ECE Seminar: Consumption modeling for planning and demand-side management of microgrids

Wednesday, July 26, 2017 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

SPEAKER:  Professor. Doris Sáez Hueichapan, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Chile.

ABSTRACT: A novel load consumption estimation methodology is presented for isolated communities that do not receive electricity or only receive it for a limited time each day. These estimations have been used to size the required installed capacity of generating units for microgrid electrification projects. The social characteristics and lifestyles of isolated communities differ from those in urban areas; therefore, the energy management system performance is sensitive to minor variations in generation and/or consumption, making critical the estimation of the load profile. The proposed methodology for obtaining the residential load profiles is based on Self-Organizing Maps, Bayesian networks and Markov Chains.

The load estimation methodology is applied and tested in three different rural communities in Chile, where the installation of microgrids was planned. Additionally, a consumer’s response model based on Bayesian networks and Markov Chains is used in a demand side management interface, which can be included for the energy management system design of microgrids.

BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Doris Sáez Hueichapan (S’93–M’96–SM’05) was born in Panguipulli, Chile. She received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, in 1995 and 2000, respectively. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Chile. She is an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems and IEEE Control Systems Magazine.  Her research fields are predictive control, fuzzy control design, fuzzy identification, control of transport systems and control of renewable energy plants.