Date: Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
6:30pm: Networking & Pizza
7:00pm: Presentation
8:00pm: Q&A
Location:
National Semiconductor Building E Auditorium
2900 Semiconductor Drive, Santa Clara, CA 94051
Cost: Donations for food accepted
RSVP:
Title
Aggregated Dispatchable Loads: Beyond Traditional Demand Response
Speaker
Alec Brooks, PhD.
Abstract
Today, the power grid is operated largely by controlling generation to match
load. As ever-greater amounts of intermittent renewable generation sources
are added to the grid, it will become increasingly difficult to achieve the
overall balance of generation and load with the current approach. Active
control of load offers a new capability to help manage the grid. Aggregated
dispatchable loads will be able to provide grid services well beyond
traditional demand response.
These services can help compensate for the variability of some renewable
generation sources. Loads that participate in providing these services
could realize a reduced cost of electricity. The talk will go through some
fundamentals of how power grids operate and describe how loads could be
controlled to provide some of the same grid services that are currently
performed by powerplants. An example of how plug-in electric and hybrid
vehicles could provide these services will be presented.
Biography
Alec Brooks joined Google in 2008 where he is working in the areas of
renewable energy and integration of plug-in vehicles into the power grid.
Previously, Alec worked on vehicle and aircraft projects at Tesla Motors,
AC Propulsion, and AeroVironment.
At AeroVironment he led the development of the GM SunRaycer solar racing car and later led the development of the GM
Impact electric vehicle, the forerunner of the EV1. At AC Propulsion, he spearheaded the development of concepts by which vehicles could supply
ancillary service functions to the power grid and coined the shorthand term "V2G" to describe this technology. Later at AeroVironment he was chief
engineer for the Global Observer high altitude hydrogen powered unmanned
aircraft.
At Tesla Motors he developed and demonstrated how smart vehicle
charging can perform grid ancillary services even without bidirectional
power flow.
Education:
PhD. Caltech Civil Engineering
M.S. Caltech Civil Engineering
B.S. UC Berkeley Civil Engineering