Minnesota University to Build Smart Microgrid From Scratch, the Smart Home is Coming, and Security Planning Featured in the February IEEE Smart Grid Newsletter

PISCATAWAY, N.J., USA, 15 February 2012 – IEEE, the world's largest professional association advancing technology for humanity, today published the February edition of the IEEE Smart Grid Newsletter, which reveals the University of Minnesota’s plan to build a sustainable community with a Smart Grid overlay, as well as work that will lead to the automated, energy-efficient smart home. Additional articles address the unique requirements of security planning for Smart Grid and technologies in exploration for creating the self-sensing and self-healing energy distribution system.

The current issue is available online at no cost at the IEEE Smart Grid Web Porta.

“The February issue of the IEEE Smart Grid Newsletter covers progress being made in R&D and deployments, as well as identifying and addressing pinch points within the multi-faceted areas of Smart Grid with a focus on assessing applications and implementations in homes and whole communities that are underway,” said Massoud Amin, chair of the IEEE Smart Grid Newsletter. “As Smart Grid is deployed, necessitating seamless connectivity and inter-operability of local devices and networks that are smarter and more secure all the way to the system level, and end-to-end, cyber-physical security, which is layered, self-monitoring and self-healing, and supporting smart homes, smart buildings and communities, the IEEE Smart Grid Newsletter is chronicling the progress and mapping opportunities ahead.”

The February issue brings together expertise from a multi-national author set with proficiency in machine learning, artificial intelligence, sensors, power quality issues and distribution automation technologies.

Dr. S. Massoud Amin, author of “Playing in the Smart Grid Sandbox” in the December issue, returns to detail another University of Minnesota community initiative, the residential development project, U More Park. The project pursues the vision to build a smart microgrid from scratch in an environmentally and economically sustainable community so optimal technologies can be incorporated at the outset and economies of scale exploited. Massoud is a senior member of IEEE and holds the Honeywell/H.W. Sweatt Chair in Technological Leadership at the University of Minnesota.

Chao Chen and Diane Cook delve into the smart home where sensor data can ultimately drive development of an intelligent system for automatically controlling the environment to improve energy efficiency and reduce the energy footprint of the home. Chao Chen is an IEEE Graduate Student member and a Ph.D. student in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Washington State University. Diane Cook is an IEEE Fellow and a Huie-Rogers Chair Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Washington State University.

Sandeep Agrawal and Dr. Manoj Daigavane address the critical requirement for early security design for any Smart Grid project, to include source code security, security as risk management and proactive procedures that engage processes as well as products and provide for monitoring for both events and physical actions. Sandeep Agrawal is Vice President at Neilsoft Limited Pune, India. Dr. Daigavane is Principal of S. D. College of Engineering, Wardha – Maharashtra, India.

Fang Yang and Zhao Li write about improving the self-healing capability of the distribution-level Smart Grid in the United States by exploring two complementary technologies for the distribution outage management system - feeder level fault detection, isolation and service restoration and Smart Meter-based outage analysis - essential self-sensing and self-healing solutions for distribution system disturbances. Fang Yang is an IEEE member and member of IEEE Power & Energy Society as well as a senior research and development engineer with ABB Inc. U.S. Corporate Research Center. Zhao Li is an IEEE member, and member of IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Communication Society, and a senior software architect with ABB Inc. US Corporate Research Center.

To subscribe to the IEEE Smart Grid Newsletter at no cost, go to: https://smartgrid.ieee.org/publications/smart-grid-newsletter.

An RSS feed of the monthly Newsletter is also available: https://smartgrid.ieee.org/newsletter/February-2011?format=feed&type=rss.

The IEEE Smart Grid Newsletter promotes greater understanding of critical issues and challenges that impact efforts to move Smart Grid from conception to reality, including power generation, transmission and distribution, storage, technological advancement, renewables, infrastructure investment, funding, R&D, standards, security and communications.

Other Smart Grid technical experts who specialize in electric vehicles are featured speakers at the first IEEE International Electric Vehicles Conference (IEVC) being held in Greenville, South Carolina, USA March 4-8, 2012. Speakers include Heiko Weller, Bosch Engineering GmbH Director e-mobility Group; Dr. Julian Weber, BMW Group, Project I, Head of Innovation Projects e-Mobility; Jay Iyengar, Chrysler Group, Global Director, Head of Electrified Propulsion Systems; James Barker, Clemson University President; Pat Davis, Department of Energy Program Manager of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Vehicle Technologies Program Office; Dennis R. Beal, FedEx Express Vice-President Global Vehicles; and Frank O. Klegon, SAE International President among many others. Additional information about the IEVC can be found at: http://electricvehicle.ieee.org/.

For further details about the IEEE Smart Grid Newsletter and information on IEEE Smart Grid standards, publications, and conferences, please visit https://smartgrid.ieee.org/. Follow @ieeesmartgrid on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ieeesmartgrid. Join IEEE Smart Grid on LinkedIn: IEEE Smart Grid.

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