This miniTrack focuses on topics related to the ability of complex systems such as power systems to survive disturbances with minimal impact on performance. Specific topics include: Reliability Assessment; Wide area measurements and synchrosphasors, Sensor networks and data fusion; Large-scale control; Situational awareness; Complex systems structure and dynamics; New modeling and analysis approaches.

Session 1: Predictive and Evolutionary Modeling of Large-Scale Networks
Session Organizer : Seth Blumsack blumsack@psu.edu

Power transmission systems are continental-scale networks with substantial physical and/or economic interactions that make the networks both complicated and complex. These networks are expected to operate with a high degree of reliability. The emergence of the 'smart grid' will fundamentally change the structure and behavior of these networks, as stochastic elements (such as non-dispatchable demand and supply sources) and distributed decision-making become increasingly pervasive. Effective models and analyses are needed to understand how the future 'smart grid' will behave as a large-scale system. This session invites papers that develop new analytical tools for the predictive modeling of large-scale infrastructures such as the power grid; use large-scale systems models to discover evolutionary and emergent behaviors associated with fundamental changes in electric-grid operations and planning; and that suggest novel ways of performing reliability and vulnerability assessment for the power grid. We particularly encourage submission of papers whose methods derive from statistical physics, complex systems, and network science.

Session 2: Advanced Real-time Monitoring
Session Organizer : Joe Eto JHEto@lbl.gov

Sensor networks are an emerging technology that relies on a set of monitoring and communication devices distributed over the region of interest (in our case, power system). Devices (such as phasor measurement units, or distribution network monitors) are tied to a backbone command network, which can be wireless or wired (when speed is of importance). In order to maximize the network performance (which can be tied to a multitude of objectives), various forms of data fusion can be exploited at the cost of somewhat higher communication and computational burden. The North American Synchro-Phasor Initiative (NASPI) is a collaboration among utilities, ISOs/RTOs, NERC transmission companies, researchers and vendors to implement a wide-area synchro-phasor network in all four North American interconnections. The mission statement of the NASPI, Òto create a robust widely available and secure synchronized data measurement infrastructure over the eastern interconnection with associated analysis monitoring tools for better planning and operation, and improved reliability. This session will focus on aspects of the research being conducted in support of NASPI such as the collection, analysis, and application of these measurements, data protocols, communication, and integration, topology processing, state estimation, security margin assessment, alarming, and visualization.

In response to concerns about the adverse effects of global climate change, efforts are underway in most industrial countries to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. This transition will require a greater dependence on renewable sources of energy and growth in the importance of electricity in providing energy services, particularly for transportation. The objective of this mini-track is to present research on how different market institutions and regulatory requirements affect this transition to a low-carbon economy. The focus is on a promising direction for this transition that implies greater decentralization and greater participation by new demand-side resources. The first session deals with the changes needed in regulatory practices to allow these changes to happen, and the second deals with the business models needed to make new types of controllable demand (e.g. charging batteries in electric vehicles) financially viable.

Session Organizer : Richard Schuler res1@cornell.edu

Effective regulation is essential for any market to function well, but nowhere is getting that regulation right more important than for the electric supply industry since service is provided over a tightly coupled network, externalities like reliability and environmental impacts abound, reliable low-cost service is seen as an entitlement by most of the public, and yet supply and use technologies are evolving at an accelerating rate. The smart grid, particularly when the information is conveyed instantaneously to users as well as entities in the supply chain, compounds the opportunities for hard- and soft-ware innovation and change at unprecedented rates. But, are existing institutions and the rules and regulations they promulgate and enforce up to the challenge? When do massive doses of information in the buyersÕ hands change and obviate the need for offer caps and price monitoring, when can the speed of entry of small, efficient decentralized supply sources ensure the varying levels of reliability desired by different customers, yet are prices somewhere in the market chain sufficient to sustain and reinvest in essential network support?

Papers dealing with the theory, design and practice of flexible regulatory structures and institutions that are able to respond to dynamic market and political environments are welcome. The focus could be on behavioral, technological and/or environmental responses employing analytic, numerical, experimental or empirical methodologies.

Session 2: Economic paradigms and business models for demand response
Session Organizer : Shmuel Oren oren@ieor.berkeley.edu

The proliferation of smart meters provides an opportunity for retail customer to profitably harness the flexibility in their consumption and actively participate in providing wholesale demand-side resources. This session will focus on alternative economic paradigms and sustainable business models for utilities or a third party aggregators who wish to interface with such responsive demand on the retail side to produce wholesale demand-side resources that can be offered in the day-ahead, real-time and reserves markets operated by an ISO. Retail demand response can be augmented by distributed intermittent renewable resources and storage devices, so that the aggregator would exploit the complimentary aspects of such resources. Business models that can facilitate such integration involve scheduling strategies for these resources at the retail level to maximize their combined value at the wholesale level, and compensation schemes that can provide incentives for participation by such resources.

SUBMIT INQUIRIES TO:
Chair : Jeffrey Dagle
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Email: jeff.dagle@pnl.gov

Session 1: Cyber Security and Privacy Issues
Session Organizer : David Nicol dmnicol@illinois.edu

Control of the power system depends heavily on communication and computers, both of which are susceptible to interference and/or penetration. Constraints and structure of power control systems create special problems with respect to security and privacy. This session will focus on those problems and their solutions.

Session 2: Computational Challenges
Session Organizer : Henry Huang zhenyu.huang@pnl.gov

The computer industry's paradigm-shifting trend from single-core, serial processing to multiple-core, parallel processing requires a fundamental change in how software programs are designed and written, particularly for power system applications which are computationally constrained. At the same time, there is a need to improve both the detail and sophistication of power system planning and operations in order to improve system reliability and efficiency in the context of smart grid development. The power grid is transitioning to be more dynamic and stochastic with higher real-time requirements. This amplifies the need for leveraging the latest advancements in computing technologies and mathematics for power grid applications. Software programs need to be re-structured for parallel processing. Advanced mathematical methods are required to process large amounts of data and solve equations in a parallel computing environment. And unconventional modeling approaches may be needed to capture the emerging dynamic and stochastic behaviors in power grids. This session invites papers in improving software parallelism, exploring advanced mathematical methods, and developing new modeling approaches with the objective of improving computational efficiency in power grid applications.

The power grid will be expected to integrate significant amounts non-dispatchable, renewable energy technologies as well as dynamic demand response, into both market and system operations, while at the same time continuing to utilize more traditional resources efficiently. On the demand side, the number of customers able to respond, individually or in aggregate, to reliability and/or price signals is increasing, pushing the power system to embrace a new paradigm of active and controllable load. Many state policies require up to 30% penetration of renewable energy technologies within the coming decades. Bridging the space between generation and load are storage technologies, which are an important for balancing wind and solar variability. Papers should generally address modeling, simulation or hardware developments relating to these issues, including modeling, system analyses and case studies.

Session Organizer : Miroslav Begovic Miroslav@ece.gatech.edu

Electricity market restructuring, advances in energy generation technology and agreements on the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions have paved the way for a large increase in the use of renewable distributed generation. With wind already being the fastest growing type of newly installed generation and photovoltaics' continued improvements in efficiency concurrent with lower prices and the benefits of manufacturing high volumes of panels, this trend is expected to promote renewable generation to significant levels of penetration in power system generation portfolios (already beginning to happen in some countries). Integration of distributed generators for enhanced reliability, reduced transmission and distribution costs and reduced emissions can be realized only by considering multiple factors, including the need for spinning reserves sufficient to overcome the intermittency of the stochastic sources, as well as the loss reduction achieved system wide (both in transmission and distribution), security limits and cost/benefit analysis. This session will address some of the challenges and influential factors in current thinking about how to achieve those goals.

Session 2: Demand side modeling and control
Session Organizer : Dave Chassin david.chassin@pnl.gov

Load behavior is becoming a growing challenge as demand response is increasingly expected to address system-level issues, particularly when intermittent generation resources are a significant consideration.  As novel concepts such as the development of load as a resource are explored, the need for accurate load models is moving well beyond our current capabilities.  The session will explore the methods, tools, and early insights in advanced load modeling. Speakers will address individual based load models, load model aggregation, quasi-dynamic load response, load control strategies, and load control stability.