Fundamentals of Distributed Energy Resources

Learn about Distributed Energy Resources including traditional and renewable energy sources, energy storage, impact of electric vehicles to power grid, microgrids.

Participants will:

• Learn various types of DER, including generators, solar, and wind power
• Understand the benefits of energy storage for residential and grid applications
• Learn integration of electric vehicles to the grid
• Define microgrids and its benefits in modern power system
• Understand how grid connected inverters work and interfaces to the power system
• Learn about protection and integration of DER and Smart Grids into the power system

• Utility Engineers
• Renewable Energy Engineers
• Engineers from Original Equipment Manufacturers
• Solar Power Engineers
• Wind Power Engineers
• Technical Professionals for DER
• System Integrators 
• Project Engineers
• Technical Leaders

Introduction to DER

Generators   

Solar Power Generation

• Components and systems

Wind Power Generation

• Components and systems

Energy Storage for Residential and Grid Applications

Grid Connected Inverters

Impact of Electric Vehicles to Grid, Charging, and Infrastructure

DER Interconnection Requirements Including IEEE 1547

Grid Control

• Grid following vs. grid making
• transient response
• differences between synchronous generation and GCI based control

Introduction of Microgrids

Microgrid Integration and Standards

DER and Microgrid Protection and Control

Microgrid Stability

Thomas Jahns

Dr. Thomas M. Jahns received his bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees from MIT, all in electrical engineering.

Dr. Jahns joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1998 in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.  He served for 14 years as a Co-Director of the Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium (WEMPEC), a world-renowned university/industry consortium in the electrical power engineering field.  Since 2021, he is the Grainger Emeritus Professor of Power Electronics and Electrical Machines.

Prior to coming to UW-Madison, Dr. Jahns worked at GE Corporate Research and Development (now GE Global Research) in Niskayuna, NY, for 15 years, where he pursued new power electronics and motor drive technology in a variety of research and management positions. His current research interests at UW-Madison include integrated motor drives and electrified propulsion for both land vehicles and aircraft.

Dr. Jahns is a Fellow of IEEE.  He received the 2005 IEEE Nikola Tesla Technical Field Award “for pioneering contributions to the design and application of AC permanent magnet machines”.  Dr. Jahns is a Past President of the IEEE Power Electronics Society.  He was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2015 and received the IEEE Medal in Power Engineering in 2022.

James Niemira

James K. Niemira, P.E., is a Principal Engineer of S&C Electric Company in the Power Systems Solutions organization. He has over 30 years of professional experience in the electric power industry. Present responsibilities include oversight of analysis and design work in the Engineering Services and Consulting & Analytical Services. Mr. Niemira has performed design work, field start‐up, and commissioning of wind power plant substations and data center substation sites; expansions of existing substations; distribution system protection and automation projects with protective relays; substation design, and collector system design for renewable energy generation sites (wind and solar); and the analytic studies to support these designs.

He is active in the IEEE/PES Power System Relay & Control Committee; a member of the Technical Committee of the NFPA 70E Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace; and is a licensed Professional Engineer in 31 states.

Jim Sember

Jim has worked in the power electronics and power systems arena for more than 36 years and has been associated with WEMPEC for the majority of that time. Power electronics is an intriguing and challenging combination of technologies. In addition to power electronics circuit design, the discipline includes power systems, machine design, machine control, analog and digital electronics, digital signal processing, and real-time embedded system control. Jim has done engineering work in all of those areas. His career includes development of AC and DC drives and control systems, engine-driven generators, and multi-megawatt grid-connected power conversion systems for reactive compensation and grid-connected energy storage. He holds 8 U.S. patents.

Giri Venkataramanan

Giri Venkataramanan received his BE degree electrical engineering from the Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, University of Madras, Chennai, India, the M.S. degree from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW Madison), Madison, WI, USA. After graduation, he was a faculty member at Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA for 7 years and returned to UW-Madison as a faculty member in 1999. He has been actively conducting research in the areas of power converter topologies, microgrids, wind power systems, and utility-scale power electronic systems. He is currently the Director of the Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium (WEMPEC), Madison, WI, USA.

Bulent Sarlioglu

Bulent Sarlioglu is a Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Technology and Collaboration Director of WEMPEC of the Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium. From 2000 to 2011, he was with Honeywell International Inc.'s Aerospace Division, Torrance, CA, USA, most recently as a Staff Systems Engineer.  His expertise includes electrical machines, drives, and power electronics, particularly in electrifying transportation and industrial applications. He is the inventor or co-inventor of 22 U.S. patents and many international patents. In addition, he has more than 300 technical papers that are published in conference proceedings and journals. Dr. Sarlioglu received Honeywell's Outstanding Engineer Award in 2011 for his outstanding contribution to aerospace, the NSF CAREER Award in 2016, and the 4th Grand Nagamori Award from Nagamori Foundation, Japan, in 2018.  Dr. Sarlioglu received the IEEE PES Cyril Veniott Award in 2021. Dr. Sarlioglu became a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2021 and an IEEE Fellow in 2022.

Dominic Gross