ECE – 590 I POWER & ENERGY SYSTEMS SEMINAR
WHEN: Monday, October 16, 2023
WHERE: ECEB 4070, 3:00 – 3:50 p.m.; Zoom Meeting ID: 820 9859 1334; Password: Power
SPEAKER: Christoper Zhang, Manager of Regional Capacity Planning, ComEd
TITLE: "ComEd Distribution Capacity Planning"
ABSTRACT: The electricity sector remains the largest deployer of renewable energy resources in the world. The rapid growth of solar photovoltaic and wind resource deployment in recent years has resulted in the integration of a huge number of distributed energy resources (DERs) into both the transmission and distribution grids. DERs play a critical role in the decarbonization of the nation’s economy. We discuss the challenges posed by the grid integration for DERs at deepening penetrations into the ComEd grids to meet Illinois’ goals for clean energy. In this lecture, we cover the concept of hosting capacity in the interconnection of DERs and the roles of voltage optimization and distribution automation in the enhancement of the reliability and the economically efficient operations of the ComEd grids.
BIOGRAPHY: Christopher Zhang is the Manager of Regional Capacity Planning at ComEd. Christopher earned his B.S.E.E. in 2014 and his M.S. in ECE in 2016 from UIUC and is a two-time recipient of the Grainger Power Engineering Award. He has held various engineering positions in transmission studies, transmission operations and nuclear engineering at ComEd and its parent company, Exelon. He started his career at Ameren Illinois as a capacity planning engineer.
