Senior R&D Staff - Power Grid Modeling & Controls at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Knoxville, TN

Purpose

The Grid Components abd Controls Group (GCC) within the Electrification and Energy Infrastructures Division (EEID) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is seeking to fill a Senior R&D Staff position to perform R&D in the areas of electronic power grid dynamic and transient modeling, harmonic stability analysis, and decentralized or distributed controls technologies. Research activities will include novel or improved approaches for modeling the power grid, the investigation of new operating modes and the assessment of market impacts of new technologies. Selection will be based on qualifications, relevant experience, skills, and education

The GCC Group supports multi-laboratory research, including research supporting DOE’s Office of Electricity (OE), Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response (CESER) and Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) on the electricity grid’s resilience and reliability, grid modeling and analysis, integration of new technologies, and identifying and validating new ways of using existing and emerging grid assets to ensure grid reliability, grid resilience, environmental stewardship, and affordability of energy supplies. GCC conducts modeling, analysis, control R&D specifically related to power electronics-based grid devices, development and design of new grid devices deploying new theory and methodologies, and system operation and control R&D of integrated systems such as microgrids and networked microgrids utilizing intelleligent and smart grid devices.

Main Duties / Responsibilities

You will be responsible for leading research services and managing research projects supporting GCC’s electronic power grid modeling and stability analysis research activities. You should be a thought leader in developing new modeling, analysis and control methods for determining and evaluating the potential value of smart grid components or devices and their control functionalities on power system reliability, stability and resilience during normal and abnormal conditions under small and large disturbances, and be able to communicate and influence stakeholders – internal and external, government and private sector – on new concepts, R&D opportunities, and results. You have the opportunity to work collaboratively to support other ORNL staff and to offer career guidance and mentoring to junior staff.

Basic Qualifications:

• Requires a Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering) with a minimum of 6 years relevant experience, an M.S. with a minimum of 12 years experience, or a B.S. with 15 years experience.
• You should have an strong research background in modeling, analysis and controls of inverter-based power systems.
• You should demonstrate an excellent mathematical, analytical and controls research background which can be applied to conduct research analysis on advanced grid resilience and reliability technologies, operational concepts, and future needs to achieve transformative changes in defining the grid of the future.
• Familiarity with electricity production and delivery technologies and be capable of conducting technology assessments is required.
• Experience writing competitive research proposals and experience leading research as a Principal Investigator on awarded projects is required.
• You should demonstrate excellent oral and written communication skills to make presentations to sponsors, industry organizations, and National Laboratories and to prepare reports, proposals, and publications/journal articles is required.
• You should have strong interpersonal skills to support team building and leadership in addition to a strong commitment to scientific integrity.
• The ability to lead and mentor junior staff within the GCC group to develop new grid devices and control technologies applying to electronics power grids.
• A strong network of contacts within the electric power industry and power electronics community and experience working collaborative with diverse types of stakeholders is desirable.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strong knowledge and experience in dynamic frequency-domain modeling, harmonic state-space models and harmonic transfer functions, double-Fourier series, generalized averaging theory, and impedance-based stability analysis.
• Experience in nonlinear control theory, large-signal modeling and stability analysis.
• Experience in power system dynamics modeling, computing and analysis.
• Proficiency in the use of commericallly available and open-source power system steady-state, transient, and stability analyses and simulation software tools, such as PSS/E, EMTP-RV, EMTDC, OpenDSS, GridLAD-D, etc.
• Experience in analyzing and modeling the dyanamics of a diversity of distributed energy and emerging grid resources (solar, wind turbine, small hydros, microturbines, energy storage, electric vehicle charging, power flow controller, etc.).
• Open-soucre software development skills and Matlab, C/C++ programming experience.
• Limited travel will be required for this position.
• No security clearance is required.