Energy Access and Empower a Billion Lives: Technologies, Impact and Opportunities for PELS
Organizers
Deepak Divan, Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology
Jelena Popović, Associate Professor, Delft University of Technology
Issa Batarseh, Professor, University of Central Florida
Sanjib Kumar Panda, Associate Professor, National University of Singapore
Abstract
Ensuring universal, affordable, and sustainable energy access is one of the biggest societal challenges of our time. As of 2020, close to a billion people worldwide live without having access to electricity, and another two billion have unreliable access. The centralized electric grid is not the optimal choice for remote and rural applications, due to environmental impact, cost, mismatch to user needs and challenges around financial feasibility. Decentralized approaches, such as solar home systems and microgrids, have emerged as a response to shortcomings of the centralized grid approach, but affordability, scalability, interoperability, societal and technical sustainability remain as key challenges. Power electronic technology is one of the key enabling technologies for context-appropriate and sustainable energy access solutions. The IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) engaged with Energy Access through organizing a global challenge – Empower a Billion Lives (EBL-I), and by including Energy Access as a new and core topic in its long-range planning. Following on the success of the first EBL-I round, a strong expression of interest in the technologies underlying energy access, and a burgeoning need for decentralized power systems with more autonomous control, the Global Energy Access Forum and the Technical Committee – 12: Energy Access was formed by PELS to provide global technical leadership in this important area.
Short Bio of Organizers
Dr. Deepak Divan is Professor, John E Pippin Chair, GRA Eminent Scholar and Director of the Center for Distributed Energy at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. His field of research is in the areas of power electronics, power systems, smart grids and distributed control of power systems. He works closely with utilities, industry and is actively involved in research, teaching, entrepreneurship and starting new ventures. Dr. Divan also serves as Founder and Chief Scientist at Varentec, in Santa Clara, CA, and was President and CTO from 2011-14, leading the company as it developed its suite of innovative distributed real-time grid control technologies. Varentec is funded by leading green-tech Venture Capital firm Khosla Ventures and renowned investor Bill Gates. Dr. Divan is an elected Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, member of the National Academies Board on Energy and Environmental Systems, a Fellow of the IEEE, past President of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, and is a recipient of the IEEE William E Newell Field Medal. He has 40 years of academic and industrial experience, 65 issued and pending patents, and over 400 refereed publications. He has founded or seeded several new ventures including Soft Switching Technologies, Innovolt, Varentec and Smart Wires, which together have raised >$160M in venture funding. He received his B. Tech from IIT Kanpur, and his MS and PhD degrees from the University of Calgary, Canada.
Dr. Jelena Popović received the Dipl. Ing. degree from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, and the Ph.D. degree from the Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands. From 2005 to 2011, she was with the European Center for Power Electronics (ECPE). From 2008 to 2017 she was with the Delft University of Technology as an Assistant Professor. In 2018 she co-founded a start-up in energy access, Klimop Energy. From October 2019, she joined the Power Electronics group of the University of Twente as a parttime Associate Professor. She has published more than 80 publications in scientific journals, magazines and conferences. She has co-authored strategic research agendas, technology roadmaps and white papers in the field of power electronics, energy efficiency, solid state lighting. Her recent interests are bottom-up solutions
Dr. Issa Batarseh is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He received the Ph.D., and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and the B.S. in Computer Engineering and Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1983, ’85 and ’90, respectively. Dr. Batarseh’s power electronics research focuses on the development of advanced systems for solar energy conversion to improve cost, power density, efficiency and performance. He is an inventor on 36 patents and author of more than 300 articles and 2 books. He has significant commercialization experience as a founder of two start-up companies involved solar energy conversion: Advanced Power Electronics Corp. (APECOR) and Petra Systems. He is also a fellow member in National Academy of Inventors (NAI), IEEE, and AAAS.
Dr. Sanjib Kumar Panda received B. Eng. Degree from the Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, South Gujarat University, India, in 1983, M.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, in 1987, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Cambridge, U.K., in 1991, all in electrical engineering. Since 1992, he has been holding a faculty position in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore and currently serving as an Associate Professor and Director of the Power & Energy Research Area. Dr. Panda has published more than 450 peer-reviewed research papers, co-authored one book and contributed to several book chapters, six patents and co-founders of three start-up companies. His research interests include sustainable energy technologies, condition and predictive maintenance for electrical infrastructures, net-zero and super-low energy buildings etc.
Speakers and presentations
Segment 1: Welcome and Framing of Technology Opportunities and Issues leading to the formation of the Global Energy Access Forum and Empower a Billion Lives
Deepak Divan, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA – Welcome and Moderator of Segment 1
Global Energy Access Forum, Empower a Billion Lives, TC-12 Energy Access
Three Panelists to address the topics of technology opportunities and issues:
- Silard Liptak, Agsol, Kenya
- Shreyas Kulkarni, Endeavour Energy, USA
- Rajan Kapur, IEEE Smart Village, Larenkelo Ventures, USA
Segment 2: Empower a Billion Lives II – Global Competition to Crowdsource Solutions to Energy Access
Jelena Popovic, University of Twente, The Netherlands (moderator) Empower a Billion Lives, PELS TC-12 Energy Access
Three Panelists to address the establishment of PELS TC-12 Energy Access and launching the Empower a Billion Lives -II
- Issa Batarseh, University of Central Florida, Member PELS TC-12 Energy Access, Empower a Billion Lives, USA
- Sanjib Kuamr Panda, National University of Singapore, Member, PELS TC-12 Energy Access – Chair
- Deepak Divan, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, Steering Chair PELS Global Energy Access Forum