Alberto Lamadrid on Resilience and Response to High Impact Events: Energy Operators & Households

Title: “Resilience and response to high impact events: From energy system operators to households”

Speaker: Alberto J. Lamadrid, Lehigh University

Location: Steele 006

Time: 5:00-6:00 PM

The increased incidence of extreme events and the associated socio-economic losses due to power outages during the last decades are evidence that enhancing the ability to rapidly restore the functionality of the power system is a fundamental concern for operators and planners. Moreover, extreme events lead to situations in which populations are faced with the decision to evacuate more often.

For system operators, the inherent uncertainty of these extreme events makes the solution to the economic restoration of the electricity network's with network constraints challenging. In particular, the allocation of resources to quickly restore the system requires to make decisions in terms of what demands to serve and how to reconfigure the system dynamically.

For households, there is a body of literature studying issues related to evacuation and disruptions due to these natural hazards, including the perspective of the agencies in charge, businesses that may see disruptions in their supply chains, and residents faced with the prospect of having to leave their homes.

In this talk we study these two intertwined problems. For the system operator problem, we propose and develop a model to deal with the restoration process of future power systems, embedding some of the characteristics these systems are likely to have. More specifically, our formulation can deal with radial and meshed topologies, and it requires little pre-processing of the input data. Additionally, we extend the model to allow for possible mobile and fixed distributed generation technologies and distributed energy resources, and explicitly include demand responsive loads with a minimum satisfiability constraint. Thus, this extended formulation can be used as an operation and a short-term planning tool for the Distributed Generation (DG) scenario-based location problem.

For the household problem we examine (1) the inter dependencies that affect the individual evacuation decision; (2) the characteristics of the decisions made by evacuees; and (3) the relationship between infrastructure and evacuation decisions, including the electricity system, the fuel and gas network, and health care services. We analyze infrastructure, economic and demographic factors affecting the decisions to evacuate, and study the behavior of evacuees.

For more information, contact: kim.wind@dartmouth.edu

Dartmouth Energy Collaborative Lunch & Learn: Student Experiential Learning World Cafe

Time: 12:15-1:15 PM
Location: Top of the Hop: Hopkins Center for the Arts

This week's lunch & learn format will be a Student Experiential Learning World Cafe where Dartmouth will share their experiences during energy-related experiential learning activities. Attendees will rotate and hear from the different group throughout the hour and engage in discussion with each of the projects/presentations. 

Tuck staff and students can sign up here.

Trek to ISO- New England

Independent System Operator (ISO) New England Trek

Ever wonder who keeps the lights on … ? ISO-NE does. Tuck’s Revers Center for Energy will host a one-day trek to the Regional Transmission Organization in Holyoke, MA. ISO-NE is charged with the three critical missions that keep the NE region powered (Grid Operation, Market Admin, Power Planning). This hands-on experiential learning is ideal for students exploring the energy industry and complements other workshop and classroom learning opportunities at Tuck. 

The tour will cover: 

• ISO-NE Company Overview presentation
• System Operations presentation & Control Room viewing
• Markets Development presentation & Q/A

Tuck students should register on Tuck Connect by February 4th.

Dartmouth Energy Collaborative Lunch & Learn: Hawaii Energy Landscape

Hawaii Energy Landscape: Examining the transition to 100% Renewably Sourced Energy by 2045

Join the Dartmouth Energy Collaborative (The Irving Institute, Sustainability Office, Thayer School of Engineering, and Revers Center for Energy at Tuck) for our bi-weekly energy lunch series. You'll get a chance to learn more about energy topics on campus, in the region, and beyond. Free and open to all. Lunch is provided.

For this talk, come hear from the team on their conclusions about the state’s diverging economic interests, technological limitations, cultural and religious elements, and competition for limited land that complicate this clean energy transition.

Tuck staff and students can sign up here.

Energy System Design for Deep Decarbonization

Speaker: Ahmed Abdulla, Assistant Professor of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon

Date: Monday, February 10, 2020, 3:30–4:30pm

Location: Rm. 100 (Spanos Auditorium), Cummings Hall

Avoiding the worst consequences of climate change hinges on the deployment of innovative, low-carbon technologies that could deeply decarbonize the global energy system over the course of the century. This talk will focus on the design and performance of two disruptive technologies that cater to two radically different visions of a low-carbon energy future.

The first vision is of a highly decentralized system, where both generation and consumption are local: central to this future is residential energy storage (RES). A recent optimization of the design and deployment of RES will be discussed, revealing unintended effects of different design choices on cost and emissions. The second vision is of atmospheric remediation through direct capture of carbon dioxide. A novel simulation will be presented that compares the performance of different permutations of this direct air capture (DAC) technology when scaled up.

The talk will conclude with a discussion of future research that integrates policy and behavioral constraints into energy system design. This enables engineers to develop truly sustainable technologies—ones that are both techno-economically feasible and socio-politically acceptable.

About the Speaker

Ahmed Abdulla is assistant research professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. His research employs models of the energy system to investigate emerging, potentially disruptive technologies that currently sit at a low level of technical readiness, such as energy storage systems, negative emissions technologies, and small modular nuclear reactors. Dr. Abdulla’s work has been supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation, among others. Results from his research have been published in leading journals, including Nature Climate Change and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; they have also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and The Los Angeles Times. Prior to Carnegie Mellon, Dr. Abdulla was Assistant Research Scientist in the Center for Energy Research at the University of California, San Diego. He holds a PhD in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University (2014) and a BS in chemical engineering from Princeton University (2009).

For more information visit the event page for the Jones Seminars on Science, Technology, and Society.

Tuck Private Equity and Venture Capital Conference

To sign-up or receive updates on this event, please go to the 2020 Tuck PEVC Conference website.

New Hampshire Youth Climate and Clean Energy Town Hall

Climate change is among the most pressing issues of our time. This public event creates an opportunity for dialogue between 2020 presidential candidates and NH youth on the subject of climate mitigation and opportunities to develop the U.S. clean energy economy.

Presidential candidates will provide an opening statement, presenting their climate change action and clean energy priorities, followed by a moderated question-and-answer session with NH undergraduate, graduate, and high school students who are engaged in climate research and environmental studies in the United States and around the world.

For more information visit the event website.

Tuck staff and students can sign up here.

Irving Institute Student Mini-Grant Applications Due

The Power-Up Thursday sessions will take place from 12-1pm.

More information to come.

Looking for funding to help with energy-related research or a project? Want to attend an energy-related conference or participate in an unpaid internship, but need some financial support? The Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society offers mini-grants up to $1,000 for enrolled undergraduate and graduate students who are advancing the Institute's mission of transforming humankind’s understanding of energy issues, and driving the creation of ideas, technologies, and policies that improve the availability and efficient use of energy for all people.

You find more information about this grant and sign-up for updates on the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society website.