– 08/2022: Dr. Lu has moved to Purdue University as an Associate Professor. APECS appreciates all the support over the past four years. Looking forward to continuing our joint efforts in the foreseeable future!

– 08/2022: (Service) Dr. Lu serves as the Technical Program Co-Chair of IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE) 2023.

– 03/2022: (Publications) Featured Article! Our joint paper on “Grid-Forming Converters: Control Approaches, Grid-Synchronization, and Future Trends” has been recognized as the featured article in IEEE Open Journal of Industry Applications. Check out the details at the Publication page.

– 02/2022: (Awards) Dr. Lu is named as the Loretta C. Duckworth Faculty Fellow by Temple University for recognizing the scholarly achievements and significance of his work.

– 01/2022: (Service) Dr. Lu serves as the Chair of Industrial Power Converters Committee (IPCC), IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS), starting on Jan 1, 2022.

– 01/2022: (Welcome) APECS wish everyone a prosperous new year in 2022! We look forward to furthering our collaborations and interactions. Let’s continue our tremendous efforts in research, workforce training, and outreach!

– 01/2022: (Grants) We are excited to be part of the Universal Interoperability for Grid-Forming Inverters (UNIFI) consortium focusing on modeling, control and testing of grid-forming inverters, in collaboration with National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and 40+ academia and industry partners. Exciting work to come soon!

– 01/2022: (Welcome) Junhui Zhang joins our APECS group as a postdoc fellow. Welcome, Junhui!

– 12/2021: (Graduation) Dongsen, co-supervised by Dr. Liang Du and me, successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis on “Modeling, Design, and Control of Heterogeneous Inverter-based Power Distribution Networks with High DER Penetration” – next stop General Electric Global Research Center. Congrats, Dongsen!

– 11/2021: (Media) Together with the researchers in Civil Engineering, APECS shares our thoughts on the latest U.S. Infrastructure Bill. Check the media press here and see how the Bill could help the power grids!

– 11/2021: (Awards) Dr. Lu receives the Innovative Teaching Award sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT) and Charles Library at Temple University.

– 11/2021: (Service) Dr. Lu serves as the Power Electronics Society (PELS) Publication Liaison to IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid. 

– 11/2021: (Conferences) Dr. Lu serves as the Chairman of the Workshop on Microgrids, sponsored by the Technical Committee 8 (TC 8) on Electronic Power Grids under IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS). The efforts are also related to the Technical Thrust on Microgrids under PELS TC 8, also led by Dr. Lu.

– 10/2021: (Service) Dr. Lu serves as the Topic Chair on Control for IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) 2022.

– 10/2021: (Grants) We are excited to finalize the contract paperwork with National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to officially start our work on Plant-Level Stability Analysis of Hybrid PV + Battery Power Plants! Exciting work to come soon!

– 10/2021: (Papers) Our paper on large-signal stability analysis of inverter intensive dynamic microgrids has been accepted in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid. Congrats, Yuhua! See more details at the Publication tab.

– 10/2021: (Conferences) APECS attended IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE) 2021 and presented three papers to summarize our latest work on dynamic microgrids, privacy-preserving DC microgrids, and resilient coastal communities. Check out the details at the Publication tab!

– 10/2021: (Conferences) Dr. Lu served as the Special Session Chair of IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE) 2021 and coordinated the special session organizing activities for the total twenty-five sessions. Please find the twenty-five unique special sessions here with topics ranging from wide bandgap devices to inverter-interfaced distributed energy resources!

– 10/2021: (Conferences) APECS attended the Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON) 2021 and presented three papers to summarize our latest work on grid-forming inverters, model reduction, and PV system levelized cost of energy (LCOE) analysis. Check out the details at the Publication tab!

– 10/2021: (Conferences) Dr. Lu organized the Special Paper Session on “Resilient, Sustainable, and Secure Inverter Intensive Power Grids” at the Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON) 2021.

– 10/2021: (Awards) Lizhi receives the Vic Schutz Travel Awards from the College of Engineering, Temple University. Congrats, Lizhi!

 – 9/2021: (Service) Dr. Lu serves as the Publication and Tutorial Chair of IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE), 2022.

– 08/2021: (Media) Shifting the Solar Paradigm, check the latest college media press here for our most recent work on solar energy integration through grid-edge power electronics!

– 08/2021: (Outreach) Lizhi presented the work on grid-forming inverter controls in low-inertia power grids in the Brown Bag seminar series at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). We appreciate the opportunity! Congrats, Lizhi!

– 08/2021: (Conferences) Dr. Lu presented the work on dynamic microgrids for distribution system resiliency enhancement in the Panel Session ‘Natural Disaster Mitigation: Best Practice’ in IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM) 2021. The work is live now! Please see the details here. Our presentation starts at 59m:54s.

– 08/2021: (Papers) Our paper on privacy-preserving distributed average observers in distribution systems with grid-forming inverters has been accepted in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid. Congrats, Yuhua! See more details at the Publication tab.

– 08/2021: (Grants) Dr. Lu receives the grant from Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). APECS will join a diversified consortium (UNIFI) led by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to advance Grid-Forming Technologies, with special emphasis on the technical thrusts of modeling and control of grid-interactive inverters. See more details here.

– 08/2021: (Awards) Yuxi receives the IEEE ECCE 2021 Student Travel Grants. Congrats, Yuxi!

– 07/2021: (Service) Yuxi and Elliott serve as the Virtual Platform Co-chairs for the 4th IEEE International Conference on DC Microgrids, ICDCM 2021. 

– 07/2021: (Conferences) Dr. Lu presented our work on dynamic and networked microgrids in the Panel Session ‘Natural Disaster Mitigation: Best Practice’ in IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM) 2021. APECS shares our solutions of distribution system resiliency enhancement using inverter-dominated microgrids.

– 06/2021: (Service) Dr. Lu serves as the Guest Associate Editor of the Joint Special Issue on “Modeling and Control of Converter-Based Resources in Modern Power Systems”, which will be organized jointly in IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion and IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics. See more details here. 

– 06/2021: (Conferences) Dr. Lu is organizing a special paper session “Resilient, Sustainable, and Secure Inverter Intensive Power Grids” at the Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON) 2021, in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory and North Carolina State University. We specifically welcome the original research and overview papers on power electronics intensive power systems, with special emphases on resiliency, sustainability, and security enhancement! See more details here. 

– 06/2021: (Papers) Our paper on coastal community resiliency enhancement using inverter-interfaced marine energy resources is accepted in IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE), 2021. APECS collaborates with Argonne National Laboratory for the work in this paper. Congrats, Yuxi and Yuhua! See more details at the Publication tab.

– 06/2021: (Papers) Our paper on surplus consensus algorithm in DC microgrids secondary control is accepted in IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE), 2021. Congrats, Yuhua! See more details at the Publication tab.

– 06/2021: (Papers) Our paper on AI-aided grid-interactive inverter control is accepted in IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE), 2021. Congrats, Dongsen! See more details at the Publication tab.

– 06/2021: (Papers) Our paper on DC circuit breakers and coordinated protection in medium-voltage DC (MVDC) distribution systems is accepted for publication in IET Generation, Transmission, and Distribution. Congrats, Dongsen! See more details at the Publication tab.

– 06/2021: (Papers) Our paper on physics-based feature extraction from bulk PMU data for grid contingency detection is accepted in the ‘Best Paper‘ session in IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting (PES GM) 2021. APECS collaborates with Siemens Technology for the work covered in this paper. Congrats, Yuhua! See more details at the Publication tab.

– 06/2021: (Intern) Elliott received a summer intern position at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and will be working on microgrids and distribution operation with renewable energy integration. Congrats, Elliott!

– 05/2021: (Intern) Lizhi received a summer intern position at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and will be working on transient stability analysis of grid-forming (GFM) inverters. Congrats, Lizhi! 

– 05/2021: (Intern) Dongsen received a summer intern position at General Electric Global Research Center (GE GRC) and will be working on grid-integration of inverter-based renewable energy resources. Congrats, Dongsen!

– 05/2021: (Outreach and Conferences) Our tutorial is accepted by IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE) 2021! APECS will share our experience and insights on resiliency-oriented grid-interactive inverters together with National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and ABB. See more details here.

– 04/2021: (Papers) Our paper on AI-aided active stabilization of autonomous DC microgrids is accepted in ICDCM 2021! Congrats, Elliott and Yuxi! Special congrats to Elliott on his first paper in the first year of his PhD! See more details at the Publication tab.

– 04/2021: (Papers) Our co-authored review paper on Grid-Forming Inverters is accepted in IEEE Open Journal of Industry Applications (OJIA)!

– 04/2021: (Outreach and Conferences) Our tutorial is accepted by IEEE Power Electronics for Distributed Generation (PEDG) 2021! APECS will share our experience and insights on hybrid AC and DC networked microgrids together with Argonne National Laboratory and American Electric Power (AEP). See more details here.

– 04/2021: (Papers) Our paper on distribution system black-start using inverter-intensive dynamic microgrids is accepted in the IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics (JESTPE). Congrats, Yuhua!

– 03/2021: (Papers) Our technical report on inverter-dominated networked microgrids is published through Argonne National Laboratory. Congrats, Yuhua and Yuxi! Check the details here.

– 02/2021: (Papers) Six APECS papers are identified as Web of Science SCI Top 1% Publications. See more details at the Publication tab.

– 02/2021: (Grants) Dr. Lu receives two seedling grants from the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), U.S. Department of Energy, in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. APECS will design networked microgrids with grid-forming inverters leveraging marine energy resources!

– 02/2021: (Media) APECS shares our opinion and potential solutions of mitigating the impacts of severe weather events using networked microgrids with inverter-based grid-forming resources. Check the media press here.

– 02/2021: (Grants) Dr. Lu serves as the co-PI (PI: Liang Du) and receives a grant from Manufacturing PA Innovation Program. APECS will support the design of integrated controllers for electric vehicle charging.

– 02/2021: (Outreach) APECS co-hosts the invited lecture on ‘Digital Control in Power Electronics’ given by Prof. Paolo Mattavelli, in conjunction with the local industry-academia co-organized power electronics consortium PPPEAC.

– 01/2021: (Intern) Lizhi received an intern position at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and will be working on small-signal stability analysis of grid-forming inverters and the interactions between inverter-based resources and conventional synchronous generators. Congrats, Lizhi!

– 01/2021: (Welcome) APECS wish everyone a prosperous new year in 2021! We look forward to furthering our collaborations and interactions with every one of you. Let us continue our tremendous efforts in research, workforce training, and outreach!

– 11/2020: (Outreach) APECS co-hosts the invited lecture on ‘Bi-directional Wireless Power Transfer Technologies for V2G-H2V Applications’ given by Prof. Udaya K. Madawala, in conjunction with the local industry-academia co-organized power electronics consortium PPPEAC.

– 11/2020: (Grants) Dr. Lu receives three grants from Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), U.S. Department of Energy, in collaboration with National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), North Carolina State University (NCSU), and Clemson University, respectively. APECS will focus on grid-forming inverter control of hybrid power plants with solar + energy storage, data-driven behind-the-meter modeling, and solar inverter reliability modeling in these three projects. We look forward to starting the work soon in 2021!

– 11/2020: (Invited Talk) Dr. Jianzhe Liu introduces the joint research on reconfigurable coastal community microgrids for resiliency enhancement in the invited talk at INFORMS 2020. Thanks, Jianzhe!

– 11/2020: (Awards) Lizhi receives the Vic Schutz Travel Awards from the College of Engineering, Temple University. Congrats, Lizhi!

– 10/2020: (Book) Our book chapter on “Power System Operation with Power Electronic Inverter Dominated Microgrids” is published! See the book “New Technologies for Power System Operation and Analysis” published by Elsevier! 

– 10/2020 (Conferences) Dr. Lu and APECS students/postdoc Yuxi Men, Lizhi Ding, Dongsen Sun and Yuhua Du attends IEEE ECCE 2020. APECS presents five technical papers on various topics (dynamic microgrids, hybrid AC and DC distribution grids, grid-forming inverters, optimal inverter design, and inverter cost-benefit analysis), organized two special sessions on Power Electronics Intensive Power Systems and Electric Vehicles, and actively serves the conference committee as Vice Chair, Topic Chair, Session Chair, and student volunteers. Congrats, everyone!

– 09/2020: (Service) Dr. Lu serves as the Publication Chair of the 4^th IEEE International Conference on DC Microgrids (ICDCM) 2021

– 08/2020: (Intern) Elliott completes the Naval Research Enterprise Internship Program with the United States Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia 

– 08/2020: (Awards) Yuxi receives the IEEE ECCE 2020 Student Travel Grants. Congrats, Yuxi!

– 08/2020: (Welcome) Zenon Matychak joins our APECS group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome, Zen!

– 08/2020: (Conferences) Dr. Lu attends IEEE PES GM 2020 and gives a presentation on resilient distribution grids with cyber-physical-coupled dynamic microgrids in the panel session “Disaster Awareness, Preparedness and Restoration for Networked Microgrid Integrated Resilient Distribution Grid”

– 08/2020: (Grants) Dr. Lu receives a grant for undergraduate research from the College of Engineering, Temple University

– 08/2020: (Grants) Dr. Lu serves as the co-PI (PI: Liang Du) and receives a grant from Manufacturing PA Innovation Program. APECS will support the design of intelligent and networkable energy storage systems!

– 07/2020: (Service) Yuhua is invited to serve as the Reviewer Editor in Frontiers in Electronics. Congrats, Yuhua!

– 06/2020: (Service) Dr. Lu serves as the Technical Committee Member for IEEE COMPEL 2020

– 05/2020: (Papers) Our paper entitled “Distributed Average Observation in Inverter Dominated Dynamic Microgrids” is accepted by IEEE ECCE 2020. Congrats, Yuhua!

– 05/2020: (Papers) Our papers entitled “Optimal Design of PV Systems Considering Levelized Cost of Energy and Power Density” and “Optimal Design of Grid-Interactive Inverters Based on Harmonic State Space Modeling” are accepted by IEEE ECCE 2020. Congrats, Dongsen!

– 05/2020: (Papers) Our paper entitled “Region-based Stability Analysis of Resilient Distribution Systems with Hybrid Grid-forming and Grid-following Inverters” is accepted by IEEE ECCE 2020. Congrats, Lizhi!

– 05/2020: (Papers) Our paper entitled “Holistic Small-Signal Modeling and AI-Assisted Region-Based Stability Analysis of Autonomous AC and DC Microgrids” is accepted by IEEE ECCE 2020. Congrats, Yuxi!

– 05/2020: (Media) Elliott’s work on electrifying remote communities using inverter-dominated DC microgrids features in the college media press. Congrats, Elliott!

– 05/2020: (Graduation and Welcome) Elliott graduates from Temple University with his bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering and will continue his effort in our APECS group as a Ph.D. student. Welcome, Elliott!

– 03/2020: (Awards) Dr. Lu receives the IEEE Philadelphia Section Delaware Valley Young Electrical Engineer of the Year award for his contribution to power electronics intensive power systems. https://engineering.temple.edu/news/2020/03/prof-xiaonan-lu-named-ieee-philadelphia-section-delaware-valley-young-electrical

– 02/2020: (Conferences) Dr. Lu attends IEEE ISGT North America 2020 and co-hosts two panel sessions on resilient distribution systems with networked microgrids and inverter-dominated power grids

– 02/2020: (Awards) Elliott receives the Presidential University Fellowship Award from Temple University, which is the most prestigious fellowship award at the university level. Congrats, Elliott!

– 02/2020: (Papers) Our paper entitled “Dynamic Microgrids in Resilient Distribution Systems with Reconfigurable Cyber-Physical Networks” is accepted in the IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics (JESTPE). Congrats, Yuhua!

– 02/2020: (Conferences) Yuxi and Lizhi participate in the Temple University Graduate Student Research Competition and present our latest research progress on hybrid AC and DC microgrids and grid-forming inverter control

– 02/2020: (Grants) Dr. Lu receives a grant from the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), U.S. Department of Energy, in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory. APECS will design and implement a resilient coastal community distribution grids leveraging marine energy resources!

– 01/2020: (Outreach) Our magazine paper on publicizing APECS outreach activities (industry-academia co-organized PPPEAC consortium) is published in IEEE Power Electronics Magazine.

– 01/2020: (Services) Yuhua Du serves as the Topic Chair for the track: Control, Modeling, and Optimization of Power Converters in IEEE ECCE, 2020

– 12/2019: (Grants) Dr. Lu receives a grant from NETL, U.S. Department of Energy, in collaboration with Siemens Corporation and other academia and industry partners. APECS will apply machine-learning approaches in grid impedance estimation and modal analysis for grid events identification!

– 12/2019: (Service) Dr. Lu serves as the Publication Chair of IEEE ECCE 2020

– 11/2019: (Conferences) Dr. Lu attends the NSF Workshop on Power Electronics Enabled Operation of Power Systems hosted at Illinois Institute of Technology

– 11/2019: (Services) Dr. Lu serves as the Publicity Chair of the IEEE CyberPELS Workshop 2020.

– 11/2019: (Invited Talks) Dr. Lu is invited to give a talk at Oregon State University on “Resilient and Reconfigurable Distribution Systems Using Dynamic Microgrids with Cross-Layer Interdependencies in Cyber and Physical Networks”

– 10/2019: (Media) Our research on resilient grids features in the news! https://temple-news.com/temple-professors-research-to-help-reduce-the-effects-of-power-outages/

– 10/2019: (Invited Talks) Dr. Lu is invited to give a talk at the Grid Cybersecurity Workshop hosted by Princeton University and Siemens on cyber-physical-coupled dynamic microgrids for grid resiliency enhancement

– 10/2019: (Conferences) APECS members (Yuxi Men, Yuhua Du, and Dr. Lu) attend IEEE ECCE 2020 and presents our latest research progress on dynamic microgrids

– 10/2019: (Awards) Elliott takes first place in the Temple University Innovative Idea Competition. Congrats, Elliott!

– 09/2019: (Conferences) Dr. Lu attends the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Cyber-Physical Systems Security Workshop hosted by the University of Rhode Island and presented our poster on reconfigurable and resilient distribution systems with dynamic microgrids and interdependencies between cyber and physical networks.

– 09/2019: (Outreach) In conjunction with Magna Power Inc. and Princeton University, APECS co-organizes the local power electronics consortium, Princeton-Philadelphia Power Electronics Advancement Consortium (PPPEAC). APECS also co-hosts the consortium inaugural meeting.

– 09/2019: (Media) See how we contribute to resilient energy! https://engineering.temple.edu/news/2019/09/resilient-energy

– 09/2019: (Welcome) Yuhua Du joins our APECS group as a postdoc research fellow. Welcome, Yuhua!

– 08/2019: (Grants) Dr. Lu serves as the co-PI (PI: Liang Du) and receives a grant from Manufacturing PA Innovation Program. APECS will support in prognostic utility asset health monitoring!

– 08/2019: (Welcome) Lizhi joins our APECS group as a Ph.D. student. Welcome, Lizhi!

– 08/2019: (Conferences) Dr. Lu attends IEEE PES GM 2019 and co-hosts a panel session “Modeling and Control of Power Electronics Based Power Systems”

– 07/2019: (Conferences) Dr. Lu attends the 2019 DOE ARPA-E Summit and joins the team presentation to showcase our work on grid frequency regulation using flexible building-level demand response

– 07/2019: (Grants) Dr. Lu receives a grant from ARPA-E, U.S. Department of Energy, in collaboration with Drexel University and other academia and industry partners. APECS will design fault-tolerant operation of medium-voltage DC grids with resonant DC circuit breakers!

– 06/2019: (Papers) Our paper entitled “Reconfigurable and Dynamic Distribution Systems Enabled Using Self-Sustainable Minimal-Microgrids with Region-based Stability Guarantees” is accepted by IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), 2019. Congrats, Yuxi!

– 06/2019: (Welcome) Dakota Vadimsky joins our APECS group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome, Dakota!

– 06/2019: (Grants) Dr. Lu receives a grant for undergraduate research from the College of Engineering, Temple University

– 05/2019: (Graduation) James Lin graduates from the College of Engineering, Temple University, with his bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering (next stop Amtrak). Congrats, James!

– 04/2019: (Conference) Dr. Lu attends the workshop on “Grid-Forming Inverters for Low-Inertia Power Systems” hosted at the University of Washington

– 04/2019: (Invited Talks) Dr. Lu is invited to give a talk at Penn State University on resilient distribution systems with networked microgrids

– 03/2019: (Grants) Dr. Lu receives a grant from the Office of Electricity, U.S. Department of Energy, in collaboration with UT-Austin and other academia and industry partners. APECS will work on solid-state hybrid transformers and their grid-interactive operations!

– 02/2019: (Awards) Lizhi Ding receives the University Fellowship Award from Temple University and will join our APECS group in Fall 2019

– 01/2019: (Welcome) Dongsen joins our APECS as a co-supervised Ph.D. student. Welcome, Dongsen!

– 01/2019: (Welcome) Yuxi Men joins our APECS group as a Ph.D. student. Welcome, Yuxi!

– 10/2018: (Invited Talks) Dr. Lu is invited to give a talk at Siemens Corporate Research on modern distribution grids with inverter-dominated hybrid AC and DC microgrids

– 10/2018: (Grants) Dr. Lu receives grants from Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) U.S DOE in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory and other academia and industry partners. APECS will investigate and design next-generation resilient distribution systems with dynamic microgrids and hybrid AC and DC architectures. More innovations are coming!

– 09/2018: (Intern) Elliott interned abroad in Santiago, Chile, during the summer to work for a residential renewable energy company to get hands-on experience designing and installing solar panels, inverters, and energy storage systems

– 09/2018: (Conferences) Dr. Lu attends General Electric Electrify the Future Symposium

– 09/2018: (Conferences) Dr. Lu attends DOE Grid Modernization Lab Consortium (GMLC) Peer Review meeting

– 09/2018: (Welcome) Elliott Fix joins our APECS group as an undergraduate student researcher. Welcome, Elliott!

– 09/2018: (Grants) Dr. Lu receives grants from Argonne National Laboratory. APECS will design frequency regulation strategies using building microgrids with dynamic demand response and also conduct a holistic cost-benefit and reliability analysis of grid-interactive solar inverters!

– 08/2018: (Welcome) James Lin joins our APECS group as an undergraduate student researcher. Welcome, James!

– 07/2018: (Welcome) Dr. Xiaonan Lu joins the College of Engineering, Temple University, as an Assistant Professor, and founds the Advanced Power Electronics (APECS) group!