Electric Power System Group

Bio

Educational Background

  • Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
  • MS, Electrical Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
  • B.S. (Honors), Electrical Engineering, Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, India

Research Interests

  • Reliability and Security of Electric Power Systems
  • System Reliability Theory and Applications
  • Modeling renewable energy and cyber-physical interactions

Graduate Students

  • Current Graduate Students:
    • Ph.D: 3
  • Past Graduate Students:
    • Ph.D: 31
    • Masters: 24

Experience:

Educational:

 

  • University Distinguished Professor, Regents Professor, Irma Runyon Chair Professor, 2021- Present
  • Regents Professor, Irma Runyon Chair Professor, 2015- Present
  • Interim Head, Regents Professor, Irma Runyon chair professor, 2012- 2015
  • Regents Professor, Irma Runyon chair professor, 2007- 2012
  • Regents Professor, J.W. Runyon Professor September 2005-2006
  • Professor & Head, Electrical & Computer Engineering, May 1997- August 2005
  • Professor & Director, Electric Power Institute, 1992-1997.
  • Professor& Associate Head, Electrical Engineering, Texas A& M University, College Station, Texas, 1986-1992.
  • Professor, Electrical Engineering, Texas A& M University, College Station, TX, September 1984 – 1986
  • Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering, Texas A& M University, College Station, TX, September 1981 – September 1984
  • Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, September 1978 – August 1981

Government:

  • Director, Power Systems Program at the National Science Foundation, 1995-1996.  Managed the power systems program and designed and implemented a new initiative, “Innovative Power Education in a Changing Environment”.

Industrial:

  • Vice President, Associated Power Analysts, Inc., 1980-Present
  • Senior Research Officer, Research & Development Division, Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Communication, Canada, July 1973- September 1978
  • Indian Railway Service of Engineers (Joined through All India UPSC Exam, scoring first rank in Electrical Engineering and second in over all).
  • Punjab State Electricity Board, India.

Consultant:

  • California ISO;
  • Central Electrical Agency, India;
  • Edmonton Power, Canada;
  • Electric Reliability Council of Texas;
  • Electric Power Research Institute ;
  • Eletrobras, Brazil;
  • ESKOM, South Africa;
  • General Electric Co.;
  • Houston Lighting & Power Co.;
  • Korea Electric Power Co.;
  • Korea Power Exchange;
  • Korea Power Systems Reliability Research Center;
  • Manitoba Hydro, Canada;
  • MCI Communications;
  • Mid Continent Area Power Pool;
  • MAPPCOR;
  • Ministry of Transportation & Communications, Ontario, Canada;
  • NE-ISO (New England ISO);
  • NYISO   (New York ISO);
  • Power Comp Associates Ltd, Saskatoon, Canada;
  • Sandia National Labs;
  • Saskatchewan Power Corporation, Regina, Canada
  • SOHIO, ARCO & EXXON;
  • Stone and Webster;
  • Taiwan Power Corporation;
  • Texas Utilities;
  • Urban Transportation Development Corporation, Ltd., Kingston, Ontario, Canada

External Awards

  • Elected to US National Academy of Engineering, “For advancement of theory, practice, and education in electric power system reliability”
  • IEEE Power Engineering Society 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the education, research and industrial adoption of reliability theory and practice in large power systems. 
  • Member, Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas.
  • Elected to Foreign Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering.
  • Elected Foreign Fellow of Chinese Society of Electrical Engineering.
  • Awarded the Professor Visitante Especial  by the Brazilian Research Council.
  • Technical Committee (AMPS)  Prize paper Award for “Non-Sequential Monte Carlo Simulation for Cyber-Induced Dependent Failures in Composite Power System Reliability Evaluation”, (Co-recipient with my former student Hangtian Lei).
  • Technical Committee Prize Paper Award for the Transactions paper, “Generating Capacity Reliability Evaluation Based on Monte Carlo Simulation and Cross-Entropy Methods.” (Co-recipient with Brazilian colleagues Armando Leite da Silva and Reinaldo Fernandez), 2011.
  • Inaugural recipient of IEEE-PES Roy Billinton Power System Reliability Award, for “Contributions to the methodological developments, education and practice of power system reliability evaluation”, 2010
  • Guest Professor, Tsinghua University, Department of Electrical Engineering (State Key laboratory of the Control and Simulation of Power System and Generation Equipment ), April, 2010-2015
  • PMAPS Merit Award 2008 – Life long achievement award by the Probabilistic Methods Applied to Power Systems International Society (PMAPS), “for developing probabilistic methods for power systems”.
  • IEEE Power Engineering Society, “Electric Delivery System Reliability Tutorial Award”, 2007.
  • IEEE Power Engineering Society, “Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award”, 1998 for “Innovative Leadership in Power Engineering Education”.
  • Doctor of Science (peer evaluated) “For research contributions”, by the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, May 1997
  • IEEE/PES Outstanding Working Group Award – 1997.
  • IEEE/PES Technical Committee Prize Paper Award for “Pooling Generating Unit Data for Improved Estimates of Performance Indices,” 1997.
  • Elected Fellow of IEEE for “Contributions to Theory and Applications of Quantitative Reliability Methods in Electric Power Systems’’, 1991
  • Ross Medal of the Engineering Institute of Canada for the best Electrical Engineering paper for 1972, “The Frequency and Duration Method of Generating Capacity Reliability Evaluation”, Transactions of EIC, Vol. 15, No. C-1, March 1972.
  • Gold Medal of the Punjab University for being the overall top most student amongst all branches of engineering and in all affiliated colleges in the graduating class.
  • Gold Medal of the Punjab Engineering College, for the top-most student in Electrical Engineering.

Internal University Awards

  • Outstanding ECEN Professor, 2017
  • Distinguished Electrical Engineering Professor, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Student Chapter, 2004. This was a special award by the student chapter given for the first time.
  • Appointed to J.W. Runyon, jr. ’35 Professorship II
  • Named Texas A&M System Regents Professor, Texas A&M System, December 2001.
  • Awarded the AFS, University Level Distinguished Award in Research (Highest university award in research), TAMU, 1997.
  • Dresser Professorship, for excellence in research and education 1992-1993.
  • Halliburton Professorship for excellence in research and education, 1986–1987.
  • Senior TEES Fellow, for excellence in research 1989-present.
  • TEES Fellow, for excellence in research 1987-89.

Professional Licenses

  • Registered Professional Engineer, State of Texas

Editorship

  • Editorial Advisory Board, Microelectronics & Reliability, Pergamon Press Editorial Board (1978-1996)
  • Editorial Advisory Board, Electric Machines and Power Systems
  • Editorial Advisory Board, International Journal of Emerging Electric Power Systems (IJEEPS)
  • European Transactions on Electric Power (ETEP)
  • Editor, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems
  • Editor,IEEE Power letters

Professional Society Membership

  • Life Fellow – IEEE

Professional Committee Membership

  • Member – IEEE Fellows Committee, Effective January 2010 – Jan 2013.
  • IEEE Press Editorial Board, 2004–2006.
  • Member – International Technical Advisory Committee, PMAPS, 2004,2005 
  • International Advisory Committee, IEEE DRPT 2004, 2003 – Present
  • Chair – IEEE-PES Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award Committee, 2003-2005
  • Member – International Advisory Committee, PowerCon 2002 
  • Chair – Life Long Learning Sub-Committee, IEEE-PES, 2000-2003
  • Member – Power Engineering Education Committee, 1999-Present
  • PES Liaison to IEEE Press Board, 1999-2005
  • Chair – History Committee, IEEE-PES, 1998-Present
  • Chair – Reliability Risk & Probability Applications Subcommittee, IEEE-PES, 1996-2001
  • Chair – Application of Probability Methods Subcommittee, IEEE-PES, 1995-1996
  • Chairman – Energy Technology Assessment Committee, 1988-1985, IEEE Reliability Society
  • Member – APM-PES Task Force on Bulk Power System Reliability
  • Member – APM-PES Task Force for Bibliography on Application of Probability
  • Member – APM-PES Task Force on Protection System Reliability
  • Member – APM-PES Task Force on Bulk Power Indices
  • Member – APM-PES Task Force on Generator Data Pooling
  • Member – APM-PES Task Force on Probability Methods Applied to Determine Criteria
  • Member – IEEE Energy Committee (Reliability Society Representative)
  • Member – IEEE History Committee
  • Member – IEEE Press Board for Power Systems Engineering
  • Member – IEEE-PES, Renewable Resources and Energy Storage Committee
  • Member – IEEE-PES, Recognition Working Group of Power Systems Engineering Committee
  • Member – Planning Committee of Power Distribution Conference
  • Member – Power System Reliability Subcommittee, IEEE-IAS

Invited Lectures and Short Courses

  1. Invited to talk to the Society of Reliability Engineers, Toronto Chapter, 1978.
  2. Power System Reliability Evaluation, American Society for Quality Control, 36th Annual Quality Congress, Detroit, May 1982.
  3. Advanced Power System Reliability, a 5-day short course, July 18 – July 22, 1983, given at Pontificia Universidad Catholica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the invitation of ELETROBRAS.  The course was attended by University professors, graduate students and power system engineers from all across Brazil.
  4. Invited to deliver a special lecture, “Power System Reliability:  A Status Report” at The National Systems Conference Sept. 1983, at Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, Trivandrum India.  
  5. Power System Reliability’, a 2-day short course, 1985, at Saskatchewan Power Corporation, Regina, Canada.
  6. Power System Reliability Evaluation, a 5-day short course, 1986, at ESPOL, Guayaquil, Ecuador.
  7. Power System Reliability’, an eight day short course, 1987, at University of Bari, Italy.
  8. Analytical Models for Generation Reliability, Lecture, 1987, Yugoslavia.
  9. Generation System Reliability, 2-day seminar, 1988, at MAPP, Minneapolis.  
  10. Invited lecturer at University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska.
  11. Reliability in Design, Seoul, Korea, 1989.
  12. Bulk Power Reliability, Tutorial at 1990 Winter Power Meeting.
  13. Bulk Power Reliability, Tutorial at 1990 Summer Power Meeting.
  14. Multi-Node Reliability Evaluations, July 1991, NSF Workshop on Uncertainty in Power Systems, University of Oklahoma.
  15. Multi-Area Reliability Using NARP, Tutorial for ERCOT, Feb. 1992.
  16. Generation System Reliability, A two-day short course to Manitoba Hydro, Winnipeg, Canada, June 1992.
  17. Power System Reliability, Short course to engineers from Korea Electric Power Company.
  18. Power System Reliability,” one day short course sponsored by the IEEE Delhi, India Section, Jan. 9, 1993.
  19. Distribution System Reliability, A half day short course to Central Power Research Institute, Bangalore, India, Jan. 1993.
  20. Reliability of Interconnected Power Systems, A half day short course to the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, Jan 1993.
  21. Power System Reliability, A half day short course to Taiwan Power Corporation, Taiwan, March 1993.
  22. Power System Reliability Issues, ABB, TTI, Raleigh, NC, May 1993.
  23. Methods for Detection of Equipment Aging and Incorporation it in the Reliability Analysis, S. Asgarpoor, NSF Symposium on Power Systems Infrastructure, Pullman, Washington, Oct. 27-29, 1994.
  24. Power System Reliability, A five day short course to ESKOM, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1995.
  25. Substations Reliability, Short course to engineers of Korea Electric Power Company, 1995.
  26. Invited to participate in Vice-President (Al Gore) Symposium on the Power Systems for Next Generation of Vehicle, held in the White House Conference Center, Washington, DC, 1996.
  27. Invited to participate in the workshop, “AI Techniques Applied to Electrical Distribution Systems,” Indian Institute of Tech, Kanpur, India, December 1996.
  28. Invited lecture, “Some Non-traditional Approaches to Accelerating the Monte Carlo Simulation for the Reliability Evaluation of Electric Power Systems”, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia, December, 2000.
  29. Invited lecture, “Impact of Deregulation on Power System Reliability “, Frontiers of Power Conference, Oklahoma State University, October, 2001
  30. Invited lecture, “Impact of Restructuring on Power System Reliability”, Grainger Distinguished Lecture, University of Washington, Seattle, May 3, 2002.
  31. Invited tutorial, “Power Quality and Reliability”, IICPE 2004, Bombay, India
  32. Invited keynote, Exploring Intelligent System Methodologies in Power System reliability Analysis”, National Power Systems Conference, 2004, Chennai, India.
  33. Invited lecture, “Current Research Topics”, Korea Power Systems Reliability Research Center’s Retreat, 2005, Jeju Island,Korea
  34. Invited lecture, “Restructuring Of Power Industry: Present & Future Issues And Implications For Reliability”,  Korea Power Systems Reliability Research Center’s Retreat, 2005, Jeju Island, Korea
  35. Invited lecture, “Restructuring Of Power Industry: Present & Future Issues And Implications For Reliability”,  KPX (Korea Power Exchange), 2005, Seoul,,Korea
  36. “Short Tutorial on Power Systems Reliability”, Hanyang University & Korea University, 2005, Seoul, Korea
  37. Invited 4 day short course,” Power System Reliability Analysis”, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, January 2006.
  38. Invited half day tutorial at IEEE Power Transmission & Distribution Conference and Exposition, Dallas, TX, May, 2006.
  39. Invited half day tutorial at IIT Delhi, Power System Reliability Evaluation Using Monte Carlo Methods, IIT Delhi, Dec 2006
  40. Invited plenary talk, Multidisciplinary Planning and Operation of Power Systems including Renewable Energy Sources, NPSC-2006, IIT Roorkee, India.
  41. Invited talk, More Graduates and higher Quality through Curriculum Redesign, TETC Best Practices Conference, March 2007, Austin.
  42. A 3-day short course on Power System reliability, California ISO , September, 2007
  43. Invited lecture, Arizona State University, Role Of Artificial Intelligence In The Reliability Evaluation of Electric Power Systems, Oct 25, 2008.
  44. Keynote address at the International Conference on Reliability and Safety (INCRESE 2007), December, Udaipur, India.
  45. A 3-day short course on Power System Reliability to MAPCOR, Minneapolis, March 17-19, 2008.
  46. Key Note speech at The 2008 Academic Conference on Power System Operational Reliability, May 18-21, 2008, Beijing, China.
  47. Invited lecture, “Operational Reliability: Issues, Challenges and Possibilities”, Tsighua University, May 21, 2008, China.
  48. Invited  8 day short course on Power System Reliability at Tsinghua University, Beijing, May 11 to May 21, 2009
  49. Invited  lecture, Reliability Issues in Power System Planning and Operations including Renewable Resources, IEEE Chapter Singapore, September, 2009
  50. Invited keynote lecture, Reliability Issues In Power System Operations and Planning with Renewable Energy Sources, 2009 ELECO, Nov 2009, Bursa, Turkey
  51. Invited key note, Reliability Issues in Operations and Planning with renewable Energy Sources, ISSE-2009, December, Tokyo
  52. Invited lecture at Meiji University in Japan, Impact of Wind farm Diversification on Reliability, Dec, Meiji University,2009 December, Japan
  53. Invited lecture, An Alternative to Monte Carlo Simulation, A search Based on Intelligent Search, Waseda University, Japan, 2009
  54. Invited Tutorial, with Joydeep Mitra, Reliability of Sustainable Energy Systems, 2009 ICPS, Dec 2009, Kharagpur, India ( I could not attend but provided my power point and Joydeep made the presentation)
  55. Invited lecture, Reliability Issues in Power System Operations and Planning with Renewable Energy Sources, Tsinghua University, Sept, 2010.
  56. Invited keynote speech, Reliability Assurance of Emerging Cyber Physical  Power Systems, APEEC 2011, Whuhan, China, March,2011.
  57. A two day short course on power system reliability, New England ISO, May 2011,
  58. Invited seminar at Shanghai Jiao tong University, Reliability Assurance of Emerging Cyber-Physical Power Systems, Shanghai  ,China, march 2012.
  59. Invited seminar at China Southern Grid Research Institute, Integrating Wind Power into Power Grid and its Reliability Impact, Guangzhou, China , September 17-18, 2012
  60. Invited seminar at Tsinghua University, 2013
  61. Invited lecture at ICRMS 2014, Guangzhou, China.
  62. Invited keynote at Recent Trends in Electrical Engineering (RATEE 2014) Chandigarh, India.
  63. Invited talk, Wind Farm Diversification, May 2015, CEPEL, Brazil
  64. Invited Lecture, Reliability Evaluation and Decision Making, May 2015, UFRJ, Brazil
  65. Invited Lecture , Wind Farm Diversification, May 2015, UFSC, Brazil
  66. Invited Keynote Lecture, Comprehensive Reliability Modeling in Power Systems including Renewable Energy Sources, DRPT 2015, Changsha, China Nov, 2015
  67. Invited Keynote, Reliability Modeling and Analysis of Cyber Enabled Electric Power Systems, INDICON 2015,Delhi, India, Dec. 2015
  68. Invited Lecture, Geographical Diversification of Windfarms to smooth the output and improve reliability, IIT Ropar, India, Dec, 2015.
  69. Invited lecture, Probabilistic Reliability Methods and their Applications in Power Systems, UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, May 2016
  70. Invited lecture, Probabilistic Reliability Methods and their Applications in Power Systems, EPE Brazil, May 2016
  71. Invited Plenary Lecture, Wind Farm Diversification to Smooth Intermittency and Improve Reliability, PowerCon 2016, Wollongong, Australia, September 2016.
  72. Invited Keynote Lecture, Cyber-physical Interactions and Power Grid Reliability, APPEEC 2016 Xian, China, Oct 2016.
  73. Invited webinar, Cyber-physical Interactions and Power Grid Reliability ,it was webinar organized by PSERC open to industry and universities., Nov 2016
  74. Invited short course under Government of India Scheme GIAN, Recent Trends in Power System Reliability Evaluation: Models, Statistical Methods and Applications, (Oct.9th – Oct.13th, 2017), Delhi Technical University, Delhi.
  75. Invited IEEE – Edison Memorial Lecture, Resource Diversification to Accommodate Intermittency and Improve Reliability, Oct 11, 2017, IIT Delhi.
  76. Invited key note at 50th Anniversary of Frontiers of Energy Conference, Oklahoma State University, Oct 2017.
  77. Invited IEEE Distinguished Lecture, Reliability Evaluation of Smart Grid including the impact of Cyber-physical Interactions, Dec 4, 2017, Bangkok, Thailand.
  78. Invited Tutorial on Power System Reliability, IEEE PES ISGT ASIA, Singapore, May 21, 2018.

Other Significant Activities

  • Architect of the NSF 96-103 “Innovative Power Engineering Education in a Changing Environment”.  This is a special initiative that I created and was jointly sponsored by NSF & EPRI. Its objectives were to build partnerships between the industry and universities in the area of power engineering education, to identify the profile of power system engineers for the 21st century and develop enablers and methods for achieving this profile.  The overall objective was to facilitate the transition of power engineering education into the next century.
  • Invited to be external examiner of Ph.D. candidates at the University of Toronto, Canada, the University of Roorkee, India, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology and Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, Indian Institute of technology Kharagpur and several others.
  • Appointed Co-Promoter (Co-Advisor) of S. Fockens, a doctoral student of the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.  I guided the research of this student but he got his PhD from his university.
  • Opponent of PhD theses of, Haikon Kile, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
  • Opponent of PhD thesis of Sajeesh Babu, KTH, Sweden.
  • Under United Nations Development Program, spent 4 weeks (Dec. 1992-Jan. 1993) with Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; Indian Institute of Science, Banglore India; Northern Regional Electrical Board, India; and Center Power Research Institute, Banglore India, giving advice on power system reliability.
  • Review of the Doctoral Program, University of Akron, April 2009.