IEEE MFDSP Working Group Spring Webinar Series

The IEEE Modern and Future Distribution Systems Planning (MFDSP) Working Group is excited to announce its Spring Webinar Series! The event is co-hosted by IEEE UK and Ireland Power and Energy Society Chapter.

This series will feature insightful discussions by industry and academic experts on the latest trends and advancements in Distribution Systems Planning. Each webinar is scheduled from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM US Pacific Time, running from April 24 to June 5, 2025.

Join us for an engaging lineup of sessions to explore emerging challenges, innovative solutions, and the future of distribution system planning!

1. Introduction to Electric Utility Distribution Planning

Presenter: Brad Jensen (Quanta Services, United States)
Schedule: April 24, 2025, 9:00 AM US Pacific Time

Overview:

This webinar will provide an overview of the common distribution planning practices that electric utilities use to plan and design infrastructure improvement projects. While the focus will be on traditional capacity planning and load forecasting, the discussion will also highlight how these processes can adapt to many of the new drivers for projects such as; DERs, Load Forecasting, Distribution Automation, Reliability, and Resilience. From identifying the grid need to implementing one of the recommended solutions - distribution planning focuses on evaluating and developing mitigation projects which meet both the short-term and long-term needs of a given distribution planning area. The webinar will cover the fundamentals of how utilities plan and implement grid changes as we adapt to the ever-changing development of new technologies.

Speaker Bio:
Brad Jensen, PE, Senior Advisor, Distribution, Advanced Planning, is a utility transformation thought leader and professional electrical engineer who has worked in the electric power industry since 2010. He has provided technical and managerial expertise to many utility planning projects, including electrification, integration of large-scale renewable generation, and volt-ampere reactive (VAR) control. At Quanta Technology, Brad applies knowledge of power systems, distribution planning, network strategy, data analytics, and power system modeling tools to provide our customers with the technologies and processes necessary to decarbonize our energy economy. In addition to supporting customer projects, Brad hosts training and workshops covering distributed energy resource (DER) integration and grid modernization. Brad holds a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University and is a registered professional engineer in California.

2. Advanced Flexible Solar Interconnection into Distribution Systems with Dynamic Asset Rating and Fail-Safe Mode

Presenter: Dr. Leo Y. Jiang (Clarkson University/ Avangrid/ RLC Engineering, United States)
Schedule: May 8, 2025, 9:00 AM US Pacific Time

Overview:

Avangrid piloted the solar flexible interconnection (Flex IX) technology in North America with two sites running for 4 years in upstate New York. The world-leading Flex IX technology increased the solar hosting capacity from 2.6 MW to 15 MW and avoided ~$3.4 Million cost of grid reinforcement. Lessons learned from these pilot projects showed that solar farms could experience significant curtailment due to the overloading of grid assets in normal grid operation and limiting solar generation output for grid asset protection during communication outage contingencies. With utilities across the U.S. embracing the Flex IX technology, solar developers are seeking solutions to mitigate solar curtailment in Flex IX and improve return on investment. This webinar will 1) introduce the Flex IX technology with the pilot projects from Avangrid, 2) present the dynamic asset rating technology to reduce solar curtailment in Flex IX due to thermal overloading of grid assets in normal operations, 3) develop advanced fail-safe mode control of solar inverters in Flex IX during communication outages, and 4) discuss future needs of technologies to orchestrate the smart inverter control and Flex IX technology for solar grid integration.

Speaker Bio:
Leo Y. Jiang received his Ph.D. degree from Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA, in 2016. After completing his doctorate, he worked as a power system engineer at the GE Global Research Center in Niskayuna, New York, where he was honored with GE’s Dushman Technology Excellence Award for his contribution to enhancing GE products. Dr. Jiang joined Clarkson University in 2020, where he has since focused on teaching and conducting research in power engineering as a core member of the Center for Electric Power System Research, and he has collaborated widely with industry partners including NYISO, NYPA, Avangrid, and GE in research projects for a smooth grid transition. Dr. Jiang is currently an Associate Professor at Clarkson University, and he is also a Principal Engineer at RLC Engineering & Principal Consulting Engineer at Avangrid. Dr. Jiang’s role at Avangrid includes distribution planning, DER interconnection, planning criteria guidebook, and data-driven investment prioritization in grid modernization. Dr. Jiang is the 2024 NSF CAREER Awardee and his research interests include distribution automation, renewable grid integration, and computational methodologies for power system applications.

3. Generative AI for Distribution Systems Planning

Presenter: Dr. Pedro P. Vergara (Delft University of Technology, Netherlands)
Schedule: May 22, 2025, 9:00 AM US Pacific Time

Overview:

The increasing levels of digitalization in our modern society will enable the required paradigm change for electrical distribution networks. More customer data is available (e.g. via smart meters), which can be used to characterize their energy consumption behavior. Simultaneously, DSOs are ramping up investments in digitalizing their infrastructure (e.g., by placing more advanced measurement units in MV and LV transformers). This process is resulting in a significant increase in available operational data. From the DSOs' perspective, all these operational data represent an excellent opportunity to learn how to define better planning decisions. The challenge is extracting complex and hidden dynamics from enormous databases and learning to solve (or even anticipate) technical problems faster or more efficiently. In this talk, we will discuss the role of Generative AI and machine learning in such a digitalized future scenario.

Speaker Bio:
Pedro P. Vergara is an assistant professor at the Intelligent Electrical Power Grids (IEPG) group at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He is also a Senior Member of the IEEE from the Power and Energy Society. From 2019 to 2020, he was with the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands as a postdoctoral researcher, where he was involved in several Dutch-funded projects with industry and academic partners. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Campinas, in Brazil, and the University of Southern Denmark, in Denmark. Dr. Pedro P. Vergara devotes his research to developing new mathematical programming models and data-driven control approaches to operate electrical distribution systems with high penetration of low carbon energy resources (i.e. PVs, EVs, electric heat-pumps, etc). Currently, he is leading developments in the H2020 MAGPIE and Drive2X projects, NWO DATALESS project, and NWO ALIG4Energy project, which involve several Dutch and European industry and academic partners. He has more than 30 scientific publications in leading international conferences and journals. He also serves as a Guest Editor in special issues related to active distribution networks in the IEEE MPCE Journal and IEEE Transactions on JPV Journal.

4. Reliability and Resilience: An Evolving Journey

Presenter: Heide Caswell (Oregon Public Utilities Commission, United States)
Schedule: June 5, 2025, 9:00 AM US Pacific Time

Overview:

Since its inception at the turn of the century, reliability standards (as memorialized in IEEE1366) have been found to be important tools to use for engineers, regulators, customers, and other stakeholders to convey “normal” and “abnormal” performance about the service delivery, whether for the system, a local area or a specific customer. These standards have evolved as technology has allowed for better data to perform more sophisticated analysis, and the industry has continued to share the evolution of the data collection process, many of the analytical approaches, and the distinction between “abnormal” and “really abnormal”. As that has happened, a new term of art, “resilience” has been crafted and many authorities and academics (including industry) are attempting to better define and detail how resilience might be measured. This session will provide a history of the journey and the highlights through the journey which serve as milestones for many of us. It also should help to create a vision of where we see this work going in the future.

Speaker Bio:
Heidemarie (Heide) C Caswell, P.E. is the Administrator-Safety, Reliability and Security at the Oregon Public Utilities Commission. She has been involved in the utility business during and after receiving her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of Washington and is licensed in the state of Washington. She’s worked at Washington Natural Gas, Puget Sound Energy, and then PacifiCorp, before transitioning to the OPUC in 2022. Her roles have been primarily utility planning, for gas and electric systems and then transitioning to reliability analysis, reporting, planning, technology, and process development for reliability improvement, and then augmented with wildfire/risk quantification and mitigation and distribution system planning. She has been deeply involved in the Distribution Reliability Working Group over the last 20+ years, including facilitating the annual benchmark study the DRWG performs. She’s led a number of task forces including Catastrophic Event Analysis and Data Analysis. She also has been a primary contributor to a number of standards related to reliability. She has authored a number of papers related to reliability analysis. She holds vice chair positions in IEEE PES’ Distribution Reliability Working Group and also in NERC’s Performance Analysis Subcommittee.