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Dr. Santiago Grijalva is the Georgia Power Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the Georgia Tech Advanced Computational Electricity Systems (ACES) Laboratory. Dr. Grijalva is a Member of the Federal Smart Grid Advisory Committee of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The Committee advises the U.S. electricity industry on smart grid interoperability standards and frameworks, and on grid modernization.
Dr. Grijalva is a pioneer on decentralized power system control and energy internet, and a leading researcher on smart power systems and renewable energy integration. He has been the principal investigator for research projects under the U.S. Department of Energy, ARPA-E, EPRI, PSERC, NSF, several National Laboratories, and numerous industry sponsors. He has published 150 peer-reviewed papers.
Dr. Grijalva is Co-founder and Chairman of ProsumerGrid, Inc., a company that is developing innovative DER grid simulation software and decentralized energy markets and control systems.
Dr. Grijalva has combined background in computer science and electric power systems. He received his Electrical Engineer degree from EPN-Ecuador in 1994 and his MSc Certificate in Information Systems from ESPE-Ecuador in 1997. Dr. Grijalva’s MS (1999) and PhD (2002) degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering are from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he also completed a post-doctoral program in Energy Systems.
From 1994 to 1997, Dr. Grijalva was with the Ecuadorian National Control Center as an EMS Engineer and then Manager of the EMS Software Department. From 2002 to 2009, he was with PowerWorld Corporation developing commercial grade software for power system planning and optimization. He joined the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2009. From 2013 to 2014, he was with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as founding Director of the Power System Engineering Center (PSEC), where he supervised about 50 researchers and was responsible for the power system and grid integration research at the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF).
Dr. Grijalva has been the recipient of Fulbright, University of Illinois, and Organization of American States Fellowships, and recipient of several awards including the Georgia Tech ECE Outstanding Faculty Award, Great Minds in STEM National Achievement Award, More Than Smart Grid Disruptor Award, and the IBM Faculty Award.
- Large-scale power transmission and distribution optimization and control algorithms
- De-centralized prosumer-based power control architectures
- Ultra-reliable electricity internetworks
- Seamless integration of distributed energy resources
- Electricity markets design and power system economics
- Senior Member of IEEE (Power and Energy, Systems and Control, and Computer Engineering Societies)
- Member of CIGRE USNC
- Atlanta Smart Energy Society, Council Member
T. Hubert, S. Grijalva, "Advanced Modeling for Residential Electricity Optimization in Dynamic Pricing Environments", IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, Special Issue on Intelligent Buildings and Home Energy Management, December, 2012.
A. Roy, S. Grijalva, "Automated Handling of Arbitrary Switching Device Topologies in Planning Contingency Analysis: Towards Temporal Interoperability in Network Security Assessment", IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, December, 2012.
N. Ainsworth, M. Costley, J. Thomas, M. Jezierny, S. Grijalva: "Versatile Autonomous Smartgrid Testbed (VAST): A Flexible, Reconfigurable Testbed for Research on Autonomous Control for Critical Electricity Grids", in Proceedings of the North American Power Symposium, Champaign, IL, September 9-11, 2012.
S. Grijalva, “Individual Branch and Path Necessary Condition for Saddle-Node Bifurcation Voltage Collapse”, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 12-19, February. 2012.
S. Grijalva, "Multi-Scale, Multi-Dimensional Computational Algorithms for Next Generation Electric Power Grid", DOE Workshop on Computational Needs for Next Generation Electric Power Grid, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, April 18-20, 2011.
M.U. Tariq, S. Grijalva, M. Wolf, "Towards a Distributed, Service-Oriented Control Infrastructure for Smart Grid", ACM/IEEE Second International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems, Chicago, IL, April 11-14, 2011.
J. Liang, S. Grijalva, R. Harley, "Increased Wind Revenue and System Security by Trading Wind Power in Energy and Regulation Reserve Markets", IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 340-347, February, 2011.
S. Grijalva, M. Costley, "Prosumer-Based Smart Grid Architecture Enables a Flat, Sustainable Electricity Industry", IEEE PES Conference on Innovative Smart Grid Technologies (ISGT), Anaheim, California, January 17-19, 2011.
T. Hubert, S. Grijalva, "Realizing Smart Grid Benefits Requires Energy Optimization Algorithms at Residential Level", IEEE Conference on Innovative Smart Grid Technologies (ISGT), Anaheim, California, January 17-19, 2011.
S. Grijalva, "Direct Use of Planning Applications in the Real-time Environment", IEEE Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition, Chicago, USA, April 21-24, 2008.
S. Grijalva, A. Visnesky, "The Effect of Generation on Network Security: Spatial Representation, Metrics, and Policy", IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 21, No. 23, August 2006.
S. Grijalva, P.W. Sauer, "A Necessary Condition for Power Flow Jacobian Singularity based on Branch Complex Flows", IEEE Transactions on Circuits and System I, Vol. 52, No. 7, pp. 1406-1413, July 2005.
S. Grijalva, P.W. Sauer, "Identification of Weak Transmission Elements in Static Collapse Analysis", Proceedings of the Bulk Power System Dynamics and Control VI, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, August 22-27, 2004.
S. Grijalva, P.W. Sauer, J.D. Weber, "Enhancement of Linear ATC Calculations by the Incorporation of Reactive Power Flows Transfer Capability", IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 18, No. 2, May 2003.
S. Grijalva, P.W. Sauer, "Reactive Power Considerations in ATC Computation", International Journal of Decision Support Systems, Elsevier North Holland, Vol. 30, pp. 327-340, June 2001.
Last revised February 1, 2023
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