The University of Michigan has numerous labs and researchers dedicated to investigating climate change. The Michigan Daily explored how some groups are using their research to address the challenges of climate change. You can read more stories from the project here.
As decades of fossil fuel use contribute to the Earth’s rising global temperature, scientists and engineers continue to innovate more sustainable ways to power society. The transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy resources creates a series of new problems for current electricity distribution systems. On the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus, the Su Lab is investigating solutions for the future of the power system.
Wencong Su, professor and department chair of electrical and computer engineering at U-M Dearborn, told The Michigan Daily that as the usage of electric vehicles increases, so too will the demand on power systems. The high demands of electricity for direct current fast charging and the ability of EVs to charge at multiple locations rather than consistently at the home makes it harder than most electric products to predict when and where power is needed.
“If you have five or 10 charging stations — especially DC fast charging stations — connecting to the same transformer can easily overload the transformer during the peak times,” Su said. “The car is moving around, so you have no idea when to charge and where to charge, so that creates another dimension of uncertainty to the power grid.”
U-M Dearborn graduate student Sina Mohammadi works in the Su Lab to optimize electricity distribution systems to more efficiently spread resources. He told The Daily smart meters — electricity measurement devices that transmit data between consumers and suppliers — can help pinpoint electricity usage and build local networks that meet the needs of the community.
“We can capture voltage, current, active and reactive power in real time,” Mohammadi said. “The smart meters can transmit this data to the utilities, so you have a loop between the utilities and the houses. … If you want to increase the charging stations for electric vehicles, you should have the complete data to monitor the distribution network completely to (find) the optimal place for a charging station.”
Other members of the lab focus on solving operations problems, including increasing the reliability of power systems in an increasingly complex network. U-M Dearborn graduate student Rouzbeh Haghighi told The Daily inconsistent renewable energy sources create a system that is harder to predict when trying to ensure consumers have access to electricity.
“20 years ago, the uncertainty came from the demand in the grid, but now, we have uncertainty from the demand side and uncertainty from the generation side.” Rouzbeh said. “You need new mathematical methods, computer science methods and any other approach that can bring more accurate and practical analyses of power systems from a reliability point of view. … Specifically, I’m trying to use large language models to facilitate evaluations and analysis in the power systems area.”
In addition to these solutions, the lab is building fail-safes that consumers will be able to use to plan for power outages. Su told The Daily that a recent focus on energy justice has led the lab to work on a tool that can predict outages before they happen.
“I know many high school parents go to a website for snow days — they put a zip code and can see the percentage that school will be closed tomorrow,” Su said. “We’re thinking if we can provide the same to local residents, especially in underserved communities, we can tell you that tomorrow there is an 80% chance that tomorrow you will lose power from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.”
Su also highlighted the importance of U-M Dearborn’s identity as a regional school in his lab’s energy research.
“We are a regional university, different from the Ann Arbor campus,” Su said. “We are taking a role to support our local residents. Detroit is 10 to 20 miles from our campus, and a large population of our students are minority or first-generation or nontraditional students, so we’re really proud of that and are in a very unique position to provide education in electric vehicles.”
Daily Staff Reporter Daniel Johnson can be reached atdbjohn@umich.edu.
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