ECS-9733148 Schulz Meeting the engineering challenges of power system operations of the twenty-first century will require the advancement of modern technological techniques and systems as well as an adequate supply of well trained power engineers. Proposed objectives of the project will impact two areas of power engineering: restoration of distribution systems during major storm outages and the 21st century power engineer. A key concern of power engineers today is increasing the reliability of the supply of electric energy by decreasing the time it takes to restore power after an outage. New integrated computer systems including distribution management and automated metering systems are providing more detailed information about the status of the distribution system. The proposed project involves the development of heuristics using data from integrated computer systems. These heuristics will be the foundation for an intelligent information processing algorithm for effective outage management during storms. Utilities will benefit with improved reliability and lower restoration costs. Customers will benefit by shorter outage times. Such research will also provide an increased awareness of the contrasts between normal operations and storm operations. The deregulation of the electric utility industry has created a need for industrially relevant problems appropriate for introductory engineering courses which incorporate public policy, environmental concerns, business and the global marketplace. A set of four case studies of current power engineering problems will be developed to stimulate the students' interest in the many issues relating to the generation, transmission and distribution of electrical energy. Each case study will have two versions: one geared toward sophomore and junior Electrical Engineers students and one geared toward high school students. These case studies will be tested at Michigan Technological University, Milwaukee School of Engineering, University of Minne sota, University of Missouri-Rolla and University of Washington.
