Keynote speakers

Abstract

According to the Electric Power Research Institute’s recent projection, the smart grid industry in the USA is estimated to reach over $400billion in investments and create over $2trillion in returns once the smart grid is fully deployed. This presentation emphasizes expected advancements in the transmission, distribution, generation and customer participation of the future grid. The topics covered are the uses of emerging smart grid data in improving smart grid operation, as well as its robustness and resilience. The temporal and spatial property of data as well as the importance of interoperability of data management standards is also mentioned. The talk ends with a few examples of innovative data uses and related benefits in the areas of data analytics for Big Data. The impacts of new data analytics on substation automation, synchrophasor uses, equipment monitoring, system protection and new EMS design are discussed at the end.

Biography

Dr. Mladen Kezunovic is an endowed Eugene E. Webb Professor at Texas A&M University where he has been employed since 1986. Dr. Kezunovic serves several leading roles at the university: Director, Smart Grid Center; Site Director, NSF Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSerc); Deputy Director, NSF Electrical Vehicles-Transportation and Electricity Convergence (EV-TEC) Center, and Director, Power Systems Control and Protection Lab. He also acts as the Principal Consultant, as well as President and CEO of XpertPower^TM Associates, which has been providing consulting, product development and training services for utility industry for the last 20 years.

He worked for Westinghouse Electric in the U.S.A. as a Systems Engineer on developing the first all-digital substation during 1979-1980 and for Energoinvest Company in Europe as the Technical Lead for substation automation development during 1980-86. He spent nine months as a consultant for EdF’s Research Centre in Clamart, France in 1999/2000 and was a Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong in fall of 2007. He also served as a consultant to over 50 utilities and vendors worldwide. He is currently serving his second term as the Governing Board (GB) member of NIST coordinated Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) representing research organizations and universities, a member of the SGIP Testing and Certification Committee and as the Leader of the SGIP GB Communication, Marketing and Education Working Group.

Dr. Kezunovic was a Principal Investigator on over 100 R&D projects, published more than 450 papers and gave over 100 invited lectures, short courses and seminars around the world. He is an IEEE Fellow and Distinguished Speaker, CIGRE member, and registered Professional Engineer in Texas. He is the recipient of the Inaugural 2011 IEEE Educational Activities Board Standards Education Award “for educating students and engineers about the importance and benefits of interoperability standards”.