Carriers, Storage, & Transformation

Electrical Flow

The Electric Power Grid: Today and Tomorrow

Massoud Amin^a1 and John Stringer^a2

^a1 University of Minnesota, USA

^a2 Electric Power Research Institute, USA, retired

Abstract

In the coming decades, electricity's share of total global energy is expected to continue to grow, I and more intelligent processes will be introduced into the electric power delivery (transmission and distribution) networks. It is envisioned that the electric power grid will move from an electromechanically controlled system to an electronically controlled network in the next two decades. A key challenge is how to redesign, retrofit, and upgrade the existing electromechanically controlled system into a smart self-healing grid that is driven by a well-designed market approach. Revolutionary developments in both information technology and materials science and engineering promise significant improvements in the security, reliability, efficiency, and cost effectiveness of electric power delivery systems. Focus areas in materials and devices include sensors, smart materials and structures, microfabrication, nanotechnology, advanced materials, and smart devices.

Massoud Amin can be reached at University of Minnesota, 1300 S. Second St., #510, Minneapolis, MN 55454, USA; tel. 612–624–5747, fax 612–624–7510, e-mail amin@umn.edu, and http://umn.edu/?amin.

Amin is a professor of electrical and computer engineering, directs the Center for the Development of Technological Leadership, and holds the Honeywell/ H.W. Sweatt Chair in Technological Leadership at the University of Minnesota. Before joining the University of Minnesota in March 2003, Amin was with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), where he initiated and developed the smart self-healing grid, and led the development of more than 24 technologies transferred to industry. After September 11, 2001, he directed all security-related research and development, and twice received Chauncey Awards at EPRI, the institute's highest honor. Amin is a member of the Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment at the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, a member of the Board on Mathematical Sciences and Applications at the National Academy of Sciences, and a senior member of IEEE.

John Stringer can be reached by e-mail at jstringer@izambard.com.

He received his BEng, PhD, and DEng degrees from the University of Liverpool in England. He was a lecturer in the Department of Metallurgy there from 1957 to 1962, and following a brief period in the Metals Science Group at Battelle's Columbus Laboratories, he was appointed to the Chair of Materials Science at Liverpool. In 1977 he joined the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, California, remaing there until his retirement in 2004. He received a Chauncey Award from EPRI for his research in biomimetic approaches to CO₂ sequestration in 2000, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from EPRI in 2002. For much of his time at EPRI he was Executive Technical Fellow in charge of Exploratory Research. In addition, during the period 1977 to 1999 he was a Consulting Professor at Stanford University. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Institute of Energy (U.K.), the Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society of AIME, ASM International, the National Association of Corrosion Engineers, and the Royal Society of Arts. In addition, he is honorary fellow of the Institute of Corrosion (U. K.) He is also a Chartered Engineer in the U.K. His personal research interests include high temperature oxidation of metals and alloys, high temperature materials, smart materials and structures, nanotech-nology, biomimesis and biomimetic materials, and solid-state theory. He has received the Ulick R. Evans Award of the Institute of Corrosion (U.K.), the Campbell Memorial Lectureship of ASM International, and the Whitney Award of NACE International. He has participated in a number of advisory committees, in particular the National Materials Advisory Board and DOE's Basic Energy Science Advisory Committee. He acted as Chairman of BESAC from 1996 to 1998. He was a member of Panel 6, Materials for Fusion Reactors of DOE's Fusion Energy Advisory Committee, and a member of the University of Chicago Review Committee for the Chemical Technology Division of Argonne National Laboratory, 1987–1993; and Chair for his fnal two years. He has also been involved in a number of management committees within ASM, AIME, and NACE.