IEEE PES INNOVATIVE SMART GRID TECHNOLOGIES LATIN AMERICA (ISGT LATAM)

The grid as we know it is changing dramatically. As customers expect ever higher degrees of reliability, and the growing salience of major weather events and cyber-security becomes ever more apparent, the increasing penetration of DERs are changing the entire direction of the grid. Technologies like Energy Storage, Electric Vehicles and Distributed Generation offer enormous opportunities, but also pose some challenges to the grid operations and planning. We must think anew and do anew. To that end, we will start to think of the utility as a platform, enabling DERs across the grid by integrating resource, transmission and distribution planning, properly valuing locational net benefits, making it possible for the grid to continue to function at the level customers and society expect.

Dr. Shay Bahramirad, IEEE Senior Member,  the Director of Distribution System Planning and Smart Grid & Technology, serves as a strategic business leader in Commonwealth Edison, the electric Utility in Illinois, working on the 21st century power grid transformation and the new energy economy.