Phillip D. McCrory

IAB Newsletter Editor

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Inside This Issue

New PSerc Staff

Report: PSerc Summer Retreat

HICSS Papers

Calendar

Research


New PSerc Staff

Bob Thomas, PSerc Director, has announced that two new staff members have been added to support the growth in PSerc.

Dr. Dennis Ray is the Center’s new Executive Director. Previously he served as a co-director of the Wisconsin Public Utility Institute at the University of Wisconsin before spending two years in energy-related consulting. Much of Dennis’ experience involves the electric power industry, from distribution and facility engineering for the Air Force to academic research and professional development instruction on electric power economics and policies. His interest in PSerc actually has a long history since he worked with Bob Thomas and other faculty in PSerc’s early days. His Ph.D. is in Business with an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering. As discussed at the May IAB meeting, Dennis will be a principle point of contact between industry members and PSerc. With his office at the University of Wisconsin, Dennis can be reached at 608-265-3808 (telephone), 608-262-5559 (fax), or . He will be contacting the industrial members in the coming weeks and will get a chance to meet you in person at the next IAB meeting.

Andy Gardner has also joined PSerc. He will be helping PSerc with accounts processing, financial reporting and invoicing, as a portion of his work at Cornell University. Andy is a recent graduate of State University of New York, College at Fredonia with a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Administration.

Report From the PSerc Summer Retreat

Members of the PSerc faculty gathered in Steamboat Springs, Colorado for the 2000 summer retreat, July 31-August 5. PSerc’s annual summer retreats facilitate collaboration among the universities and, therefore, make a substantial contribution to PSerc research, education and organization activities. This year’s retreat was no exception. Particularly noteworthy outcomes from this year’s retreat include:

  • Substantive progress on research tasks involving PSerc faculty and staff members from national laboratories working under funding through the Center for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (for more information on CERTS go to
  • Identification of research funding opportunities and initiation of proposal writing (such as a white paper for a $5,000,000, five-year project in response to the Department of Defense’s Multi-Disciplinary University Research Initiative); and
  • Productive discussions on PSerc’s reorganization around the research stems of (1) systems, (2) transmission and distribution, and (3) markets.

The PSerc Executive Committee also held important discussions on ways to involve industry in the research stem activities, on recruiting and web site development, and on PSerc policies and procedures. More information on the results of those discussions will be available soon.

HICSS Conference Papers Coming…

You should plan on getting your web browser ready for a number of papers that will appear on the PSerc web site in September. Bob Thomas is a “Track Chair” for the upcoming Hawaii International Conference on Social Sciences, January 3-6, 2001. This conference provides a particularly efficient opportunity for collaboration among PSerc faculty, industry and other international researchers on topics relevant to PSerc’s research program. It is a working conference. The faculty prepares and presents technical papers that appear in the conference proceedings. Their papers also contribute to their research projects. Conference attendance is open to industry.

Bob Thomas’ track focuses on improving understanding of complex systems, power systems in particular. “Minitrack” topics include information management, security and reliability, implications of decentralized decision-making in systems, uncertainty, and design of markets (such as for ancillary services). Information about the conference and about the session topics can be found at As with other PSerc work, industry members benefit by being able to review the papers in advance of publication. You will receive notification when the papers are available.

Calendar of Events

IAB Meeting: November 30-December 1 in Denver

Planning is underway for the next IAB meeting. At the meeting, there will be a presentation in each of the stem research areas, poster sessions on every project, and a tutorial on a topic of interest. There will be ample opportunities for discussions between PSerc faculty and industry members on current research projects; training events; new ideas for research, education and other PSerc services; and current events in the electric power industry. More information will be available soon.

Internet Seminar: September 5 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. (Iowa State University)

Title: Security Assessment: Decision Support Tools for Power System Operators

Professor J. D. McCalley, Iowa State University

Instructions on how to connect to the Internet seminar: posted at the PSerc website:

This will be the first Internet seminar of the 2000-2001 academic year. The seminars target PSerc faculty and students to improve collaboration and information sharing across campuses. However, experience shows that industry members also have benefited from seminars. The seminars are held over the Internet using Microsoft’s NetMeeting software along with a direct teleconference telephone connection. Details about the seminar topic, and the telephone and pin numbers to use the telephone bank will be emailed before the seminar. Professor Vijay Vittal () from Iowa State University, is the organizer of the 2000-2001 Internet Seminar Series.

Other Scheduled Internet Seminars(all from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.):

October 3 (Cornell)

November 7 (Illinois)

December (Arizona State)

Research News…

Prof. Fernando Alvarado at the UW-Madison is studying transmission zone definitions for the California power market. In a special study for the California ISO, under the sponsorship of the Center for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS), Prof. Alvarado is examining how transmission zones could be redefined to address current transmission congestion problems. His study will look at when, where and how to establish new transmission zones, and how to respond to transmission "hot spots" that do not fit well within the current zonal model for California’s system. He is also studying how zonal prices and transmission congestion contracts would be affected if the zones are redefined and if the number of zones is increased. His findings will be available in a forthcoming report.

As part of another CERTS activity, on August 23, Bob Thomas and Tim Mount, along with Vickram Budhraja and Carlos Marteniz, visited Mike Gent, Dave Nevius and Bob Cummings at NERC to exchange information and to see if there were projects of mutual interest. The following day the group visited with Phil Harris, CEO of the PJM ISO and his staff, Bob Hinkel and Tom Bowe. In addition to a visit to the PJM Control Center, a great deal of information was exchanged and areas of mutual interest were explored. Bob said, "I was really impressed with the attitude and the work environment at PJM. Phil has energized his people with a forward looking philosophy, working objectives that make a lot of sense, and a real can-do attitude.

Some Recent Publications on the PSerc Website (in the publications folder at

“New Methods for the Visualization of Electric Power System Information.” Thomas J. Overbye and Jamie D. Weber present several power system visualization techniques to help system operators among others assess the state of the system in an intuitive and quick manner. (PSerc publication 00-05)

“Enhancing Reliability of Power Protection Systems Economically in the Post-Restructuring Era.” H. Wang and Jim Thorp assess the impact of consecutive relaying malfunctions and pinpoint the vulnerable locations in the New York Power Pool’s (NYPP) 3000-bus system by simulating electrical blackouts using the Cornell Theory Center’s supercomputers. Then, they develop an optimal investment plan for replacing protective relays to enhance the overall system reliability. (PSerc publication 00-06)

“Simulation of Bilateral Contracts in an AGC System after Restructuring.” V. Donde, Mangalore Pai and Ian Hiskins propose modifications in the use of automatic generation control (AGC) to accommodate bilateral contracts in a restructured electric power market. (PSerc publication 00-07)

Next Meeting:

November 30 - December 1, 2000

Meeting accommodations will be forth coming…keep watching the web-site for additional details and agenda.