AI’s increased energy demands, and extreme weather-related events on aging electrical grids could cause blackouts.
Junior Katya Alexandra Mazurenko participated in a summer internship through the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) program with National Energy Lab’s (NREL) to help mitigate those disruptions. As part of the NREL’s Power Restoration Group, “We worked to create a data frame, visualization, and power flow solver to assist in power system restoration in a process known as Black Start,” Mazurenko explained.
“The impacts of blackouts can be devastating,” Mazurenko said. Take for example Hurricane Maria, which hit Puerto Rico in September 2017. “This caused the longest blackout in US history,” Mazurenko said.
To be clear, the NREL’s Power Restoration Group will not prevent blackouts altogether. Instead, the work will “reduce blackout duration severity, making them shorter and less impactful,” Mazurenko said. To do so, “we tested a hypothetical algorithm on the 13 bus system,” Mazurenko said of the standardized testing model developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). With the summer internship complete, Mazurenko’s data frame is functional and ready to test restoration models.
Beyond Mazurenko’s work on the data frame, the NREL/SULI program hosted workshops in writing, making posters, and delivering presentations. This gave Mazurenko the opportunity to present and document her work. Take for example the 20-slide IGNITE Talk, which gives presenters the opportunity to improve their timing by automatically advancing slides every 15 seconds.
The above represents one of Mazurenko’s two required internships as a student in the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER) program at Penn. Mazurenko extends significant thanks to VIPER Alumni and upperclassmen for introducing her to the SULI program. Following the advice of VIPER Alumni and Upperclassemen, Mazurenko said she “reached out to the project’s PI a year in advance to express my curiosity.”
Mazurenko’s future plans? She’s particularly interested in Power Electronics and is considering a graduate degree in Electrical and Systems and Engineering. Also, Mazurenko would like the opportunity to explore work in both industry and academia. As for what Mazurenko enjoys when she’s not working? That’s none other than hiking in the great outdoors. And the NREL lab in Golden, Colorado lab provided ample opportunities to do just that. “There were multiple intern hikes with my lab group. And they were fantastic.”