News

IIT’s New On-Campus Wind Turbine to Support Green Jobs, Research, and Education

The consortium members will research the wind energy challenges identified in the U.S. Department of Energy's "20% Wind Energy by 2030" report, including wind technology, grid system integration, and workforce challenges. The consortium's plan relies on IIT experts in electrical and computer engineering; mechanical, materials, and aerospace engineering; architecture; business; and members of the Wanger Institute for Sustainable Energy Research to tackle these challenges.

Many of the university's departments and research centers will also work together to offer wind energy courses addressing the technical, operational, social, and environmental aspects of wind energy in consultation with industry. To ensure student involvement in the project, fellowships will be offered annually to undergraduate and graduate students in wind energy engineering fields of study. Faculty and students from international university consortium members will also be invited to IIT to attend workshops and to share ideas with their American counterparts.

"Illinois Institute of Technology's consortium is pleased to have been chosen to help advance wind energy for the nation," says IIT President John Anderson. "The combination of research and academic opportunities at IIT and its academic consortium partners, in conjunction with industry, will help the United States be at the forefront of this technology."

The wind energy consortium will work with small wind turbine manufacturer Viryd Technologies to procure and install an 8KW Viryd wind turbine on IIT's Main Campus, and to deliver a second turbine to one of IIT's engineering laboratories to perform turbine reliability studies. The consortium will also work with wind energy developer Invenergy to install a 1.5MW GE wind turbine adjacent to a wind farm in Marseilles, Ill. The close proximity of IIT's Marseilles turbine to an existing wind farm provides an ideal opportunity to study turbine-to-turbine wake interaction, wind farm interaction, and wind energy efficiencies in addition to turbine reliability studies.

"IIT has been a leader in electric power research and education since the 1930s," says Bodine Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Mohammad Shahidehpour, who is principle investigator for the consortium. "We are excited to continue this work, together with our consortium partners, to meet the energy challenges of the twenty-first century." Shahidehpour is also leading the DOE-funded Perfect Power project, which integrates renewable energy into a groundbreaking approach to electricity distribution and management, as well as a study on the best locations for wind energy integration into the eastern portion of the United States electricity grid.

Other university consortium members include the University of Chicago, Southern Illinois University, and four prestigious international universities with strong wind energy programs: University of Castilla La Mancha (Spain), University of So Paulo (Brazil), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), and Polytechnic University of Bucharest (Romania).

The industry consortium members include all types of wind energy stakeholders: wind turbine companies (GE Energy, Viryd Technologies, Acciona Wind Energy USA), wind energy developers (Invenergy, Pampa Energia Eolica [Brazil], PS Wind Management [Romania]), power transmission system operators (ComEd/Exelon, ISO New England, British Columbia Transmission Corporation), wind energy control devices and software companies (Boeing Advanced Global Services & Support, Honeywell, Dakota Power, EnerNex Corporation, SmartSignal Corporation, Innovation Technology Applications Company), and energy system consultants (Keyworks, Electric Power Research Institute, AREVA T&D, Intelligent Power Solutions, McCoy Energy, Wiedman Power System Consulting).

Ali Emadi Named as Chicago Matters Global Visionary

Harris Perlstein Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Electric Power and Power Electronics Center Ali Emadi has been selected as one of fifteen Chicago Matters Global Visionaries who "are leading our region into the next century and putting our city on the global map."
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ECE Students Present Research at Annual Poster Competition

The 2009 ECE Day poster competition set a new record for student participation. More than 100 electrical and computer engineering graduate and doctoral students presented posters highlighting their research in computers and microelectronics, power and control, or communications and signal processing.
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ECE Student Wins Two International Fellowships

Omer Onar, EE doctoral student, recently won two international fellowships from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE); the Joseph J. Suozzi INTELEC Fellowship and the VTS Transportation Electronics Fellowship.
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Galvin Electricity Initiative and IIT bring Perfect Power to Chicago

Perfect Power--the first such system to be built in the United States--will be a university-owned, campus-wide smart microgrid electricity distribution system that will virtually eliminate power outages by providing more reliable, efficient and secure electricity to IIT's classrooms and research facilities.
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Bob Galvin, former CEO of Motorola and creator of the Galvin Electricity Initiative, along with ECE chair Mohammad Shahidehpour and representatives from ComEd, Endurant Energy, and S&C Electric, introduced the Perfect Power Project at IIT, a ground-breaking approach to electricity distribution and management. Perfect Power--the first such system to be built in the United States--will be a university-owned, campus-wide smart microgrid electricity distribution system that will virtually eliminate the university's power outages by providing more reliable, efficient and secure electricity to IIT's classrooms and research facilities.

"As an institution that specializes in innovation based on research and technology, IIT is proud to be a pioneer in electricity delivery by applying smart microgrid engineering, like the Perfect Power System, to our energy infrastructure," said IIT President Dr. John L. Anderson. "IIT's power distribution system will be a replicable model for confronting the global energy crisis."

Based on a smart microgrid — a small, local, modernized version of the electricity grid that carries bulk power across our country — the Perfect Power System gives electricity alternate routes to flow in case of a disturbance, virtually eliminating power outages, and quickly bringing the economic and environmental benefits of modern grid technology to consumers.

Like many institutions, IIT experiences at least three power outages a year at an estimated cost of $500,000 annually in power restoration repairs, lost productivity and ruined experiments. Once built, the Perfect Power System will reduce the university's energy expenses through reductions in equipment purchases and increase revenue through demand response and other ancillary services.

Projections indicate that the Perfect Power model at IIT will pay for itself within five years after it is completed. The Perfect Power System will generate significant savings for the campus — at least $20 million over 10 years. Following the short payback period, the university will make money from Perfect Power through cheaper power costs, an ability to sell electricity back to local power markets, an increased ability to conserve energy by reducing its load and improved integration of local power generation from clean sources, like solar.

The project, developed for IIT with the Galvin Electricity Initiative, is the result of an uncommon partnership among the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), local utility Exelon/ComEd, the entrepreneurial electricity distribution developer Endurant Energy and the Chicago-based global provider of electric power systems, S&C Electric Company.

That will provide main campus with a long-awaited blueprint for eliminating power outages, incorporating renewable energy sources, meeting rising demand for high-quality power and lowering electricity bills for universities, businesses and municipalities throughout the country.

The ABC7 News report and other coverage is available on the IIT Perfect Power Project web site.

Two ECE Professors Awarded Endowed Chair Professor Positions

Two Illinois Institute of Technology Electrical and Computer Engineering professors were awarded endowed chair professor positions in Spring 2009.
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Grainger Foundation Gives $5 Million to ECE Power Engineering Program

The electrical power engineering programs at Illinois Institute of Technology continue to expand their facilities and enrollment thanks to ongoing support from The Grainger Foundation of Lake Forest, Ill.
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