NSF renews Power Systems Center grant

The National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) recently renewed a five-year grant to the Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSerc). I/UCRC promotes "win-win" partnerships that strengthen the ability of universities to conduct high quality and relevant research, and the ability of industry members to meet their business objectives effectively. PSerc is a multi university/industry center organized to address challenges in the electric power industry as it restructures into a competitive business environment.

Professor Robert Lasseter serves as PSerc's UW-Madison site director. Other faculty include Fernando Alvarado, Chris DeMarco and Ian Dobson. Dennis Ray (also based in Madison) serves as PSerc's executive director. UW-Madison faculty are some of PSerc's founding members.

"This is great news for our researchers and industrial members," says PSerc Director Bob Thomas, professor of electrical engineering at Cornell University. "It shows the importance of our work to industry and the strong capabilities of our researchers."

I/UCRC Program Director Alex Schwarzkopf says, "Industry-University collaboration is at the heart of this program. PSerc's commitment to collaboration using many universities as the research base is essential to meeting the wide-ranging challenges facing the electric power industry."

Some 50 other centers in the I/UCRC program focus on a wide array of competitive industries. PSerc first joined the I/UCRC in 1996. It is the only center in power systems. It is also the largest multi-university center, with 13 participating universities and more than 40 researchers in multiple disciplines such as engineering, economics, operations research, computer science and public policy. PSerc has more than 30 industrial supporters.

More information about PSerc can be found at its website: www.pserc.org.