Project Overview

The Iowa State University campus currently operates as a microgrid, producing its own power at the power plant on campus and purchasing additional power from the City of Ames Utility as needed. As the campus load grows, the grid will need future planning upgrades on both the distribution and substation sides to ensure that the energy provided is reliable. These upgrades include increasing the local energy production to be able to support the entire campus’s load, planning for future growth, adding protection coordination to minimize the effects of larger outages, and adding battery storage to help optimize renewable resources. Looking at prospects to incorporate renewable energy sources is also a goal, although the location and spatial availability of campus poses a challenge for integration into the system.

While working with our client, Burns & McDonnell and 1898 & Co. (part of Burns & McDonnell), members of the project will entail the modeling and design of an upgraded distribution microgrid system for the Iowa State campus based on public load profile data and information requested from the on-campus utility, as well as the creation and updates to one-line and three-line diagrams to reflect any planned upgrades. Furthermore, grounding studies and brownfield scenarios will strive to be completed using data from the microgrid, as well as the creation of a Bill of Materials for any major equipment that will be used for the previously mentioned upgrades.

Team Members

Sean Carver

Transmission Team

Sean Carver is an Electrical Engineering Student with a focus in power systems. His role on the substation team primarily involves the development of the General Arrangement and the One-Line Diagram.

Bethany Danley

Distribution Team

Bethany is an Electrical Engineering senior who is focusing in the study of power systems. Her focus on the team has been data collecting and the creation of the load profile to aid in the building of the model.

Thomas Edwards

Distribution Team

Thomas is an Electrical Engineering student with a focus in Power Systems. His focus on the distribution team has been the research and development of the model in OpenDSS, as well as assisting with the load profile.

Nathan Kallal

Distribution Team

Nathan is an Electrical Engineering student with a focus in Power Systems. His emphasis within the distribution team has been the research and collection of load profile data, as well as anlyzing the load profile information to update the model.

Mina Khalil

Transmission Team

Mina Khalil is a senior in Electrical Engineering with an emphasis on Power Systems. He helped the transmission team by doing research and working on the bill of materials.

MacKenzie Woods

Transmission Team

MacKenzie is an Electrical Engineering student specializing in Power Systems, with a minor in Spanish. Her contributions to the transmission (substation) team include ACADE modeling, keeping detailed meeting minutes, actively participating in discussions, helping redefine the project scope and assisting in the development of insightful questions for Ames/ISU utilities.

EE 492 Deliverables