Location: 20-150
Coordinator: Dale Dolan
Description
Welcome to 20-150. This is the home of our renewable energy and power systems project laboratory. This laboratory includes photovoltaic training equipment. It also hosts our power systems CAD software stations. This laboratory is part of our evolving advanced power systems laboratory. An outline of the advanced power systems laboratory initiative is as follows:
Advanced Power Systems Laboratory
The electric power systems and power electronics specializations in the Electrical Engineering (EE) department attracts a large portion of our Electrical Engineering students and employers each year. EE has a long tradition in power system education and are investing in an advanced power system laboratories. The advanced power system laboratories includes two development of two laboratories. The first involves upgrading the functionality of existing laboratories to support a key feature of configurable micro-grid system laboratory with renewable power generation, distribution network, advanced protection and controls, cybersecurity, and energy storage utilizing various smart grid technologies. Another advanced power system laboratory development will accommodate for utilization of emerging technologies in any engineering fields relevant to the advancement of power systems. Thus, a key feature of this lab entails the multidisciplinary nature of projects stemming from different aspects of the laboratory. The new lab is called the Smart House lab and will require a new space to establish. This will be the lab where students and faculty conduct projects and research on smart home technologies incorporating emerging technologies such as “Internet of Things”, energy harvesting, advanced/smart appliances, hybrid electrical systems, advanced materials, just to name a few.
Key initial partners are Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, our California Power Utility Partners, the California Energy Commission, Solar Photovoltaic System Installers and our large power systems Alumni workforce. The department will need a wide array of partners, collaborators and supporters since these labs will include features of modern and trends for future power systems.
Students will benefit from the new Advanced Power System laboratories by experiencing both traditional and modern power system features, and the merging of power systems with other fields of engineering.
