Grainger Associate and William L. Everitt Scholar in Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Alejandro Dominguez-Garcia aims to create super-resilient power systems using 100% renewable energy sources. His achievements have recently been recognized with an elevation to IEEE Fellow for contributions to distributed control and uncertainty analysis of electrical energy systems. This is a prestigious honor, reserved for IEEE members with extraordinary technical accomplishments in an IEEE field of interest.
Written by Eleanor Wyllie
Grainger Associate and William L. Everitt Scholar in Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Alejandro Dominguez-Garcia aims to create super-resilient power systems using 100% renewable energy sources. His achievements have recently been recognized with an elevation to IEEE Fellow for contributions to distributed control and uncertainty analysis of electrical energy systems. This is a prestigious honor, reserved for IEEE members with extraordinary technical accomplishments in an IEEE field of interest.
Professor Alejandro Dominguez-Garcia
Dominguez-Garcia’s research focuses on providing a reliable and efficient energy supply in our changing world. Our electricity infrastructure is transforming, driven by the integration of new technologies and renewable energy sources. However, this transformation comes with challenges. In Dominguez-Garcia’s research on uncertainty analysis, his team develops mathematical frameworks to quantify the impact of random events on power system reliability. Renewable energy systems are a good example of this: uncertainty analysis can help predict how variations in solar and wind power will affect your energy system. Another example is transmission line failures, which can jeopardize system operational reliability.
“I really want to explore how we realize power systems with 100% renewables, such as solar and wind, based on generation and small-scale storage assets interfaced with the grid via power electronics,” Dominguez-Garcia comments. “How do you operate systems like that without any fossil fuel-based generation? I look at designing the controls for those systems and also understanding their behavior.”
His other core research focus is microgrids. Microgrids are an example of distributed control: smaller subsets of traditional power grids, with local integration and independence from the rest of the system. Users of these grids can consume the power they generate locally. Microgrids provide a way to build resilience into our power systems and can potentially be used as part of rural electrification in countries with limited infrastructure. They also have applications for disaster relief: if a natural disaster wipes out the physical infrastructure of the main power grid, you can rely on microgrids to provide power in certain locations.
Dominguez-Garcia credits the collegial environment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering for his elevation to IEEE Fellow. He feels supported by colleagues in the Power & Energy Systems Area, notably his nominator Professor Kiruba Haran and his mentor, the late Professor Pete Sauer, “the one who made all these things happen for me,” and to whom he dedicates this IEEE recognition.
When asked what inspires him, Dominguez-Garcia comments: “I think learning is the part that drives me. Every time you're working on a new problem, you're learning something new. Whether or not you're successful, if you have learned something on a particular project, that's exciting.”
Dominguez-Garcia is also a Research Professor in the Coordinated Science Laboratory and the Information Trust Institute.