Join us in welcoming Jordan Kern, an NC State assistant professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, as he shares his energy systems research.
Advancing the optimal design and management of low carbon energy systems in a time of emerging vulnerabilities
Bulk electric power systems are highly interconnected, continental in scale, and operated as synchronous machines that must constantly balance (in both space and time) the movement and consumption of electricity with production from different generators. As an aging, complex system, the power grid routinely experiences failures (often caused by extreme weather) that can lead to losses of life and economic damages. The grid is also, arguably, the single most important component of large-scale efforts to “de-carbonize” the U.S. economy. This is likely to involve grid expansion and a rapid scale-up of renewable energy capacity like solar and wind, which will more firmly link system dynamics (including reliability) to weather fluctuations. Yet, robustly characterizing power systems’ performance is a significant challenge, due to: a) system complexity and scale; b) multi-scale, multi-variate uncertainties; and c) a general lack of open source modeling options that adequately balance simulation speed and model accuracy. This talk will discuss our group’s development and application of new computational tools to inform optimal design and management of robust, low-to-zero carbon grids through stochastic simulation of system dynamics and analysis of capital investment and short-term grid operations.
Jordan Kern is an Assistant Professor of Coupled Natural-Human Systems at North Carolina State University, where he has a primary appointment in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources and graduate faculty appointments in Operations Research, and Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering. His group’s research tries to advance optimal design and management of low-to-zero carbon energy systems, with a special focus on: 1) building high resolution models of real-world energy systems; 2) simulating system dynamics under uncertainty and stress; and 3) informing optimal decision making around capital investment and short term operations. His group’s research has been featured frequently in the national media (e.g. NPR, LA Times, Vox, TIME), and since 2016 his group has received $3.16 million in extramurally funded research awards (part of $43 million in total collaborative funds). In 2022, he received the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) CAREER award for his proposal titled, “Navigating a Two-Front Challenge for the Power Grid: Extreme Weather and the Race to Decarbonization.”
