Renewable energy, workforce shortages among topics of OSU Frontiers of Power Conference

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Renewable electric power generation, reliable integration into grids, and the declining number of professionals who help ensure the 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 OSU’s Engineering Energy Laboratory director. “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 the Sarkey’s Energy Center director in 2006. According to Ramakumar, his global perspective on the energy industry is rooted in his work in exploration and production for Phillips on the continents and off the shores of Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

Grillot will give the conference’s opening keynote address on 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., a professor of electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will give the afternoon keynote presentation. At 1 p.m., Kirtley will discuss the growth of renewable generation, including wind, solar power, and fuel cells, and efforts to improve system reliability with smaller grid systems or micro-networks.  

The Frontiers of Power Conference has consistently been a prescient forum for 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 this year in Oklahoma between self-interests and companies trying to capitalize on increasing electricity demand nationwide while 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 such 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.