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Sigma Xi Best Poster Award

Posted on November 15, 2021 by USA College of Engineering
USA College of Engineering

Jake Lake, Electrical Engineering Senior data-lightbox='featured'
Jake Lake, Electrical Engineering Senior

Congratulations Electrical Engineering senior, Jake Lake, on receiving the Sigma Xi Best Poster Award at the University of South Alabama's undergraduate research symposium that was held October 28, 2021.

Ankon Sushil, Ayah Ayad, Dr. El-Sharkh, and Dr. Touma made up the entire research team.

Dr. Daniela Wolter Ferreira Touma was the ECE faculty research mentor on this project.

Title: Home Power Flow and Source Control with Grid Storage
Abstract: Power companies are in an eternal battle against their customers. Not for customers using power, but instead for when they use it. There are periods of time, known as peak times, that electric demand skyrockets. The reason power companies despise these drastic upticks in consumption is that it exponentially increases power losses on transmission lines. With power companies only able to charge consumers for power that reaches the meter, this comes directly out of the power companies’ pocket. In addition, these drastic increases in demand can make the grid unstable, and the cost of constantly activating and deactivating peak demand power generators is significant. To combat this, power companies such as Alabama Power have introduced a dynamic pricing scale to encourage consumers to level out these peaks. Instead of charging a flat rate per kilowatt-hour, Alabama Power will charge the consumers depending on when the power is consumed. Using power during peak time will result in a higher price compared to using power during non-peak time. During summer months, this price increase can be over three times that of non-peak times. If a consumer can find ways to exploit this dynamic pricing, (I.E., don’t use electricity during peak times) the consumer will enjoy a significantly lower electric bill and the electric company will enjoy less line losses and improved grid stability. To realize this outcome, home level grid storage along with time aware software was implemented and studied.

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