Research in power electronics and power engineering systems is becoming critically important to meet the world's increasing energy needs and demands within the environmental, economic, and national security constraints today. Department faculty are conducting active research programs and projects in power system analysis and optimization, power electronics for application in renewable energy, energy efficiency and transportation electrification, energy harvesting for sensors, photovoltaic devices and systems, semiconductor power devices.<br><br>In the power system area, ongoing research includes dispatch and control of voltage-sourced converter based flexible AC transmission systems, in conjunction with the operations of actual hardware installations in power transmission companies. A new area of research is the application of high-sampling rate synchronized phasor data to improve the operation of large power grids. The research covers phasor data streaming and database management, off-line disturbance event analysis, real-time applications in visualization and state estimation, as well as data recovery and cybersecurity. Another new research area is stability and control of high-voltage dc (HVDC) converters and systems for long-distance transmission of renewable energy, including offshore wind. New research directions also include multi-terminal HVDC as well as stability and control of future power systems dominated by renewable sources.<br><br>Optimization theory and advanced computational tools are used in the design of electric power systems to obtain high efficiency and reliability at minimum cost, particularly for systems that involve distributed generation. This has been extended to include the development of control and energy management system (EMS) for renewable energy, energy storage and microgrids, as well as intelligent protective relaying for dealing with the problem of islanding and utilizes the Department's real-time and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation tools.