Abstract-- Abstract—The future all-electric ship platform is providing a new set of research and development activities related to the electric power system. In order to design, build, and operate the ship effectively, tools must be developed that allow for modeling, simulation and analysis of individual parts of the shipboard power system as well as integration of the power system as a whole. This paper reports on activities at Mississippi State University related to modeling and simulation of shipboard power systems in the area of power system analysis, power electronic analysis and integration, and material modeling and testing. Key words: Shipboard power systems, modeling, simulation, reconfiguration, Power Electronics Building Blocks (PEBB), active filters, insulator aging.

I. INTRODUCTION ower engineering is a very diverse field that has many branches. Power engineering can involve power systems, high voltage

engineering and power electronics. Traditionally power engineering has focused its activities on building a better utility power system. This involves the design, analysis and operations of electric power systems for land-based utilities. This work has expanded into specialized power systems including oil platforms automotive, aircraft and shipboard power systems. These power systems present unique challenges and offer an opportunity for expanding our research activities. The future all-electric ship provides a wealth of opportunities for research activities related to electric power systems. This ship will produce enough electricity to provide electrical propulsion. While this provides various opportunities and advantages, the key opportunity for electrical engineering and power engineering relates to an abundance of electrical power as a source for operating the ship system in a different manner. Additionally advances in the power electronics arena are making the shipbuilding industry evaluate the best way to distribute and manage electricity within this new power system environment. These new developments are providing a fertile venue for power engineering faculty to investigate new approaches for the future shipboard power systems. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has This research work has been supported by the Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-02-1-0623 and DoD MURI Fund #N00014-04-1-0404.

All authors are with Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,

Box 9571, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762 USA For additional information, please contact N.N. Schulz (schulz@ece.msstate.edu).

been aggressive in seeking out the expertise of power engineering faculty from around the country to help solve these new challenges and build the algorithms, tools and other results necessary. Besides the traditional ONR funding opportunities, ONR has teamed up with NSF for both educational and research activities. Additionally in the early 2000s, ONR decided to develop a consortium of schools to work together and focus on advancing the state-of-the-art knowledge and tools related to the shipboard electric power system. In 2002, the Electric Ship Research and Development Consortium (ESRDC) started this collaboration. Florida State University, Mississippi State University, University of South Carolina and University of Texas at Austin were the original four universities within the consortium. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Purdue University and the U.S. Naval Academy joined the ESRDC in 2004. Mississippi State University has had ties to shipbuilding activities for a long time. Pascagoula, Mississippi has a large shipbuilding community and Northrop Grumman Ship Systems is the number one employer in the State of Mississippi. The ESRDC program provides additional resources for MSU to increase its activities in the shipboard power system area. This paper provides an overview of research activities at Mississippi State University. An overview of previous results is available in reference [1]. Since many of the results have already been captured in other papers, this document provides a bibliography to allow the reader to get additional information on topics of interest. Several of the topics have been covered in detail in other papers included in the IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Symposium 2007 program.

II. RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

A. High Voltage Engineering Work MSU’s High Voltage Laboratory has added an additional capability to research activities within the MSU team. Researchers are now investigating accelerated electrical degradation of ship motor winding insulation energized by distorted voltage waveforms and electrical degradation of high voltage ship cables energized by switching impulses. These studies will help determine the feasibility and material features needed for a medium voltage distribution system within future ships.

The High Voltage Laboratory has had a long legacy of investigating issues related to ship systems. The unique facilities within MSU’s High Voltage laboratory provide an excellent platform for investigating insulation degradation and electrical degradation related to shipboard power system challenges.

Quili Yu, Student Member, IEEE, Sarika Khushalani, Student Member, IEEE, Jignesh Solanki, Student Member, IEEE, Noel N. Schulz, Senior Member, IEEE, Herbert L. Ginn III, Member, IEEE, Stanislaw

Grzybowski, Fellow, IEEE, Anurag Srivastava, Member, IEEE and Jimena Bastos, Member, IEEE

Shipboard Power Systems Research Activities at Mississippi State University

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3901-4244-0947-0/07 $25.00 © 2007 IEEE.

The changing characteristics of the electrical system signal within the all-electric ship bring a new set of challenges. Traditional testing for aging of insulation stressed the equipment using a 60 Hz AC voltage. However with the increased use of power electronics and the possible use of pulsed weapons, shipboard power systems will see a distorted waveform that will have different aging properties. The dielectric strength degradation is being investigated at different temperatures and different times of applied voltage using a square wave signal [2-4]. To understand the aging process three measurements are collected including the breakdown strength of the winding insulation at 60 Hz, initial partial discharge voltage magnitude and characteristics, and lifetime characteristics of the insulation. While the above efforts focus on the insulation aging, another key area is the electrical degradation of ship cables related to switching impulses and other distorted voltages. Again most studies have been done with 60 Hz signals and even lightning impulses. Work within the MSU High Voltage laboratory is investigating degradation related to the magnitude of the switching impulses, different temperatures and varying the number of switching impulses. Measurement techniques will monitor the breakdown strength at 60 Hz, and initial partial discharge voltage magnitude and characteristics. Preliminary results have been promising [2]. Lightning is also a concern for the shipboard power system and some preliminary work has begun in that area [5].

B. Power Electronics Work In the power electronics areas, MSU researchers have been

using shunt connected current controllers to provide compensation for different issues within the power system[2]. By reconfiguring the generic shunt-connected current controllers, applications such as active filters, power factor correction and energy storage can be available. Researchers have developed a test bed that includes several Power Electronics Building Blocks (PEBB) to investigate the various connections. Using the test bed, MSU researchers have investigated DSP Controller in the loop applications.

Power electronics provide opportunities for developing flexible power system that can manage the flow of electricity more easily. However, power electronics and the future all-electric ship demands also create some problems that can be mitigated by other power electronics.

The best solution related to power electronics would be basic building blocks that provide standard modules and interfaces for ease of implementation. Recent accomplishments in this area have lead to the PEBB concept. MSU researchers have been working to develop advanced applications of power system compensators using the PEBB architecture. References [6] and [7] highlight activities related to multifunctional active filters using the PEBB architecture. Researchers are working to develop generic, user-defined models that can help in the simulation activities. Additionally researchers are investigating the controller in the loop idea.

C. Power Systems Work 1) Modeling, Real-Time Simulation and Hardware-in-the-Loop Activities

MSU has created some key infrastructure in the area of real-time simulation and HIL activities during the last five years. The MSU research team now has multiple platforms where modeling and simulation can be performed allowing a comparison between these tools and techniques. Modeling platforms include:

• Two-Rack Real Time Distributed Simulator (RTDS), purchased as part of an ONR DURIP Award.

• VTB-Real-Time (VTB-RT) • National Instruments/Labview Real-Time System • dSpace/MATLAB Real-Time System

Initial modeling goals have looked at modeling some of the control system in the different simulation tools to allow the combination of the power system and the control system for optimization. An overcurrent relay has been the initial modeling challenge. References [2, 8-11] provide an overview of progress underway relating to the relay model and hardware-in-the-loop simulation activities. MSU researchers have also investigated integrating shipboard power system models with traditional utility modeling systems. Several shipboard piece of equipment were modeled using the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) Common Information Model (CIM) [12,13]. Additionally a computer software package was developed to allow look up of models in CIM and VTB and comparisons of the parameters and model structures for a particular piece of equipment. 2) Power System Protection

Research activities related to protection have been in three main areas: adaptive protection[14-16], measurement placement [17] and DC protection [18]. Phase one of the adaptive protection work investigated if the groups within a relay’s capabilities could cover the possible reconfigurations of a simple power system. While the groups could cover a two-bus model, it was found that even with a simple four-bus model, the combinations were not able to cover all the possible protection needs [14]. Phase two of the adaptive protection is a separate computer system that would investigate the reconfiguration of the power system and then provide adjusted settings for protection in the area [16]. Having adequate data is important with the shipboard power system. MSU researchers are using genetic algorithms to investigate the location and type of metering necessary to provide observability of the system. Additional work is looking at contingency analysis with metering such that one or more meters could be lost and the system is still observable [17]. The idea of DC distribution system is seeing renewed interest with the increased capability and control of power electronics. One challenge for DC distribution relates to fault detection and removal. Preliminary research underway is investigating the effect of a DC fault on the AC part of the system and how a power electronic converter can be used to provide a softer transition, removing the fault and minimizing the impact on other loads [18].

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3) Distributed Simulation Besides our ties with the ESRDC, the MSU team is also a member of an Office of Naval Research Multi-University Research Initiative (MURI) grant. Drexel University is the lead university and other universities include Iowa State University, Northeastern, MSU and Texas A&M University. This project is looking at Device Development for Nondestructive Testing and Measurement of Power Systems. In particular the team is looking at ways to use distributed simulation to connect different laboratories for simulation and analysis. More details about this effort are available from References [19-22]. 4) Reconfiguration and Stability This section provides an overview of the MSU activities related to stability and reconfiguration. Reconfiguration techniques can be classified into two categories, centralized method and decentralized method. Centralized reconfiguration techniques include a central control system to know the entire system information. When faults happen, the central control system will adjust the topology of the whole distribution system to restore power for unfaulted area, maximize the number of loads supplied, and minimize the switch operations involved in the reconfiguration process. Centralized reconfiguration methods include mathematical programming, meta-heuristics, and knowledge-based programming. However, all of these techniques are based on centralized structures.

The integrated power system (IPS) for all-electric ships combines power generation system, electric propulsion system, power distribution system with distributed generators (DG), and power control and management system all together. Reconfiguration of IPS is needed for two reasons, i.e., faults and task transition. The faults may happen due to material casualty of individual equipment (generator, load, cable, and power electronics) or widespread damage due to battle with hostile warships [23]. A warship with full speed escape turning to remain in the area is an example of task transition. a) Reconfiguration Techniques For SPS at MSU (1) Optimization method

Authors in [24, 25] presented a mathematical formulation to solve an optimization problem for reconfiguration of shipboard power system (SPS) with AC-DC distribution system considering effect of distributed generation (DG). The objective is to maximize the restoration of power to vital and semi-vital loads and minimize the number of switch operations. The constraints are formulated as functions of binary variables, and the objective function utilizes continuous variables. The results can be calculated with LINGO software package. With minor modification, this optimization method can also be used in islanding and three phase unbalanced loads. The main advantage of the optimization method is that the power flow calculation is embedded in the optimization equations, which needs to be solved only once rather than multiple times in the heuristic approaches. Centralized control characteristics and burden computing time limit the optimization method application in IPS.

(2) Multi-agent based reconfiguration for IPS With Radial Distribution System

An intelligent agent is a software program that has some intelligence to perform a specified task and interact with other programs or entities around it [26]. A multi-agent system (MAS) can be defined as a loosely coupled network of problem solvers that interact to solve problems that are beyond the individual capabilities or knowledge of each problem solver. The characteristics of MAS are that (1) each agent has incomplete information and local viewpoint for solving the whole system problem; (2) there is no centralized global control system; (3) data are decentralized; and (4) computation is asynchronous [27].

Through interaction and collaboration with Florida State University, the ESRDC group at Mississippi State University is investigating the role of MAS in reconfiguration and restoration. Researchers [28-31] developed an MAS and embedded it into a radial power system. The MAS consists of three types of agents: switch agents (SAs), substation breaker agents (SBAs), and tie breaker agents (TBA). Each of SBAs and TBAs can sense the magnitudes of both voltage and current downstream, while each of SAs can only measure the magnitude of downstream current. When a fault happens, a switch agent will communicate with all its downstream switch agents if it senses the fault current. If the next downstream switch agents also detect the fault current, it can be derived that the fault does not locate between these switches. Otherwise the fault really happens between these switches [30]. Based on the result of fault detection, the SAs decide whether or not lock the switches.

In the first research step the MAS is implemented with MATLAB and embedded into a radial power system, which is built with VTB. Simulation results prove functionality and effectiveness of MAS. However, MATLAB is single-threaded, and it is not allowed to change run time and store data more than once. These drawbacks limit further function enhancement of the MAS. Thus in the second research step, the MAS is developed in JADE and can do peer-to-peer communication between agents in an efficient way, besides overcoming the drawbacks of MAS in MATLAB. (3) Multi-agent based reconfiguration for IPS With AC-DC Zonal Distribution System

In the first two research phases, all MAS based reconfiguration deal with faults occurring within the IPS with radial, pure AC distribution system. In fact AC-DC zonal distribution system has some advantages over AC radial or ring distribution system. The MAS based reconfiguration for IPS should be able to deal with faults that happen at AC generation system, AC distribution system, and DC distribution system. Unlike techniques for reconfiguration and protection of AC power systems that have been well matured, techniques for DC power system is a new research field and related literatures have been seldom published. MSU researchers currently continue to explore MAS-based reconfiguration for IPS with AC-DC zonal distribution system, and determine that the research issues include DC loads classification, effects of front side AC faults on backside

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DC circuit through AC to DC inverters, effects of front side DC faults on backside AC circuit through rectifiers, and DC faults detection strategy.

Stability is another area of interest related to the shipboard power system. Work at MSU is looking to develop techniques to quantify the stability index to describe the current status of the shipboard power system. References [32-33] provide an initial step related to an index. Additionally a fast reconfiguration algorithm was developed to minimize the stability risk [34].

Current research activities are working to extend the fast algorithm to find out the voltage stability index for an electric ship to show the system operating location compared to voltage stability limit point. Accurate assessment of the voltage stability limit is important for setting up benchmarks for index-based approach of voltage stability. This work will also involve developing a voltage stability tool to directly assess “distance to collapse” using continuation power flow. As a starting point with the stability modeling issue, a multi-phase generator model has been developed [35]. 5) Distributed Generation and Intentional Islanding One part of the reconfiguration activities has extended the traditional power system techniques to include penetration of distributed generation within the shipboard power system as well as intentional islanding or intentional zonal separation. In order to effectively analyze the impact of distributed generation, a new three-phase unbalanced distribution power flow was developed that allows the DG to be modeled as a PV or PQ node [25,36]. Next this software was used to perform contingency analysis including the impact of distributed generation when parts of the distribution system were de-energized because of a fault [37]. Additional studies are under way to optimization the placement and size of the distributed generation looking at other contingencies such as stability and islanding capabilities.

III. EDUCATIONAL AND OUTREACH ACTIVITIES With the large number of faculty and graduate students

involved in shipboard related research, the graduate and research level activities are impacting both the undergraduate and graduate classroom. MSU faculty members are using more examples of shipboard related systems and equipment in their undergraduate and graduate level classes. Additionally the power engineering and high voltage faculty team-taught a graduate level class on Shipboard Power Systems in the fall of 2006. More details on the curricular impact of this research are available in reference [38]. The federal funds have also provided an avenue for increased partnerships with companies within Mississippi. As part of the ESRDC, MSU is piloting a program to provide small fellowships to employees from the shipbuilding community to take graduate classes and learn more about advanced power systems, power electronics and high voltage engineering topics. In the summer of 2006, MSU started an internship program with Northrop Grumman Ship Systems where graduate students spend all or part of the summer working with NGSS to learn about the practical side of the shipbuilding challenge. While the internship is limited to U.S.

citizens only, this experience has been beneficial to NGSS, the student and our MSU research team [39].

IV. SUMMARY This paper has provided an overview of recent activities at Mississippi State related to shipboard power systems research. Through the collaboration within the ESRDC, MSU has created infrastructure and established programs related to shipboard power systems. These programs are investigating the challenges of the implementation of the all electric ship, developing a workforce with experience in shipboard power system issues, and collaborating with other universities and the shipbuilding industry to create synergy to tackle the upcoming and future challenges to design, analyze, simulate and operate naval all electric ships.

V. REFERENCES [1] N.N. Schulz And H.L. Ginn, And S. Mark Halpin, Electric Ship

Research Activities And Capabilities At Mississippi State University And Its Partners, Proceedings Of The 2005 IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Symposium, Philadelphia, Pa, July, 2005.

[2] N.N. Schulz, H.L. Ginn, III, S.Grzbowski, A. Srivastava And J. Bastos, “Ship-To-Shore Collaborations: Integrating Research Of Shipboard Power Systems Into Today’s Power Engineering Research Activities,” Proceedings Of The 2007 Asee Annual Conference, June, 2007, Honolulu, Hawaii, In Press.

[3] Stanislaw Grzybowski, Clayborne Taylor, Jr., And J.C. Fulper, “Electrical Degradation Of Ship Machine Winding Insulation,” Proceedings Of The Workshop On Transportable Megawatt Power Systems, Austin, Texas, March 2007.

[4] Stanislaw Grzybowski And Clayborne Taylor, Jr., “Aging Of High Voltage Cables By Switching Impulse,” Proceedings Of The IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Sympoisum (ESTS 07), Arlington, Virginia, May 2007.

[5] Stanislaw Grzybowski And Jacob Fulper, “Experimental Evaluation Of Lightning Protection Zones On Ship,” Proceedings Of The IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Sympoisum (ESTS 07), Arlington, Virginia, May 2007.

[6] Konstantin Borisov And Herbert L. Ginn III, “Modeling Of Multifunctional Active Compensation For Shipboard Power System In Virtual Test Bed,” Proceedings Of The IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Sympoisum (ESTS 07), Arlington, Virginia, May 2007.

[7] Konstantin Borisov, Herbert L. Ginn III, And Andrzej M. Trzynadlowski: “Attenuation Of Electromagnetic Interference In A Shunt Active Power Filter,” IEEE Transactions On Power Electronics, Under Review.

[8] Daxa Patel, “Modeling And Testing Of An Instantaneous Overcurrent Relay Using Vtb And Vtb-Rt. “, Masters Thesis, Department Of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mississippi State University, 2004.

[9] Yujie Zhang, Jimena Bastos, Noel N. Schulz And Daxa Patel, “Modeling and Testing of Protection Devices for SPS using MATLAB/Simulink and VTB,” Proceedings Of The IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Sympoisum (ESTS 07), Arlington, Virginia, May 2007.

[10] Sunil Palla, Anurag Srivastava, And Noel N. Schulz, “Hardware in the Loop Test for Relay Model Validation,” Proceedings Of The IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Sympoisum (ESTS 07), Arlington, Virginia, May 2007.

[11] Yong Cheng, Jian Wu, Anurag Srivastava, Noel Schulz And Herbert Ginn, “Hardware In The Loop Test For Power System Modeling And Simulation,” Proceedings Of The IEEE PES Power Systems Conference And Exhibition, Atlanta, Georgia, October 2006.

[12] Jian Wu And Noel N. Schulz, Overview Of CIM-Oriented Database Design And Data Exchanging In Power System Applications, Proceedings Of The 37th Annual North American Power Symposium, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, October 23-25, 2005

[13] Jian Wu, Yong Cheng, Noel N. Schulz And Herbert L. Ginn, “Impact Of Standardized Models, Programming, Interfaces And Protocols On Shipboard

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Power System,” IEEE Transactions On Industrial Applications, Under Review.

[14] Nick Amann, “Adaptive Overcurrent Protection Scheme For Shipboard Power Systems “, Masters Thesis, Department Of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mississippi State University, 2004.

[15] Yanfeng Gong, Yan Huang And Noel N. Schulz, “Integrated Protection System Design For Shipboard Power Systems, “IEEE Transactions On Industrial Applications, Under Review.

[16] Olu A. Amoda And Noel N. Schulz, “An Adaptive Protection Scheme for Shipboard Power Systems,” Proceedings Of The IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Sympoisum (ESTS 07), Arlington, Virginia, May 2007.

[17] Sandhya Sankar And Noel N. Schulz, “Intelligent Placement of Meters / Sensors for Shipboard Power System Analysis,” Proceedings Of The IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Sympoisum (ESTS 07), Arlington, Virginia, May 2007.

[18] Hymiar Hamilton And Noel N. Schulz, “DC Protection on the Electric Ship,” Proceedings Of The IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Sympoisum (ESTS 07), Arlington, Virginia, May 2007.

[19] Karen Miu, Dagmar Niebur, And Chika Nwankpa, Venkat Ajjarapu, Karen Butler-Purry, Noel Schulz, and Alex Stankovic, Testing Of Shipboard Power Systems: A Case For Remote Testing And Measurement,” Proceedings Of The 2005 IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Symposium, Philadelphia, Pa, July, 2005.

[20] J. Wu “Generalized Three Phase Coupling Method For Distributed Simulation Of Power Systems,” Phd Dissertation, Department Of Electrical And Computer Engineering, Mississippi State University, 2006.

[21] J. Wu, N.N. Schulz And W. Gao, “Distributed Simulation For Power System Analysis Including Shipboard Systems,” Electric Power Systems Research, Doi:10.1016/J.Epsr.2006.09.009 , In Press.

[22] Qinghua Huang, Jian Wu, Jimena Bastos And Noel N. Schulz, “Distributed Simulation Applied to Shipboard Power Systems,” Proceedings Of The IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Sympoisum (ESTS 07), Arlington, Virginia, May 2007.

[23] M.E. Baran And N. Mahajan, “System Reconfiguration On Shipboard Dc Zonal Electrical System,” 2005 IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Symposium, 25-27 July 2005, Pp. 86-92.

[24] Sarika Khushalani, Jignesh Solanki And Noel Schulz, “Optimization,” IEEE Transactions On Power Systems, Accepted, In Press.

[25] Sarika Khushalani, “Development Of Power Flow With Distributed Generators And Reconfiguration For Restoration Of Unbalanced Distribution Systems,” Phd Dissertation, Department Of Electrical And Computer Engineering, Mississippi State University, 2006.

[26] Brenner Et Al, “Intelligent Software Agents,” Springer, 1998 [27] Katia P. Sycara, “Multi-Agent Systems,” Ai Magazine 19(2): Summer

1998, 79-92 [28] Jignesh M. Solanki And Noel N. Schulz, “Using Intelligent Multi-Agent

Systems For Shipboard Power Systems Reconfiguration,” Proc. 2005 Intelligent Systems Application To Power Systems 13th International Conf., Pp. 212-214.

[29] Jignesh M. Solanki, Noel N. Schulz, And Wenzhong Gao, “Reconfiguration For Restoration Of Power Systems Using A Multi-Agent System,” Proc. 2005 The 37th Annual North American Power Symposium, Pp. 390-395.

[30] Jignesh M. Solanki, "Multi-Agent Based Control And Reconfiguration For Restoration Of Distribution Systems With Distributed Generators," Ph.D. Dissertation, Dept. Electrical And Computer Eng., Mississippi State Univ. Mississippi State, 2006.

[31] Jignesh Solanki, Sarika Khushalani And Noel N. Schulz, “A Multi-Agent Solution To Distribution Systems Restoration,” IEEE Transactions On Power Systems, Under Review.

[32] Yanfeng Gong, “Development Of An Improved On-Line Voltage Stability Index Using Synchronized Phasor Measurement “, Phd Dissertation, Department Of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mississippi State University, 2006.

[33] Yanfeng Gong And Noel N. Schulz, And Armando Guzman, “Synchrophasor-Based Real-Time Voltage Stability Index,” Proceedings Of The Western Protective Relaying Conference, Spokane, WA, October, 2005.

[34] Yan Huang, “Fast Reconfiguration Algorithm Development For Shipboard Power Systems “, Masters Thesis, Department Of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mississippi State University, 2004.

[35] Minglan Lin, Anurag Srivastava, And Noel N. Schulz, “A Generic Digital Model of Multiphase Synchronous Generator for Shipboard Power System,” Proceedings Of The IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Sympoisum (ESTS 07), Arlington, Virginia, May 2007

[36] Sarika Khushalani, Jignesh Solanki And Noel Schulz, “Development Of Three Phase Unbalanced Power Flow With Multiple Distributed Generators And Study Of Their Impact On Distribution Systems,” IEEE Transactions On Power Systems, Accepted, In Press.

[37] Sujatha Kotamarty, “Impact Of Distributed Generation On Distribution Contingency Analysis “, Masters Thesis, Department Of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mississippi State University, 2004.

[38] N.N. Schulz, H.L. Ginn, III, S.Grzbowski, A. Srivastava And J. Bastos, “Integrating Shipboard Power System Topics Into Curriculum,” Proceedings Of The 2007 Asee Annual Conference, June, 2007, Honolulu, Hawaii, In Press.

[39] Yamilka Baez-Rivera, Lennon Brown III, And N.N. Schulz, “Using Graduate Internships To Enhance Graduate Student Education And Research,” Proceedings Of The 2007 Asee Annual Conference, June, 2007, Honolulu, Hawaii, In Press.

VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research work has been supported by the Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-02-1-0623, and DoD MURI Fund #N00014-04-1-0404. This support is gratefully acknowledged.

VII. BIOGRAPHIES

Quili Yu is currently pursuing his PhD degree from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Mississippi State University. He has a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from MSU in 2001 and a MS in Electrical Engineering in 2003. He also holds an MS in Aerospace Engineering and BS in Mechanical Engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) in Beijing, China. He was an instructor at BIT for eight years before coming to the U.S. His current area of research is intelligent agent applications to power system reconfiguration.

Sarika Khushalani received her Ph.D. degree from Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Mississippi State University in 2006. She received her B.E. degree from Nagpur University and M.E. degree from Mumbai University, India in 1998 and 2000 respectively. She was involved in research activities at IIT Bombay, India. Her research interESTS are computer applications in power system analysis and power system control. She received a Honda Fellowship Award at MSU. She is currently working at OSI International in Minneapolis, MN.

Jignesh M. Solanki received his Ph.D. degree from Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Mississippi State University in 2006. He received his B.E. degree from V.N.I.T., Nagpur and M.E. degree from Mumbai University, India in 1998 and 2000 respectively. He was involved in research activities at IIT Bombay, India. His research interESTS are power system analysis and its control. He is currently working at OSI International in Minneapolis, MN.

Noel N. Schulz received her B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1988 and 1990, respectively. She received her Ph.D. in EE from the University of Minnesota in 1995. She is the recipient of the TVA Endowed Professorship in Power Systems Engineering. She has been an Associate Professor in the ECE department at Mississippi State University since July 2001. Her research interESTS are in computer applications in power system operations including artificial intelligence techniques. She is a NSF CAREER award recipient. She has been active in the IEEE Power Engineering Society and is serving as Secretary for 2004-2007. She was the 2002 recipient of the IEEE/PES Walter Fee Outstanding Young Power Engineer Award. Dr. Schulz is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi.

Herbert L. Ginn III received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, in 1998 and 2002, respectively. In the fall of 2002 he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Mississippi State University as an Assistant Professor. His research interESTS include power phenomena and compensation in non-sinusoidal systems and power electronics applications in power systems.

Stanislaw Grzybowski received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 1956 and 1964, respectively, from the Technical University of Warsaw, Poland. In 1984, he obtained the Dr. Hab. ( Dr. Habilitated ) degree

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from the Technical University of Wroclaw, Poland. .In 1956, he joined the faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Poznan , Poland. From 1958 to 1981, he was Head of the High Voltage and Electrical Materials Division and served as Vice-Dean of Electrical Engineering Faculty in 1969 and from 1975 through 1977. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of South Carolina and the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. He served also as a Visiting Scientific Advisor to Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas, Cuernavaca, Mexico. In 1987, Dr. Grzybowski joined Mississippi State University, where he is now a Professor at Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the High Voltage Laboratory at Mississippi State University. Dr. Grzybowski is a Life Fellow of the IEEE. His main research interESTS are in the area of high voltage engineering. His current research focuses on the lightning protection of power systems, ships, aerostats and other objects. He conducted study also on aging processes in polymer insulation such as cables, insulators, and magnet wires. He has authored/co-authored three books in high voltage engineering and over 220 technical papers published in IEEE Transactions, journals and Proceedings of International and National Conferences.

Anurag K. Srivastava received his Ph.D. degree from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago, in 2005, M. Tech. from Institute of Technology, India in 1999 and B. Tech. in Electrical Engineering from Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, India in 1997. He is working as Assistant research professor at Mississippi State University since September 2005. Before that, he worked as research assistant and teaching assistant at IIT, Chicago, USA and as Senior Research Associate at Electrical Engineering Department at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India as well as Research Fellow at Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand. His research interest includes engineering education, power system security, real time simulation, power system modeling, power system deregulation and artificial intelligent application in power system. Dr. Srivastava is member of IEEE, IET, Power Engineering Society, ASEE, Sigma Xi and Eta Kappa Nu. He is recipient of several awards and serves as reviewer for IEEE Transaction on Power System, international journals and conferences.

Jimena L. Bastos received the B.S. in Electronics Engineering from the National University of Engineering (Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria), Lima, Peru, in December 2000. After graduating, she worked as a junior design engineer in a major Peruvian telecommunications company. She received her M.E. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC in August 2003 and 2005, respectively. Her dissertation research focused on the application of modeling and simulation techniques in electrical drives and power electronics control applications. As a result of her graduate research work, she holds two invention disclosures for creating two software tools for computer-aided design of circuit-based models and nonlinear controllers for power engineering applications. She joined Mississippi State University as a Research Faculty in August 2006, after spending one year in a post-doctoral position at the University of South Carolina. At her current position, she is currently combining her research activities in power engineering with her teaching activities.

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