PNNL

Experts from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are taking part in the IEEE 2024 Conference on Innovative Smart Grid Technologies (IGST), North America, sponsored by the IEEE Power & Energy Society. This event provides a forum to discuss the latest issues, trends, and innovative technologies for the decarbonized resilient grid of the future. The Conference will feature keynote and plenary sessions, panel sessions, and technical papers presented in poster sessions, as well as pre-conference tutorials. IEEE is the World’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

See PNNL at IGST 2024

The theme of this year's conference is "Innovations for a Decarbonized, Resilient Grid." PNNL researchers will be sharing their research and innovations related to sustainable energy, including electric grid modernization, grid resilience, grid energy storage, and vehicle grid integration.

Tutorial 5: How Grid Energy Storage Meets the Challenges of a Decarbonized Future 

Date: Monday, February 19, 2024  1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Charlie Vartanian Sr. Technical Advisor – Storage Reliability and Integration Charlie Vartanian is an instructor in this multi-presenter tutorial covering the basics of how electrical energy storage supports decarbonization initiatives across the U.S. To cover this topic, the 4-hour tutorial will be divided into four sections, starting with a review of current technologies targeted for this area. Next, market application challenges and valuations will be discussed. In the final two sections, focus will shift to engineering of energy storage systems, code compliance, and interconnection – including electrification technologies. The last section will review system safety and reliability. Vartanian has more than 25 years of power industry experience deploying advanced grid technologies, performing electric system studies, and contributing to technical standards deployment.

Panel Session: Evolution of Grid-Transportation Sector Coupling with Vehicle Electrification

Date: Tuesday, February 20, 2024  2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Bhaskar Mitra Electrical Engineer Bhaskar Mitra is part of the Evolution of Grid-Transportation Sector Coupling with Vehicle Electrification panel session. Dr. Mitra is a Power Systems Engineer with the Distribution Systems group at PNNL. He is currently leading several projects funded by OE, SETO, and Department of State at PNNL and serves as a reviewer for several IEEE journals.
Shuchismita Biswas Electrical Engineer Shuchismita Biswas is part of the Evolution of Grid-Transportation Sector Coupling with Vehicle Electrification panel session. Biswas is currently a Power Systems Engineer at PNNL with research focusing on measurement-based power systems applications, including model validation, oscillation analysis, and planning.
Uzma Siddiqi Senior Manager of Grid Modernization at Seattle City Light Uzma Siddiqi is part of the Evolution of Grid-Transportation Sector Coupling with Vehicle Electrification panel session. Siddiqi is the Senior Manager of Grid Modernization at Seattle City Light working to provide customers with choices, including equitable access to key tools of decarbonization like electrification and distributed generation.
Michael Kintner-Meyer Electrical Engineer Michael Kintner-Meyer is part of the Evolution of Grid-Transportation Sector Coupling with Vehicle Electrification panel session. Currently, Kintner-Meyer leads PNNL research activities in mobility research, focusing on transitioning the transportation sector to meet the nation’s 21st-century mobility needs under sustainability objectives. This includes decarbonization strategies, large-scale traffic simulations of urban centers, connected vehicle controls research, as well as electric vehicle charging controls technology development.

Fifth Plenary: U.S. Department of Energy Innovation Needs and Challenges

Date: Thursday, February 22, 2024  9:00 am – 10:30 am

Seemita Pal Electrical Engineer Seemita Pal is a moderator of the panel session Evolution of Grid-Transportation Sector Coupling with Vehicle Electrification and the Thursday session titled U.S. Department of Energy Innovation Needs and Challenges. Pal’s work primarily focuses on understanding the cyber vulnerabilities of the electric grid and developing technologies to identify, prevent, detect, respond, and recover from cyber-attacks. She joined PNNL in 2016 and is the current team leader in the Distributed Systems group of the Energy and Environment Directorate. Pal is also a PNNL STEM Ambassador Fellow.

Panel Session: Connected Communities as the foundation for the future decarbonized grid operations: challenges and opportunities

Date: Tuesday, February 20, 2024  2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Srinivas Katipamula Senior Scientist Srinivas Katipamula is part of the Connected Communities as the foundation for the future decarbonized grid operations: challenges and opportunities panel session. Katipamula is an internationally recognized building controls expert, helps achieve this vision through his contributions to intelligent and energy-efficient buildings. His expertise has advanced building-grid integration, Building Re-tuning™, next-generation heating and cooling, and economic dispatch. He led the Clean Energy and Transactive Campus (CETC) project, which created transactive energy methods for buildings.

Third Plenary: The Co-Evolution of Grid, Climate, and Related Modeling

Date: Wednesday, February 21, 2024  8:30 am – 10:00 am

Meredydd Evans Senior Scientist PNNL Senior Scientist Meredydd Evans is presenting at the third plenary session titled The Co-Evolution of Grid, Climate, and Related Modeling. Evans is a sustainable energy expert who works on energy policy, energy efficiency financing, and sustainable energy capacity building. She currently manages a program at PNNL on international sustainable energy, including efforts on building energy efficiency, policies and mechanisms to reduce short-lived forcers, and energy data for policy and clean energy investments.

Panel Session: Hydrogen Integration: Policy, Research, and Implementation Insights.

Date: Wednesday, February 21, 2024  10:15 am – 11:45 am

Di Wu Electrical Engineer Di Wu is moderating the panel session titled Hydrogen Integration: Policy, Research, and Implementation Insights. Wu leads several research projects at PNNL on energy storage analytics, building grid-to-grid integration, and microgrid design. Dr. Wu is a Senior Member of IEEE and a member of the IEEE Power and Energy Society and the Control System Society, and he serves as an Editor for the IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy.

Panel Session: Advances in the Resilience of Bulk Power System to Geomagnetic Disturbances

Date: Thursday, February 22, 2024  10:45 am – 12:15 pm

Arturo Bretas Electrical Engineer Art Bretas is taking part of the Advances in the Resilience of Bulk Power Systems to Geomagnetic Disturbances panel session. Bretas is a Senior Power Systems Research Engineer with PNNL. He supports a variety of projects related to the development of Models and Algorithms for Energy Decarbonization through Grid Control and Energy Storage. Towards achieving these goals, Dr. Bretas current research lies on the general theme of Distributed Wide-Area Measurement Systems Applications in Cyber-Physical Systems.