Dr. Schulz’s interests in the ESRDC work are in three main areas: reconfiguration, protection and advanced modeling. In the reconfiguration area, her group has looked at developing software programs to allow for analysis of unbalanced distribution power systems. This algorithm has provided the necessary background to allow contingency analysis on the distribution system considering a distributed generator. Additionally in the reconfiguration area, Dr. Schulz’s group has looked at optimization techniques include some heuristics of switch pairs. As an alternative to the optimization techniques, efforts are currently underway to investigate the role of multi-agent systems in allowing distributed control during restoration. Another key area within reconfiguration is the paradigm of intentional islanding where distributed generation can be used to provide fight-through capabilities.

The second area of activities relates to protection and in general the integration of the control systems of the power system into a single simulation environment. Dr. Schulz’s team has been investigating methods of quick and adaptive protection that allow the protection system to adjust after reconfiguration of the power system. Additionally her group is looking into modeling relays in various formats to allow the integration of the power system and protection data for more complete analysis. Finally in the protection area, Dr. Schulz is looking at alterative protection environments. This could include power electronic type devices that provide soft switching decreasing the rapid change in the system. It could also include new devices to provide DC protection. A third option is looking at what sensors are really necessary to provide the best picture of the entire system and how to integrate data already in the field with these sensors to allow a comprehensive snapshot of the conditions of the system.

The final area of research for Dr. Schulz and her group related to the ESRDC project relates to modeling and real-time simulation. The group has expertise in VTB, National Instruments Labview and Matlab/Simulink. A variety of models and simulations are being developed to allow for various parts of the power system to be incorporated either as hardware or a software model to allow advanced power system analysis and design. Current facilities include a Real-time VTB platform as well as the NI real-time platform.

Besides her technical activities within the ESRDC, Dr. Schulz is also involved in coordinating the MSU ESRDC team. With six faculty, one post-doctoral fellow, twenty-one graduate students and one graduate student, this is a time consuming job. However the advances recently in the MSU ESRDC team have provided an impetus to continue these efforts.