October 26, 2012, Webb 1100

Motivated by deepening concerns over climate change, there is great interest in the use of renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar for meeting our electric energy needs. There are aggressive goals throughout the world for large increases in the fraction of the total electric energy consumption from such renewable sources. At deep penetration levels, integration of wind and solar power production into the electricity grid poses serious engineering and market challenges. These are due to the inherent uncertainty, variability, and uncontrollability of wind and solar power.  In this talk, we will give first give an overview of major challenges in integration of renewable energy into the electricity system. We will then present our recent results on the problems arising in renewable integration. These include optimized bidding strategies for renewable producers operating in competitive markets, joint optimization of renewable production with co-located energy storage, and benefits from aggregation of several renewable energy producers using coalition game theory. We will conclude the talk with a discussion of emerging research directions for the future.

Pramod Khargonekar was the Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Florida from 2001- 2009. Currently he is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Florida. Khargonekar’s research interests focus on control theory and its applications. He has received numerous honors and awards, including an NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, the IEEE W.R.G. Baker Prize Paper Award  (1991), the George Axelby Best Paper Award, the Hugo Schuck ACC Best Paper Award, the Japan Society for Promotion of Science Fellowship, and a  Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He is a Fellow of IEEE. He is among ISI Highly Cited Researchers. At the University of Michigan, he received a teaching
excellence award from the EECS department, a research excellence award from the College of Engineering, and the Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship. At the University of Minnesota, he received the George Taylor Distinguished Research Award from the institute of Technology.