Timothy McJunkin is an Electrical Engineer with the Idaho National Laboratory (since 1999) with research and development interests in resilient control of critical infrastructure, smart grid for renewable energy integration, robotics and automation, intelligent systems, and acoustic-based nondestructive examination. He is a Senior Research Engineer in Power and Energy Systems and the Resilient Controls and Instrumentation Systems program area. Prior to joining INL, he was with Compaq Computer Corporation’s Industry Standard Server Group (1994–1999), leading board level motherboard design of multiple server products. He has served as an Adjunct Professor with the Electrical Engineering Department, Idaho State University. Mr. McJunkin received the M.Sc. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA, and is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at the Electrical Engineering Department, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA.
Microgrids are defined as a portion of the electric grid which has the ability disconnect from the greater grid with the ability to support the loads internal to the microgrid for at least some period of time. As a unit that has sufficient generation and storage components, the microgrid is also an asset to the grid when connected and potentially when the grid is recovering from a blackout. The “adaptive capacity” of a microgrid improves the resilience of the grid, using the definition: “A resilient control system is one that maintains state awareness and an accepted level of operational normalcy in response to disturbances, including threats of an unexpected and malicious nature” This presentation will discuss the measurable attributes of microgrids contribution to the grids ability to resist, respond, and restore from disturbance of caused by nature or man.
The electric grid is designed as an interconnected system that allows for frequent small upsets and power disruptions with metrics driven towards tracking reliability. These measures have driven the grid to improve only with respect to reliability statistics, and response to major events may not show improvements. Metrics and measures that evaluate the grid with respect to the ability to resist, respond, restore and recover are needed to truly drive the design and build out of connected power systems in the context of controls, cybersecurity, and operations. This presentation discusses a set of electric grid resilience metrics proposed to establish an expected magnitude and duration of disturbance that the system can absorb while still maintaining critical functions. The potential for these metrics to drive grid modernization and improvement investments (e.g., microgrids, smart distribution, energy storage) that mitigate large upsets is also discussed.
