NAPS2014

EECS Graduate Students win 1st Place in NAPS Best Paper Competition

Three graduate students from EECS department, Mojtaba Sepehry, Mohammad Heidari and Avinash Banajiger were co-authors of a paper that was presented at the 47th North American Power Symposium (NAPS) 2014 in Pullman, Washington. Their paper was selected as the winner of the first place in the best paper competition. The paper is titled “A New Algorithm for Reliability Evaluation of Radial Distribution Networks.”
Reliability evaluation for a large distribution system with the presence of alternative parts is a necessity for smart grid implementation. This paper proposes a linearized model for reliability computation for complex radial distribution network. Load point reliability indices could be completed using a simplified technique which will reduce the computation complexity compared to existing methods such as breadth-first or depth-first method. This method will ease the reliability computation in the presence of communication infrastructure and distributed energy resources in the distraction of performance based distribution system reconfiguration and automation.
NAPS has been held every year at a different university in North America since 1969 and provides an open forum for participants from academia and industry to exchange innovative ideas and solutions. NAPS continues the long held tradition of encouraging student-presented papers and recognizing student best efforts by awards.
Mojtaba (Ph.D. candidate) Mohammad (Ph.D. candidate) and Avinash (M.S. student) are part of Distribution Reliability and Automation Research Group. Dr. Visvakumar Aravinthan is their advisor and a co-author of this paper. This work is supported by Power System Engineering Research Center grant T-53 titled “Reliability Assessment of Cyber Enabled Power System in the Presence of Renewable Sources and Storages.”