic transient simulation, and the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in power systems and electronics.
Original article by NenPower, If reposted, please credit the source: https://nenpower.com/blog/navigating-the-future-power-grid-overcoming-challenges-in-renewable-energy-integration/
