The Power and Energy Systems Area committee and associated faculty for the 2021-2022 academic year together with their fields of interest are:

• Arijit Banerjee (electromechanical energy conversion system, electrical machines and drives, electric propulsion systems, robotic actuators, electric transportation, electrical machines and drive systems, power and energy systems, power electronics)
• Subhonmesh Bose (networked dynamical systems, renewable integration, strategic interaction in electricity markets, operation and control of power systems, distributed algorithms, dynamics and stability of power systems, energy system economics and public policy, networked control systems, operation and control of power systems, stochastic systems and control)
• Alejandro Dominguez-Garcia (dynamic reconfiguration of systems for fault tolerance and mitigation, dynamics and stability of power systems, energy storage conversion, management, and control, fault tolerance and reliability, impact of intermittent renewable resources on dynamic operation and economics, intelligent devices and controls for electricity grids, interactions between computer networks and power networks, including cyber security, analysis, and design, operation and control of power systems, power and energy systems, power electronics, reliable and robust control, system design for reliability)
• George Gross  – (large-scale system analysis and computing, Energy economics; effective bio-fuel applications for electricity, Electricity planning and analysis; power system operations; competitive electricity markets and auction mechanisms; transmission services and pricing; ancillary services; congestion management; reliability and security assessment; integration of renewable, demand response and storage resources into the grid; battery vehicles and the grid issues; battery vehicle management, control, communications and cyber security topics; big data issues in power systems; data center electricity supply reliability economics and environmental issues; demand response resource analysis and evaluation; cyber-security for the power grid; energy policy and economics; energy sustainability; environmental aspects of power system planning and operations; microgrid analysis and implementatiob;and restructuring of the electricity business)
• Kiruba Haran (electric transportation – air, marine, rail, road, wind – offshore turbines, direct-drives, oil & gas electrical equipment – esp’s, subsea, applied superconductivity – motors, generators, mri magnets, monitoring and diagnostics with electrical signatures)
• Phil Krein (Emeritus) (electric machinery and electromechanics, power and energy systems, power electronics, energy-efficient buildings, transportation electrification)
• Pete Sauer (Emeritus) (electrical machines and drive systems, power and energy systems, cyber security of power systems, energy management systems, power system stability, dynamic modeling and simulation)
• Andrew Stillwell (efficient energy management and conversion for lighting, communications, information technology, transportation, and appliances; energy storage conversion, management, and control; gallium nitride power semiconductors; power and energy systems; power electronics)
• Richard Zhang (control; power and energy systems; robotics, vision, and artificial intelligence; signal processing)

As one of seven major areas in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Power and Energy Systems Area is responsible for the development and offering of a considerable number of courses. The current courses assigned to the power area are described briefly below.

ECE 298 ABS- Special Topics – Solar Car
The course objective is to show students that a multidisciplinary understanding is essential to create a complex system. UIUC’s own Solar Car “Argo” is the example. The course covers high-level aspects of the design, construction, analysis, and economics of solar-powered electric vehicles. Topics bridge a variety of engineering disciplines integrated with business to present an overview highlighting complexities of solar-powered vehicles. Students are expected to gain hands-on experience working with the Solar Car Team to build the next solar car. In-class presentations provide a platform for individuals to convey ideas and contributions to a broad set of multidisciplinary audience.

ECE 307 – Techniques for Engineering Decisions
This three-hour course is concerned with modeling decisions and modeling analysis of models to develop a systematic approach to making decisions. The focus is on developing techniques for solving typical problems faced in making engineering decisions in industry and government. Topics include resource allocation, logistics, scheduling, sequential decision making, siting of facilities, investment decisions and other problems for decision making under uncertainty. Extensive use of case studies gets students involved in real-world decisions. Prerequisite: ECE 210; credit or concurrent registration in ECE 313.

ECE 330 – Power Circuits and Electromechanics
This course provides power and energy fundamentals including sinusoidal steady-state circuit analysis, complex power, power factor correction, three-phase circuits, per-phase analysis, mutual inductance, and transformers. It also includes fundamental concepts in energy conversion including forces and torques of electric origin, energy conversion cycles, concepts of dynamic equilibrium points, basic spring-mass mechanics, and principles of electric machines, transducers, and relays. Prerequisite: ECE 210.

ECE 333 – Green Electric Energy
The course focus is on the technical, economic and environmental aspects of renewable energy systems with the aim to obtain an understanding of their role in meeting society’s electricity needs in sustainable ways. The main course goals are to provide students with an overview of renewable electric energy systems, acquaint students with key basic physical principles used in renewable energy generation, expose students to the technical and engineering challenges in the implementation of renewable energy projects, stress the environmental and societal benefits from the deployment of renewable resources and understand the criticality of economics − including the role of incentives and the harnessing of market forces – and policy formulation to bring about deeper penetrations of renewable resources. Prerequisite: ECE 205 or ECE 210.

ECE 431 – Electric Machinery
This course is a senior or beginning-graduate level elective for electrical and computer engineering majors. The goals are to impart an understanding of electromechanics from theoretical and experimental bases. The successful student will be able to explain how a given electromechanical devices works, and justify the explanation mathematically. Further, the student should be able to conceive a device that is capable of meeting performance criteria, though detailed design is not part of the course. The student should also be able to understand and articulate a broad range of application areas, including emerging areas. Prerequisite: ECE 330.

ECE 432 – Advanced Electric Machinery
This course presents advanced rotating machine theory and practice, dynamic analysis of machines using reference frame transformations, tests for parameter determination, reduced order modeling of machines; mechanical subsystems including governors, prime movers, excitation systems, and digital simulation of inter-connected machines. Prerequisite: ECE 431.

ECE 464 – Power Electronics
This course presents fundamentals of circuits for electrical energy processing. Discusses power electronics as a vital enabler for future energy. Switching converter principles, harmonics, pulse-width modulation, phase control, and phase modulation, dc-dc, ac-dc, and dc-ac, power converters. Alternative and renewable energy applications. High-performance power supply circuits. Power components, including capacitors, magnetic components and power semiconductor switching devices. Considerations in solar, wind, and fuel cell power. Prerequisite: ECE 342.

ECE 469 – Power Electronics Laboratory
Laboratory study of electronic circuits and devices for conversion and control of energy; discussion of electrical properties of batteries, solar cells, motors, and loudspeakers; design, operation, testing, and applications of ac-dc, dc-dc, and dc-ac switching converters; design and evaluation of magnetic components; power supply design project, including considerations such as heat transfer, control, and device behavior; alternative energy systems and power electronics applications to LED lighting, audio amplifiers, and electric and hybrid vehicles. Prerequisite: ECE 443; credit or concurrent registration in ECE 464.

ECE 476 – Power System Analysis
Modeling of electric power systems, and the analysis of models for planning, operations and control. Basic principles in phasor representation, complex power, balanced three-phase, and per-phase analysis. Transmission-line parameter computation, including conductor bundling, and transposition. Transmission-line models, and power handling capabilities of transmission lines. Modeling of generators, transformers, and loads. Power flow problem formulation and solution methods, decoupled power flow and dc power flow simplifications. Generation control, economic dispatch and restructuring. Short-circuit analysis, unbalanced system operation, and system protection. Transient stability problem formulation, swing equation, and equal-area criterion. Prerequisite: ECE 330.

ECE 490 – Introduction to Optimization
Basic theory and methods for the solution of optimization problems; iterative techniques for unconstrained minimization; linear and nonlinear programming with engineering applications. Course Information: Same as CSE 441. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: ECE 220 and MATH 415.

ECE 530 – Analysis Techniques for Large-Scale Electrical Systems
This course presents fundamental techniques for the analysis of large-scale electrical systems, including methods for nonlinear and switched systems. Emphasis on the importance of the structural characteristics of such systems. Key aspects of static and dynamic analysis methods. Prerequisite: ECE 464 and ECE 476.

ECE 554 – Dynamic System Reliability
There is a wide range of applications in which it is important to include a model of the system dynamics when assessing overall system behavior in the presence of component faults, and therefore reliability. In this regard, this course provides a unified view of reliability and dynamic performance evaluation for large-scale and complex systems, building on system-theoretic modeling, analysis, and design techniques. Design methods for reliability are discussed, including architecture design; and filter-based fault detection and isolation. Techniques for design optimization are discussed, including analytical methods for optimal redundancy allocation, and sensitivity analysis methods for iterative system design. A wide range of application examples are discussed, including mechatronic systems used in aircraft and automotive; power electronics systems, and electric power systems. Same as ME 544. Prerequisite: ECE 313 and ECE 515, or permission of instructor.

ECE 568 – Modeling and Control of Electromechanical Systems
Fundamental electrical and mechanical laws for derivation of machine models; simplifying transformations of variables in electrical machines; power electronics for motor control; time-scale separation; feedback linearization and nonlinear control as applied to electrical machines. Typical electromechanical applications in actuators, robotics, and variable speed drives. Prerequisite: ECE 431 and ECE 515.

ECE 573 – Power Systems Operations and Control
This course presents an overview of power system operations and control, lays out the basic objectives of security and economics in power system operations and control, discusses the security analysis framework and the role of the energy management system. The course covers the key scheduling tasks in power system operations and control from optimal power flows to resource scheduling and commitment, their solution schemes and implementational issues. In addition, state estimation and observability analysis are treated. Key aspects of electricity restructuring, including electricity market structures and design, congestion management, locational marginal prices and ancillary services, are analyzed.

ECE 576 – Power System Dynamics and Stability
This course studies detailed aspects of power system operations and control, scheduling, and steady state security assessment and operations in the competitive environment. The emphasis is on the analytic and computational aspects of problems that arise in system operations and control. Papers of interest are reviewed and discussed. Course Information: Prerequisite: ECE 476; credit or concurrent registration in ECE 530.

ECE 588 – Electricity Resource Planning
This course presents an overview of power system planning and discusses the methodologies for reliability evaluation and assessment, production and marginal costing supply- and demand-side planning, system expansion and planning under competition. The basic principles and processes of resource planning and the effects of uncertainty and their modeling using probabilistic analysis are discussed. Throughout the key aspects of reliability and economics and the trade-offs among them are covered. The course analyzes the impacts of competitive environment on planning decisions the application of financial tools in planning. Prerequisite: MATH 415, ECE 313, and ECE 476.

ECE 590 I Seminar: Power Systems
This course is a graduate seminar on advanced topics of current interest. Both faculty and students participate by presenting either current research results or topics of interest in journal publications. Guest speakers from industry and other universities are also scheduled periodically throughout the semester. 

ECE 598 KSH: Electrical Machine Design
Technologies, such as advanced materials, manufacturing processes and power electronics, can open up the design space for new electrical machine solutions aimed at emerging applications in the transportation, energy, and industrial sectors. To take full advantage of these developments, engineers need to be well versed in the multidisciplinary design process for electrical machines, with a good understanding of complex trade-offs that span multiple disciplines. They must also be comfortable with both analytical and numerical tools and know when to apply these to obtain the best results. The course attempts to prepare electrical and mechanical engineers for this opportunity by focusing on practical design considerations. It builds on fundamentals covered in ECE 330 and 431 and takes students through the design of a variety of electromechanical devices. Fundamental principles of energy conversion applicable to all types of electric machinery are first reviewed. Basic design rules, analytical formulae and the use of numerical design tools are then introduced, and experience is gained through a hands-on design project.

The four-hundred level courses are advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate courses, while the five hundred level courses are graduate. The Power and Energy Systems Area Committee periodically evaluates each course outline for possible revision for future offering.