Electric Energy Systems

EGR 325, Fall 2012

Professor: Judith Cardell
Office: 352 Ford Hall
Office hours: Thursday 2:00-3:30, Friday 2:30-4:00

Class Time: MWF FH 143
Prerequisites: EGR 220, Circuit Theory, or permission of instructor
Reading: Posted in table below and on Moodle. An optional, and possibly useful text is: Electric Power Systems: A Conceptual Introduction, Alexandra von Meier, Wiley Survival Guides

EGR 325 Class and Assignment Schedule, Fall 2012

Course Overview and Objectives
Wind and solar energy? Power generation from coal and nuclear fuel? What are our options for ensuring a high standard of living, and also for electrifying developing regions? How can we make our energy use less damaging to our environment? This course introduces students to the field of electric power, including energy conversion technologies (renewable, hydro, nuclear and fossil), electricity transmission and distribution, more recent developments in smart grid technology, and ultimate end-use. Topics include analysis and simulation of power systems, discussions of emerging technologies, as well as policy, environmental and societal aspects of energy use. A short project allows students to explore designing an element of a power system for a selected region (real, imagined, developed, developing...) in order to apply the semester concepts in greater depth. The objective of this course is to introduce students to electric power systems, to energy conversion and end-use technologies, and to the broader issues of energy policy and complex systems analysis. Through the material presented in this course, students will learn:

1. The fundamental principles of producing and transmitting electric power,
2. To analyze complex engineering systems, and to gain familiarity with incorporating technical, policy and societal elements in the analysis framework,
3. How to simulate electric power systems, in order to understand their behavior and also to make design decisions about the types of generating technologies to use and when to expand the power system to meet demand.
4. Introduction to optimization: The inherent tradeoffs between the often conflicting objectives of power system design and operation, including cost, reliability, and environmental impacts,
5. The far reaching effects of electric power and energy conversion on human society,
6. To evaluate her personal learning process and understanding of the concepts and skills from class.

Course Concept Map
The concept map will be used throughout the semester to bring together the course topics, and modeling and analysis techniques.

Assignments
The syllabus lists the reading for each class period. Students are expected to do the reading before coming to class, in order to be fully prepared to solidify the material in the class period. Note that this does not mean every word of every reading needs to be carefully read. Each student needs to read about and ponder enough of the issues to be able to contribute to class discussion and the class learning.

Assginments also include participation in Knowledge Forum which allows for out-of-class discussion and learning to occur in a continuous and self-guided manner. These discussions will be continued in class. Use and assessment of KF will evolve over the course of the semester.

There will be almost-weekly homework assignments, a project that can be done alone or in teams, one midterm exam and a final take home exam.

Written homework format
All homework solutions must be written on standard engineering paper. Short essay questions should be typed and printed out. Students are encouraged to work together to understand the concepts, but each student must hand in her own solutions. All assignments are to be neatly written or typed, and stapled, with your name and date. Note that students are expected to follow the Honor Code for all work in this course. Copying on homework or quizzes/exams, and other violations will be brought to the honor board.

The purpose of the homework is for you to have the opportunity to practice - practice - practice the skills and concepts from class, and to think about the policy and societal questions beyond class discussions. Since homework is the time to practice, you are not expected to have perfects solutions at all times. You are expected to do your best work for each problem however. In recognition of these goals, each homework problem, as well as participation in Knowledge Forum, will be evaluated with the following 10 point scale as a guide:

• 0 No effort
• 2 Problem statement written out but not attempted
• 6 Incomplete attempt
• 9 Complete attempt, incorrect solution
• 10 Complete attempt, correct solution

Essays will be graded as ✓, ✓- or ✓+

Project
There will be a solo or small-group project in which students will gain practical experience in designing and/or analyzing a selected element of a power system. The topic can be selected by the student based on her interests.

Exams
There will be one midterm exam in-class and a final exam, used to solidify concepts and learning assess progress.

Class attendance
Students are required to attend class and participate in class discussions and problem solving exercises. This means that you must be in class and come prepared to participate in the discussions to receive full credit for this portion of the course.

Grading
Grades in this course are designed to represent your achievement of the objectives listed above. The course components that will make up your grade are listed below.

Late Policy
All homework assignments are to be submitted at the time specified; late assignments will be penalized at the rate of one point per minute unless you have requested and received and extension at least 24 hours before the deadline. However, each student will have a total of 1 hour (60 minutes) grace time to be used as desired by that student over the course of the semester, such that you can have a semester total of 60 tardy minutes for homework and labs without penalty (note that these minutes cannot be used for in-class reading questions, quizzes or exams).

Knowledge Forum participation must be on an on-going basis, so that all class participants have plenty of time to see, read and respond to your notes, thoughts and responses. Notes need to be posted well in advance of class time to allow everyone to read and process all the notes. This means, with class starting at 10am, initial postings should be made by dinnner time (6pm) the evening before class so that everyone will have the opportunity to read and respond to each others' notes, and gather thoughts for class.

Honor Code
The homework assignments that you submit must be your own work. You are encouraged to discuss the problems and essay questions with your classmates and work on them together, but each student must work out her own answers. It is not okay to copy answers from another student's homework - doing so is a violation of the Honor Code. Note that it is a violation of the honor code to 1) use or copy another student's work, and 2) provide another student with your work. Projects will be done in small groups. Exams must be exclusively each student's own work, following the instructions provided with each exam. Do not hesitate to ask any questions that you may have concerning the honor code!