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New Mexico State University Highlight
 Member Highlight
NMSU delivers students and research that will change the business of electric power
New Mexico State University's Electric Utility Management Program (EUMP) has been educating students with just the right mix of engineering skills and business acumen for the electric utility industry for more than 40 years.
EUMP is a unique graduate program in which students acquire both engineering skills as well as an understanding of the economics, management and societal aspects of the electric power systems. Courses from the College of Engineering and the College of Business Center for Public Utilities comprise the program. "Most students in the program," Professor Ranade said, "graduate with a minor in economics." The program has graduated more than 250 students with master's of science in electrical engineering, seven of whom have become CEOs of public utilities.
The Electric Utility Management Program was launched in 1968 and is completely unique. NMSU is one of only a handful of universities that offer degrees in electric power engineering.
Funding for EUMP comes entirely from the public sector, which provides fellowships for students. Many students are hired as interns by sponsors of the program to conduct research. This research is often the basis of their master's theses. A majority of students who receive fellowships begin their professional careers with a sponsoring company.
The faculty members involved with EUMP also conduct research. Currently, researchers are funded by the National Science Foundation and the U. S. Department of Energy to investigate the feasibility of microgrids, generation of power for a small customer base, having their own generation facility.
The objective of this work is to investigate a new paradigm in which electricity customers install utility-compatible generation sources in their homes or facilities, each acting as an autonomous agent. The electric utility facilitates the system that is designed to allow customers to form their ad-hoc networks in emergencies.
Other on-going research includes studies of wind generation facilities and their integration into the electric grid. With recent proliferation of wind farms and a steep rise in wind generation projected across the United States, it has become important to investigate the impact of wind farms as they integrate with the power grid. One of the first procedural steps while integrating any significant generation with the power grid is to perform short-circuit analysis of the system with the new generation connected. This analysis requires short-circuit models of the generators being connected to the grid. Due to the power electronic interface and associated controllers used with wind turbine generators, the short-circuit models of these generators in particular and of the wind farm in general are unknown. This is a serious issue that hinders the planning stages of any wind integration project. NMSU researchers focus on deriving these models through a theoretically justified and practically oriented approach. The results will be validated using field data logged at an actual wind farm.
More information about NMSU/EUMP may be found on the NMSU web site at www.ece.nmsu.edu/~eump.
Member DetailNew Mexico State University MSC EGR, PO Box 30001 Las Cruces, NM 88003-3449 Website: www.nmsu.edu |
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