Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University

Marija Ilic

Professor – ECE, EPP

Department	Electrical and Computer Engineering
Office	B25 Porter Hall
Telephone	(412)-268-9520
Email	milic@ece.cmu.edu
Website	http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~milic/
Assistant	Claire E. Bauerle

Research Interests

My research and education focus on the modeling and control of large complex nonlinear systems with application to electric power systems. While it is motivated by the practical needs of the electric power industry, it is useful to other industries that operate large complex systems whose organization is hierarchical. Most generally, I seek to improve the technical and economic performance of electric power systems by means of control and communication.

More recently, my research has focused on developing controllers for the changing electric power systems in which all parties act for their own benefit. The primary technical challenge created by this competitive, or decentralized, power production, transmission and consumption is to design generation and transmission-grid controllers and protective relaying which minimize the resulting real-time power imbalances that threaten system security and integrity. These controllers should also improve system-wide efficiency. We show that in order to make the network system both efficient and secure, the network itself must be an active controller and not a passive connector between the energy sources and energy consumers. Beyond developing these controllers, I study the relation between the technical and economic signals, and the implications of this relation on the information/communication structure necessary to implement the controllers.

The temporal and spatial dynamics of the emerging electricity markets make their design very difficult because the economic, policy and technical dynamics of the electric power system and this market are strongly interrelated. What is missing from the typical studies, for example, are software-based tools for accommodating the needs of market participants in a flexible way with well-understood technical and economic outcomes. This is because most research on electricity market designs makes the very strong assumptions of perfect information and equilibrium conditions. Consequently, while the industry restructuring has opened the door to new technologies, these technologies are not used in the most effective way. This problem is particularly pronounced when it comes to software use and valuation since the majority of electricity markets do not value technologies for their ability to respond to changing conditions.