Our mission is centered around facilitating the transition of electric power grids around the world to seamlessly accommodate grid-forming technology across scales. We bring expertise from across technology sectors together to target this generational shift in the form and function of the power grid. unifi’s leadership team is composed of experts from across academia, industry, and research laboratories.
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What We Do
The Universal Interoperability for Grid-Forming inverters (unifi) Consortium is a U. S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office funded effort to advance grid-forming (GFM) inverter technology. We are led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with Ben Kroposki serving as our Organizational Director. unifi’s relevance, value, and impact are centered around facilitating the integration of renewables, driving transportation electrification, and broadly expanding electrification efforts via cutting-edge grid-forming inverter technology
Relevance: future power systems will feature an arbitrary mix of machines and inverters at any scale necessitating development of interoperable GFM technology
Value: articulate the vision, conduct needed R&D, demo concepts at scale, author best practices & standards, & develop workforce training tailored for future grids with high numbers of inverters
Impact: addressing fundamental challenges & developing wide-ranging solutions to seamlessly integrate GFM inverters into power systems of the future will yield affordable, secure, reliable, clean, resilient, and sustainable grids
Why We Do It
Large-scale integration of inverter-based resources (IBRs) with the power grid has sparked several concerns spanning stability, security, and protection. A majority of IBRs interfaced with the grid today are of the grid-following (GFL) type, wherein, the inverter synchronizes to (and follows) a stiff grid. A growing body of work has recognized that power grids with dominantly GFL inverters can face small-signal stability issues. As a solution, consensus is forming towards the adoption of GFM IBRs In this paradigm, IBRs do not follow the grid; rather, they form it and offer better control across timescales. Several definitions of GFM tech and capability have been proposed by utilities, system operators, and regulatory agencies. While there is no singular definition, we list some of these below and point to the fact that common themes and features on what GFM means start to become evident.
Leadership
Ben Kroposki – Director
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Ben Kroposki
Ben Kroposki
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Dr. Ben Kroposki is the Organizational Director of the UNIFI Consortium. Dr. Kroposki is also the Director of the Power Systems Engineering Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) where he leads NREL’s strategic research in the design, planning and operations of electrical power systems. As an IEEE Fellow, Dr. Kroposki was recognized for his leadership in renewable and distributed energy systems integration. In his spare time, Dr. Kroposki teaches courses on renewable energy and power systems as an Adjunct Professor at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) and University of Colorado-Boulder (CU).
Wei Du
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
Wei Du
Wei Du
PNNL
Dr. Wei Du is the solar subsector lead and a staff research engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. His main areas of research are control design, modeling, and simulation of power systems with high penetration of power electronics. He currently serves as the Principal Investigator of multiple DOE projects that investigate the impacts of inverter-based resources on the stability of power systems. He is the co-lead of the Modeling and Simulation Area of UNIFI Consortium. He is the lead developer of the first generation of the US WECC generic grid-forming inverter model, REGFM_A1. The REGFM_A1 model has been integrated into major commercial transient stability simulation tools including Siemens PTI-PSS®E, GE-PSLF, PowerWorld Simulator, and TSAT, and used by the industry.
Dominic Gross
University of Wisconsin
Dominic Gross
Dominic Gross
U Wisc
Dominic Gross is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA, and co-leads the UNIFI control research area. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kassel, Germany, in 2014 and an NSF CAREER award in 2022. His research leverages rigorous foundations in distributed control and optimization of network systems to bridge the gap between power system stability analysis, advanced control of power electronics, and integration of renewable generation and energy storage.
Brian Johnson
University of Texas – Austin
Brian Johnson
Brian Johnson
UT Austin
Brian Johnson is an Assistant Professor and a Fellow of the Jack Kilby/Texas Instruments Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Computer Engineering in the Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. He obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, in 2010 and 2013, respectively. Previous positions include Washington Research Foundation Innovation Assistant Professor within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, and engineer with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. His work was recognized with a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2022 as well as prize paper awards from the Transactions on Energy Conversion and Transactions on Power Electronics. His research interests are in renewable energy systems, power electronics, and control systems.
Iqbal Husain
North Carolina State University
Iqbal Husain
Iqbal Husain
NCSU
Iqbal Husain is the Director of the FREEDM NSF Engineering Center and the ABB Distinguished Professor in the ECE department at NC State University, Raleigh, NC. Prior to joining NC State, he was at the University of Akron, OH. He served as a Fulbright Scholar in several Australian institutions in 2022 and as a visiting Professor at Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR in 2001. Prof. Husain’s research is focused on power electronic based system integration into the power grid and transportation electrification with wide bandgap power electronic devices and permanent magnet & reluctance machine drives. Husain’s activity within the UNIFI consortium is focused on GFM controls under constraints and their hardware compatibility assessments.
Alejandro Dominguez-Garcia
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Alejandro Dominguez-Garcia
Alejandro Dominguez-Garcia
UIUC
Alejandro D. Dominguez-García is the M. Stanley Helm Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research program aims at the development of technologies for providing a reliable and efficient supply of electricity. Specific activities within his program include work on: (i) control of distributed energy resources and microgrids, (ii) power system health monitoring and reliability analysis, and (iii) quantifying and mitigating the impact of renewable-based generation. He is an IEEE Fellow for contributions to distributed control and uncertainty analysis of electrical energy systems.
Jack Flicker
Sandia National Laboratories
Jack Flicker
Jack Flicker
SNL
Jack Flicker, Ph.D., is currently a Principle Member of the Technical Staff and joined Sandia as a postdoctoral appointee in 2006. His research focuses on all aspects of power electronics and power conversion systems ranging from incorporation of new materials and devices in power conversion systems to utilizing new topologies and controls to enable improvements in electrical power systems. Jack’s research touches on all areas of the power electronics value chain ranging from usage of new devices (wide- and ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors) to new topologies and controls to evaluation of power system operation. The nature of his work spans multiple TRL levels and incorporates everything from basic analysis to optimization and simulation to experiment and field-deployment.
Deepak Divan
Georgia Institute of Technology
Deepak Divan
Deepak Divan
GT
Dr. Deepak Divan is the Pippin Chair, GRA Eminent Scholar and Director of the Center for Distributed Energy at Georgia Tech, and does research in the areas of power electronics, power systems, smart grids, and distributed control of power systems. He works closely with utilities and industry and is actively involved in research, teaching, and entrepreneurship. Dr. Divan is an elected Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, member of the National Academies Board on Energy and Environmental Systems and was a member of the National Academies (NASEM) Committee on The Future of Electric Power in the United States. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE and is the recipient of the 2024 IEEE Medal in Power Engineering, 2006 IEEE William E Newell Field Medal and the 2023 IEEE Hingorani Custom Power Medal. He is a past President of the IEEE Power Electronics Society and the International Chair of the IEEE Empower a Billion Lives (EBL) recurring global competition to develop scalable energy access solutions.
Deepak Ramasubramanian
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
Deepak Ramasubramanian
Deepak Ramasubramanian
EPRI
Deepak Ramasubramanian is a Senior Technical Leader at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in the Transmission Operations and Planning Group. In the UNIFI Consortium, he serves as an EPRI representative on the leadership team, co-leads the Modeling & Simulation area, and leads the Standards Area. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Arizona State University, Tempe, USA in 2017 and his M.Tech. degree in Power Systems from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India in 2013. Deepak joined EPRI in 2017 where his work is in the area of modeling, control and stability analysis of the bulk power system with focus on the impacts of large-scale integration of inverter interfaced generation and load. Through his work at EPRI, he engages with various utilities and transmission system operators around the world to study the impact of increase in inverter-based resources in their system. Many of his projects have resulted in technology transfer to commercial simulation software and also become part of the utility planning process/guide. He is a recipient of a 2022 IEEE PES Chapter Outstanding Engineer Award, an Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG) Excellence Award, North American SynchroPhasor Initiative (NASPI) Outstanding Graduate Student Award, and the Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) Power System Award.
Vijay Vittal
Arizona State University
Vijay Vittal
Vijay Vittal
ASU
Vijay Vittal, Ph.D., received the B.E. degree from the B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bangalore, India, in 1977; the M.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, in 1979; and the Ph.D. degree from Iowa State University, Ames, in 1982, all in electrical engineering.
In 2005, he joined Arizona State University where he is a Regents’ Professor, the Ira A. Fulton Chair Professor and the ASU Foundation Professor in Power Systems Engineering at the School of Elec-trical, Computer and Energy Engineering. Other positions throughout his career include Program Direc-tor of the Power Systems Program at the U. S. National Science Foundation, Harpole Endowed Profes-sor, and later, Anson Marston Distinguished Professor at the School of Electrical & Computer Engineer-ing at Iowa State University, and Director of the Power System Engineering Research Center, a Phase III National Science Foundation, Industry/University Collaborative Research Center. He is the recipient of several awards including the 1985 U.S. Presidential Young Investigator Award, the 1989 Iowa State University College of Engineering Young Engineering Faculty Research Award, the 2000 IEEE Power Engineering Society Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award, and the 2022 IEEE Power and Energy Society Prize Paper Award. He is also an elected Fellow of IEEE, serving in various roles across the power sector, including Chairman and Editor in Chief.
His research interests are in power system dynamics, dynamic security assessment of power systems, power system operation and control, and application of robust control techniques to power systems. He is also the author and co-author of several papers and textbooks in his field.
Sairaj Dhople
University of Minnesota
Sairaj Dhople
Sairaj Dhople
UMN
Sairaj Dhople received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA, in 2007, 2009, and 2012, respectively. He is currently Robert & Sydney Anderson Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His research interests include modeling, analysis, and control of power electronics and power systems with a focus on renewable integration. Dr. Dhople was the recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2015 and the Outstanding Young Engineer Award from the IEEE Power and Energy Society in 2019. He has received the 2021 IEEE Power and Energy Society Prize Paper Award and the 2022 IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics (Second Place) Prize Paper Award.
Aidan Tuohy
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
Aidan Tuohy
Aidan Tuohy
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
Dr. Aidan Tuohy is the Director of EPRI’s Transmission Operations and Planning R&D Group, managing a portfolio of near and long-term research, thought leadership and applications, with a focus on supporting the reliable, resilient and affordable transition to a clean electricity system. He leads a team of over 70 individuals that have deep subject matter expertise spanning long term planning, operations planning, real time operations, system protection and market design and operations. He joined EPRI in October 2010. Previously he was the program manager for the EPRI research program on Bulk System Integration of Variable and Distributed Energy Resources. He has worked in resource adequacy, flexibility assessment, power system scheduling, integration of renewable generation forecasting, and other renewable and DER integration issues. Prior to joining EPRI, Dr. Tuohy worked as a consultant to the Irish electricity industry on projects related to wind integration into markets, system operations and planning. He also worked with the International Energy Agency on the Grid Integration of Variable Renewables project. Dr. Tuohy received a Bachelor of Engineering degree in electrical/electronic engineering from University College Cork, Ireland in 2005. He completed his doctoral degree at the University College Dublin Electricity Research Centre in 2009, on the topic of operating and planning issues in carbon-constrained power systems. During his studies, he spent time in both Risoe-DTU (Denmark) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Dr. Tuohy has published several journal papers and frequently presents at industry conferences. He chairs the Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG) working group on Operating Impacts and Market Design, while he is also involved in NERC, IEEE, IEA, IEC and CIGRE activities.
Charles Hanley
Sandia National Laboratories
Charles Hanley
Charles Hanley
Sandia National Laboratories
Charles is Senior Manager of the Electric Grid Security Group at Sandia National Laboratories. His group conducts research on enhancing the resilience of our critical energy infrastructures, including grid-scale optimization, controls, and microgrids; energy storage technologies; renewable energy integration; power electronics; cyber security; and advanced analytics for complex systems. He joined Sandia in 1988 and has been working in Sandia’s renewable energy and electric grid programs since 1994. From 2005 through 2014, Charlie managed Sandia’s Photovoltaics and Distributed Systems Integration Program. Prior to that, he managed Sandia’s international renewable energy programs, through which he oversaw the implementation of more than 400 photovoltaic and wind energy systems in Latin America. He received his B.S. in Engineering Science from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, New York.
Arvind Tiwari
GE Research
Arvind Tiwari
Arvind Tiwari
GE Research
Arvind is Mission Leader for Electrification at GE Research in Niskayuna, NY. He joined GE Research in 2003 with a focus on Electrical Machines and M&D (monitoring and diagnostics). He led Electric Power lab at GE Research during 2009-2017. Arvind has been instrumental in maturing multiple technologies from ideation to product, few examples include Hybrids Renewable System and industrial machines M&D. He is currently leading electrification mission focused on Grid and Renewables. Prior to the role at GE, he served at IIT, BHU, India during 1998-2003. Arvind has a distinguished academic record with patents (60+), publications (20+) and he has co-authored a book. He earned his B. Tech, M. Tech., and PhD from India.
Amie Sluiter
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Amie Sluiter
Amie Sluiter
NREL
Amie Sluiter, PMP, is a senior project manager at NREL. She has managed projects from exploratory science with industrial partners to multimillion-dollar, cross-laboratory U.S. Department of Energy research projects. Amie brings practical experience from her decades as an R&D scientist in the bioenergy sector. Amie is the lead project manager for the Power Systems Engineering Center at NREL. She is also the project manager for the Department of Energy’s UNIFI consortium.
