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SOCIETY NEWS PES Goes to WashingtonForum Educates Congress On Power Issues |
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The IEEE Power Engineering Society and IEEE-USA are committed to help Congress make important legislative decisions that will shape the future of electric power over the next decade. Although few legislators in Washington have a technical background, and none in power engineering, decisions made by Congress can have a tremendous impact on the operation of the nation's electric power industry. For example, Congress in 1935 passed the Public Utility Holding Company Act to address abuses by requiring federal control and regulation of interstate public utility holding companies, thus drastically altering the structure of America's electric utility industry to the present day. With the nation's energy policy being debated, technical advice and information from power professionals are needed by Congress more than ever. The February seminar, organized by Dr. Don Russell, PES vice president – meetings, was designed to educate members of Congress and their staff on one of the key problems facing the electric industry: how to prevent or mitigate large-scale power blackouts like the one that left more than 50 million people in the Northeast and Midwest United States and parts of Canada without power last August. The seminar, geared to the largely nontechnical audience, began with the basics of voltage, current, and power; how the electric grid is interconnected; and the control mechanisms in use today. The panel of experts then discussed various ways the system can fail, including an explanation of faults and shorts, loss of generation and transmission capability, and the mechanism for cascading failures. The panel capped the seminar with a thorough discussion of blackouts, how they occur, and what can and cannot be done to prevent or mitigate them. Dr. Thomas R. Schneider, former IEEE-USA Congressional Fellow and member of PES since 1973, said the IEEE could make significant contributions to energy policy debates by communicating its expertise to Congress. "The Power Engineering Society took on a very difficult task by sponsoring this session on the basics of electric power blackouts," Dr. Schneider said. "My own experience in Congress this past year has convinced me that the IEEE can make a significant contribution to the political debates on energy policy only if the power community makes a continuous effort to communicate to Congress." The PES all-star lineup of presenters included John D. McDonald, manager of Automation, Reliability and Asset Management for KEMA Inc.; Dr. B. Don Russell, Regents Professor of Electric Power Engineering at Texas A&M University; Dr. Peter Sauer, site director, Power Systems Engineering Research Center at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Dr. Bruce F. Wollenberg, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Minnesota. "We were pleased with the interest and quality of the questions, and interaction from the participants," Dr. Russell said. "The level of concern over the future possibility of blackouts is evident, and the participants want to be a part of creating long-term solutions."
Bill Williams
The 2005 International Future Energy ChallengeThe IEEE Power Engineering Society is proud to be a sponsor of the 2005 International Future Energy Challenge Student Competition. This event is co-sponsored by the IEEE Power Electronics, Industry Applications, and Industrial Electronics Societies and the DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The competition is open to university student teams from recognized engineering programs worldwide. The competition has been held biannually since 2001. The objective is to produce engineering design innovations that demonstrate dramatic reductions in residential electricity consumption from utility sources or that can lead to the best use of electricity in newly connected homes in developing nations. The innovations should be low in cost and have broad potential for the future. Teams will be judged on design, hardware prototype, and a final report. The final competition will be held in August 2005. Award winning teams will receive monetary prizes up to US$25,000.Student teams will choose their general area of technology contribution from two topics areas: Single-Phase Adjustable Speed Motor Drive: Innovations in motors and motor drive systems that produce deep cuts in losses and costs for home (appliance) use, or that could replace "universal motor" brush machines in residential applications. Target hardware costs are US$40 for a combination of motor, power electronic driver, and controller that can operate from a single-phase residential source, deliver rated shaft load of 3/4 HP (or 500 W) at 1500 RPM, exhibit a useful speed control range of at least 150 rpm to 5,000 rpm, and provide power efficiency of at least 70% for loads ranging from 50 W to 500 W at a specified speed. Utility Interactive Inverter System for Small Distributed Generation: The objective of this competition is to improve and foster innovation in the design of flexible utility interactive inverter systems for small distributed generation. The inverter must be efficient and comply with requirements for harmonic control, interconnection, and safety standards. The inverter must be able to operate in typical voltage and frequencies, grid-connected or standalone. Target hardware costs are US$200 for an inverter that can operate from a dc input voltage varying from 30 V to 60 V, under constrained input power varying from 250 to 1000 W, to a single-phase utility line 110/240 V either 50 Hz/60 Hz, with efficiency of at least 90%. Further information and the results of the 2003 competition may be found by visiting http://fec.iit.edu. The photos displayed are scenes from the 2003 International Future Energy Challenge event. The winning teams for the 2003 Future Energy Challenge were: Inverter Topic
Motor Topic
Best Technical Documentation: Illinois Institute of Technology
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