Renewable energy, workforce shortages among topics of OSU Frontiers of Power Conference
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
(STILLWATER, OKLA. – Oct. 24, 2007) -- Renewable electric power generation and reliable
integration into grids, and the declining number of professionals who help ensure
delivery of electricity to homes and businesses are topics of the 2007 Frontiers of
Power Conference at Oklahoma State University.
Also, Larry Grillot, dean of the College of Earth and Energy at the University of
Oklahoma, will describe the overall state of the energy industry during the event
Oct. 29 – 30 on OSU’s Stillwater campus.
Now in its 40th year, the conference allows professionals and researchers involved
in electric power generation, transmission and distribution as well as utility company
and government representatives to gather and discuss critical problem areas of power
technology.
“We are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Frontiers of Power Conference this
year,” said Rama Ramakumar, PSO/Albrecht Naeter professor of electrical and computer
engineering and director of OSU’s Engineering Energy Laboratory. “Many distinguished
keynote speakers have come to the conference to give insights on current concerns
in the power engineering industry, and this year for our 40th anniversary celebration
we are fortunate to have three.”
Grillot spent 30 years with Phillips Petroleum Co. before joining the OU College of
Earth and Energy faculty as dean, Lester A. Day Family chair and director of the Sarkey’s
Energy Center in 2006. His global perspective on the energy industry is rooted in
work in exploration and production for Phillips on the continents, and off the shores,
of Africa, Asia, Europe and North America, according to Ramakumar.
Grillot will give the conference’s opening keynote address Oct. 29 at 9:30 a.m. in
Advanced Technology Research Center room 102.
S. S. Venkata, vice president of technical information services activities for the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Power Engineering Society, will
speak at 10:45 a.m. He will describe efforts by IEEE and other groups to address the
impending crisis the electric power industry faces due to its aging workforce.
James L. Kirtley Jr., professor of electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, will give the afternoon keynote presentation. Kirtley will speak at
1 p.m. about the growth of renewable generation including wind and solar power and
fuel cells, and efforts to improve system reliability with smaller grid systems, or
micronetworks.
The Frontiers of Power Conference has consistently been a prescient forum for not
only technical but also economic and political issues. In 2004, then-Oklahoma Corporation
Commissioner Denise Bode served as keynote speaker and provided an overview of the
state’s electric utility infrastructure. Her remarks foreshadowed a conflict that
played out this year in Oklahoma between self-interests and companies trying to capitalize
on increasing electricity demand nationwide while simultaneously preventing Oklahomans,
unlike Californians, from ever experiencing power shortages.
The Frontiers of Power Conference is a component of the energy program maintained
since 1960 by OSU’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and its Engineering
Energy Laboratory. In addition to the keynote speakers, authors from throughout the
United States and nations as far as Egypt and India will present technical papers
on power engineering subjects including distributed generation, reliability challenges,
emergency restoration and wind farm simulation and protection.
For information about the Frontiers of Power Conference, call 405-744-9912.