Power Systems Research Engineer
Power Systems Research Engineer

Biography

Sohom Datta has been a power systems research engineer with the Electricity Infrastructure and Buildings Division at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) since 2019. In this role, he has spearheaded numerous projects in power systems modeling and simulation, phasor measurement units data analysis, and energy market data analysis for pivotal initiatives such as the Department of Energy’s HydroWires, Advanced Grid Modeling, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPAe), and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium.

Before joining PNNL, Datta worked with the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) from 2017 to 2019 as a market validation and quality analyst in the Market Quality and Renewable Integration division. He primarily focused on energy market data analysis with an emphasis on the Energy Imbalance Market, ancillary services, flexible ramping products, and price spikes. Datta also has experience working as a power systems planning consultant with Siemens Power Technology International (Siemens PTI), USA where he was responsible for developing steady-state and dynamic models to perform North American Electric Reliability Corporation model validation (NERC MOD 25/26/27), transmission risk assessment, and contingency analysis for upcoming wind and solar generation projects in the United States. He has also worked with Kalkitech, India, as an analyst developing advanced tools and software for power systems and power plant applications for electric utilities using machine learning.

Datta earned his BS degree in electrical engineering from the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, India in 2009, an MS degree in power systems engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in 2011, and his PhD in electrical engineering from the Arizona State University in 2017. During his doctoral studies, he made significant contributions to the field through his work on a National Science Foundation-funded project with Power Systems Engineering Research Center. This project explored the efficacy of using risk-based techniques for dynamic assessment of the electricity grid with high penetration of renewable generation, a topic of utmost importance in today's energy landscape.

Research Interest

  • Power system stability, resilience, and security assessment
  • Impact of extreme weather events (wildfires, heatwaves, cold snaps, etc.) on grid resilience
  • Applications of artificial intelligence/machine learning methods in power systems applications

Disciplines and Skills

  • Data analytics
  • Energy markets
  • Modeling and simulation
  • Machine learning
  • Optimization techniques
  • Power system operations and stability

Education

  • PhD in Electrical Engineering, Arizona State University, 2017
  • MS in Power Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, 2011
  • BS in Electrical Engineering, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, India, 2009

Affiliations and Professional Service

  • IEEE Senior Member, IEEE Power and Energy Society Member, IEEE Young Professionals Member, CIGRE U.S. National Committee Member
  • Reviewer with IEEE PES Transactions on Power Systems, Open Access Journal for Power and Energy

Patents

  • Reinforcement Learning for Voltage Control (iEdison No. 0685901-22-0056 - ARPA-E)
  • An ML Framework to Deconstruct the Primary Drivers for Electricity Market Price Events (iEdison No. 0685901-22-0248)
  • Wildfires Risk Evaluation of the System Framework Tool (iEdison No. 0685901-23-0068)
  • Hydropower Modeling Gap Tools (iEdison No. 0685901-23-0073)
  • ARPAE HADREC GUI (ARPA-E 12/CJ000/09/02, iEdison No. 0685901-24-0112)

Publications

2024

  • Wang, D., B. Mitra, S. Nekkalapu, S. Datta, B. Mathew, R. Meyur, H. Wang, and S. Kincic. 2024. "Hy-DAT: A Tool to Address Hydropower Modeling Gaps Using Interdependency, Efficiency Curves, and Unit Dispatch Models." 2024 IEEE Green Technologies Conference (GreenTech), Springdale, AR, USA, 2024.
  • Mitra, B., S. Datta, S. Kincic, N. Samaan, and A. Somani. 2024. "Gaps in Representations of Hydropower Generation in Steady-State and Dynamic Models." 2024 IEEE Power & Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference (ISGT), Washington, DC, USA, 2024, pp. 1–5. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ISGT59692.2024.10454207. 
  • Kincic, S., N.A. Samaan, S. Datta, A. Somani, H. Yuan, J. Tan, R. Bhattarai, et al. 2023. Hydropower Modeling Gaps in Planning and Operational Studies. PNNL-33836. Richland, WA: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. 

2023

2022

  • Datta, S., A. Somani, M. E. Alam, X. Sun, V. Fotedar, and A. Banicki. 2022. "Changes in Hydropower Resource Operations Following Participation in the CAISO Energy Imbalance Market - A Case Study." In IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM 2022), July 17–21, 2022, Denver, CO, 1–5. Piscataway, New Jersey: IEEE. PNNL-SA-168520. https://www.doi.org/10.1109/PESGM48719.2022.9916782.
  • Kim, J., E. Muljadi, B. Vyakaranam, Q. H. Nguyen, M. Maharjan, A. Tbaileh, S. Datta, et al. 2022. "Enhanced Frequency Support Scheme of Generic Inverter-Based Resource Models for Renewable-Dominated Power Grids." In IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE 2022), October 9–13, 2022, Detroit, MI, 1–7. Piscataway, New Jersey: IEEE. PNNL-SA-177207. https://www.doi.org/10.1109/ECCE50734.2022.9948100.
  • Ren, L. A. Osman, F. Lin, N.-Y. Chiang, M. Sun, R. Melville, F. Koufogiannis, M. Moulin, T. Wagner, F. Li, Q. Zhang, K. Tomsovic, S. Louis, S. Jinyuan, A. Abhishek, S. Datta, X. Sun, M. Jain, and D. Bertagnolli. 2022. WISP: Watching grid Infrastructure Stealthily through Proxies (Final Technical Report). United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1902136.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1902136.

2021