The presentation will be on a research collaboration between the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The UTC-TVA research team’s paper, “Offsite Power Grid Strength Determination for Nuclear Power Plants: Improved Calculations and Practical Implementation” was co-authored by Dr. Abdel Karrar, professor of electrical engineering and associate dean of the UTC College of Engineering and Computer Science; UTC undergraduate students Andrew Adams and Julio Gonzalez; and Mark Bowman, senior program manager of Power System Analysis at TVA.
The project stemmed from a long-running research partnership between UTC and TVA. The research addressed a significant challenge in the nuclear power industry: how to measure the strength of the electrical grid—technically known as grid impedance—when real-time visibility is lost due to severe weather or emergency conditions.
The research was conducted using the College of Engineering and Computer Science’s Smart Grid Lab and its real-time digital simulator, which mimics the behavior of an actual nuclear power plant auxiliary power system under a variety of grid conditions. (if interested, a tour of the lab can be provided after the presentation).
About our two speakers:
Dr. Abdel Karrar, professor of electrical engineering and associate dean of the UTC College of Engineering and Computer Science.
Dr. Karrar received his BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from University of Khartoum, and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Loughborough University, UK.
Mark Bowman, senior program manager of Power System Analysis at TVA.