Texas Tech University

Current Projects

 

Autonomous Grid-forming Inverters Enabled by Always-on Universal Droop Control without External Communication or Phase-Locked Loops 

The purpose of this project is to develop autonomous grid-forming inverters with an always-on function to avoid trip-off and blackouts in the event of grid faults. The inverter will also provide autonomous re-synchronization/re-connection with the grid while supplying local loads, black start capability without the help of a generator, grid-forming features without communication networks or a phase-locked loop (PLL), and friendly interaction with the grid.

An Optimum Power-Aware Auto-Scale Datacenter with Limited Renewable Energy Resources 

This research introduces the PSDC (Power-Aware Smart Data Center) model. The PSDC predicts faults caused by a power outage in HPC by analyzing factors and measurements of green energy resources, weather, data center, and workloads; and avoiding them using checkpointing technology. The PSDC model customizes the scale of a data center based on its available energy at a time window.

Drone-based Renewable Energy Inspection System 

This project focuses on the testing and development of a renewable energy inspection system. The system uses a semi-automatic quadrotor unmanned aerial system (UAS) to carry visible light and infrared cameras to capture images of the installation. Upon acquiring the data, specialized software is used to analyze the pictures to detect physical and/or electrical damage.

Summer Internships for High School

GLEAMM is participating in the Research & Engineering Apprenticeship program (REAP). REAP is an Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) to provide high school students from underserved and underrepresented populations a summer internship-like work experience. Exceptional students accepted into this program, work under the supervision of faculty members and student mentors to complete a technical project in a variety of areas including electrical engineering, chemical engineering, and biology to name a few.

DoD Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP)

The project proposes a management solution for microgrids and smart buildings capable of controlling clusters of dispersed buildings and distributed energy resources. The project goals include a hardened, secure, scalable, interoperable, cost-efficient architecture for networked building management to enable operations and communications with critical loads.

Critical Infrastructure Security Training Programs (Wagner-Peyser)

Texas Tech University was awarded a total of $482,415.00 by the State of Texas to develop a set of training modules for workforce development. Training course topics included cyber-security, OpalRT real-time simulation, and renewable energy systems grid integration. The project was very successful and generated many positive reviews which led to follow-up funding from the State. The second round of funding obtained amounts to $​349,959.00. The funding will be used to further strengthen the training modules previously developed and to develop new ones for a new generation of students.