Research Projects

Research Example 1: A fault on a 140-bus transmission system model

Visualizing power system transient stability analysis can be challenging, especially when incorporating dynamic and geographic information. We created this animation to illustrate the oscillations of relative voltage angles across 140 buses in the Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) Model.

  • Each circle represents a synchronous generator, with the size indicating the generator’s capacity.
  • An inverter-based resource (IBR) plant was placed near the fault, and its control parameters were tuned to improve stability.
  • The animation compares system responses before and after applying our proposed IBR parameter tuning method1.

Research Example 2: 100 hybrid power plants in a 1500-bus New York State Model

With the increasing integration of renewable energy and storage systems into the power grid, the energy market is becoming more volatile and uncertain. We developed a forecasting-based bidding algorithm for hybrid power plant owners to address this to encourage participation in the day-ahead market. The animation below compares the locational marginal pricing (LMP) results:

  • Baseline case: Without our algorithm.
  • Proposed algorithm: With hybrid plant scheduling based on our bidding method.
  • The simulation is based on a synthetic transmission network with 1,500 buses and line constraints.
  • Hybrid power plants are operated using the bidding algorithm we introduced2.
  • LMP results were calculated after security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC).

Results: The LMPs in the system using our proposed algorithm (right side) are less volatile compared to the baseline case with zero-bidding plants (e.g., hours = 12 or 18).

Publications: Google Scholar Link

Funded Research Projects:

  • (PI) Development of High IBR Penetration New York Power System Models for Operators, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), 2024-2026.
  • (PI) Stability Impact Analysis of the New York Power Grid with High Penetration of Inverter-Based Distributed Energy Resources, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), 2021-2023. BingUNews article
  • (Co-PI) Smart Cities Innovation Partnership Project: Advanced Water Meters in New York State, Empire State Development Corporation, 2020-2022
  • (Co-PI) Feasibility Study of an On-board XFC/Motor Drive System with Extended Lifetime Batteries for All-electric and Plug-in Hybrid Transit Buses, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), 2020-2021.
  • (Co-PI) PFI-TT: Next Generation High Energy Storage, Light Weight Capacitors, National Science Foundation (NSF), 2020-2023.
  • (PI) Balancing Phases in Medium Voltage Systems, Switched Source LLC, 2019-2020.
  • (PI) A Flexible Storage plus DER Solution for Warehouse Energy Management, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), 2019-2022. BingUNews article
  • (PI) Development of Low-Cost Active Distributed Energy Resource Systems, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), 2017-2019.
  • (Co-PI) Integrated Sustainable Power System Operation & Planning with Real-Time Population Estimates, Binghamton University, 2017-2018.
  • (PI) An Active Grid-Friendly Distributed Energy System Testbed, Binghamton University, 2016-2017.

Collaborators (non-academic):

  1. X. Huang, J. -Y. Gwak, L. Yu, Z. Zhang, and H. Cui, “Transient Stability Preventive Control via Tuning the Parameters of Virtual Synchronous Generators,” 2023 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM), Orlando, FL, USA, 2023. ↩︎
  2. X. Huang, Z. Zhang, Y. Lin, and Y. Chen, “Arbitrage and Capacity Firming in Coordination with Day-Ahead Bidding of a Hybrid PV Plant,” 2022 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM), Denver, CO, USA, 2022. ↩︎