Keynote speakers
Research Institute, USA
Abstract
The concept of the smart grid originated from the desire to make the grid - starting from the power station to the end-use appliance - smarter, safer, reliable and more cost-effective using advanced sensors, communication technologies and distributed computing. A smart grid will look more like the Internet, where information about the state of the grid and its components can be exchanged quickly over long distances and diverse networks. It will also allow integration of new sustainable energy sources, such as wind, solar, off-shore electricity, etc. At present there are efforts by many vendors globally to develop technologies, which will become building blocks of this grid. At the same time standards are being developed that can make technologies from different vendors interoperable so that many players will be able to participate giving customers a broad choice. But, since much of the data related to the smart grid will reside on the Internet and it will carry personalized information, there are significant concerns about data integrity and privacy. Also, there must be policies and regulations in place that will encourage participation by creating a differential pricing structure for the electricity consumed which will discourage peak load growth. The electric utility will have to be the party that will implement all of these diverse requirements and satisfy the interests of various players – from customers to regulators to equipment providers. And they have to evolve and change their ways of operation to become an intelligent provider of these services.
This lecture introduces various aspects of the smart grid - technology, standards, regulations and data security – and highlights the functionalities of the smart electric utility that makes the smart grid possible.
Biography
Professor Saifur Rahman is the founding director of the Advanced Research Institute at Virginia Tech where he is the Joseph R. Loring professor of electrical and computer engineering. He also directs the Center for Energy and the Global Environment. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and an IEEE Millennium Medal winner. He is the founding editor-in-chief of the IEEE Electrifications Magazine. He is a vice president of the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) and a member-at-large of the IEEE-USA Energy Policy Committee. Currently he is serving as the chair of the US Naitonal Science Foundation Advisory Committee for International Science and Engineering.
He is a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE PES, and has lectured on smart grid, energy efficient lighting solutions, renewable energy, demand response, distributed generation and critical infrastructure protection topics in over 30 countries on all six continents. He received his B.Sc degree in electrical engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 1972, MS in electrical sciences from the State University of New York, Stony Brook in 1975 and PhD in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech in 1978.
