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"Designing Wind Turbines for Next Generation Grids"

Trends of decreasing penetration of synchronous machines and increasing penetration of power-electronics resources requires re-thinking the control structure, operation, and hardware design of modern wind-turbine generators. Project examples will be presented illustrating the impact these trends are already manifesting in pockets of the power system, particularly in weak AC interconnections and highly series-compensated grids. Examples of grid-forming applications using battery-energy storage systems will be presented, as well as the opportunities and challenges in using grid-forming technology with wind-turbine generators.

Speaker Bio: Dustin Howard is a Georgia native and got his B.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2008 and 2013, respectively. Since then, he has worked with the Energy Consulting group in General Electric. The focus of his work has been on system studies related to complex electro-mechanical interactions between power-electronics and turbo-generators, wind-turbine converter control design, and equipment modeling in EMT-type simulation tools. He holds 4 patents related to wind-turbine generator control design and has published three journal articles and several conference papers. He now resides in Atlanta with his wife and two kids. GE is also looking for candidate for a variety of positions so bring a resume if you wish to network.