(L-R) President Shirley Ann Jackson with Acting Vice President of Research Wolf von Maltzahn, CFES Director Nag Patibandla, and Dean of Engineering Alan Cramb.

(L-R) President Jackson, Nag Patibandla, and NYSTAR Executive Director Michael J. Relyea. Photos by Rensselaer/Kris Qua

New York State has set an ambitious goal: to have more than 25 percent of its power generated through renewable sources—such as wind, solar, and fuel cells—by 2012. But what impact will this have on the existing electric power distribution infrastructure?

Rensselaer researchers aim to find out. With a $1.23 million grant from the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR), they will create a test bed to study how the grid might be affected by the widespread adoption of clean, renewable energy sources.

As small-scale renewable sources power more homes and businesses, they are likely to be connected at the local distribution level, potentially creating problems in the grid. “For example, I do not want my photovoltaic system’s inverter to go off when my neighbor’s central air conditioner comes on,” said Nag Patibandla, director of Rensselaer’s Center for Future Energy Systems (CFES). “We want to understand how the distribution grid functions at a high degree of renewable resources penetration.”

Rensselaer to work in partnership with New York companies and schools

Researchers at the CFES will be partnering with three New York companies that produce renewable energy products: Sensitron Semiconductor of Deer Park, Inverters Unlimited Inc. of Albany, and Advanced Energy Conversion of Malta. The project will also examine policy aspects of renewable resources penetration in partnership with the Pace Energy Project, part of Pace Law School’s Center for Environmental Legal Studies.

“Specifically, the researchers will examine the stability and dynamic behavior of the electricity grid, the feasibility of installing distributed energy to counterbalance natural intermittency, and grid stability and power quality,” Patibandla said.

In addition to Patibandla, two Rensselaer researchers will serve as co-principal investigators: Jian Sun, associate professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering and Nadarajah Narendran, director of research at Rensselaer’s Lighting Research Center. The project also will support six Rensselaer graduate students.