Government Agencies
The consortium between MG Research Team and the Distribution Management and Network Studies Department is developing and using tools to automate the creation of network models directly from an open source GIS software (QGIS) environment (QGIS2OpenDSS – developed by a research laboratory in the University of Costa Rica). Currently, final customer connections (acometidas) that go from low-voltage (LV) networks to homes, businesses and industries are not created in EDENORTE’s GIS database, so a great deal of effort has been invested in findings ways to automate its creation.
The VSEI’s new administration is now mapping the Critical Energy Infrastructure in the country, creating an Indicative Plan on how to enhance resiliency across the whole system. PI Ramón Emilio De Jesús-Grullón is the main external assessor and editor for the Plan.
The Plan is derived from an extensive investigation on the effects of Hurricanes María and Irma (2017) on the Energy Infrastructure of Puerto Rico, and draws conclusions from the recommendations made by agencies of the United States Government (e.g. US Department of Energy) and Laboratories such as Rocky Mountain Institute RMI) to the government of Puerto Rico: PREPA (Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority) and Puerto Rico Energy Commission (PREC), as well as the vision of the Critical Infrastructure Risk Management Framework taken from the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) of the United States Government, and of the literature in Energy Infrastructure Risk Management of U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Assurance.
The National Plan Dra is organized as follows:
- Section 2: Introduction
- Section 3: Overview of the Dominican Electricity Sector: Current Status and Main Indicators
- Section 4: SENI (National Interconnected Electric System) Vulnerabilities: Describes the SENI structure and the cascading risks due to this structure.
- Section 5: Critical Infrastructure Risk Management Framework: Describes the objective and steps for designing a Risk Management Framework.
- Section 6: Recommendations: Specific and essential recommendations for the development and improvement of the Critical Energy Infrastructure.
Non-governmental Organizations
Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC)
The team was approached by the former Director of Energy Infrastructure (2016-2020), who is currently working on a PhD in Energy Management for Sustainable Development at INTEC, interested in connecting and collaborating in the capacity building of Microgrid Architecture and Resiliency. After our initial interactions, our team was invited to join the PhD research. One of the researchers, Rafael Batista (CI), and a professor from PUCMM not affiliated with this research (Jorge Luna) accepted the invitation and have been awarded a full joint-scholarship between MESCYT and PUCMM to attend the PhD
Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR)
Researchers at the UCR are working and building state-of-the-art plugins and co-simulations environments between GIS systems and OpenDSS (Open Distribution System Simulator). The research team at UCR have provided access to 3 plugins, manuals, and research papers that are reducing the construction of Distribution Models by a substantial order of magnitude (from months to weeks). We are expected to share our results in the foreseeable future and to continue our collaboration.
Universidad de Puerto Rico (Mayaguez)
Dr. Fabio Andrade, who is a mentor for this research, is the Director of the Center for Sustainable Energy of Puerto Rico and Associate Professor in power electronics applied to renewable energies at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez. He has worked with our researchers to plan the settings of the MG testbed. Dr. Andrade has already built a test bed at UPRM, and his experience doing so has provided invaluable insights for the success of this research. Dr. Andrade is working to build an interregional and inter-institutional collaboration with universities in the region to advance the research in the topic and we are planning to work with his team in the foreseeable future.
Universidad de los Andes
A research team directed by Dr. Gustavo Ramos with vast experience in the development of co-simulation strategies applying OpenDSS in conjunction with real-time simulation environments was contacted. Dr. Ramos has provided valuable insight regarding the benefits of the co-simulation approach and the recommended strategies for the application of these techniques. Furthermore, the limitations of this approach were discussed and how this could impact our proposed simulation scheme for the hardware in the loop integration. This information has been critical for our team in order to assess the next steps that will be taken in the construction of our proposed simulation scheme and in the elaboration of the solution to the challenges that have been identified.
CECACIER (Comité Regional de la Comisión de Integración Energética Regional para Centroamérica y el Caribe).
The team was invited to participate in a course given at CECACIER on Distribution Network Simulation and Study. The invitation came from Dr. Gustavo Valverde, principal researcher at the Electrical School of Engineering at the University of Costa Rica (UCR). We are leveraging on CECACIER networks in the country and region to externalize and connect with more Government Agencies.
EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute)
The MG Research Team contacted Dr. Montenegro and Dr. Rocha at EPRI to request insights into OpenDSS capabilities and their experience of co-simulations environments between OpenDSS with MATLAB Simulink. Dr. Montenegro is a leading figure in these topics and at the moment is connecting us with a research team (Dr. Gustavo Ramos) at Los Andes University in Colombia, which already has a similar testbed and technology.
IEEE Dominicana
IEEE Dominicana is working with the team to set up recurring workshops and presentations to externalize the project’s results and to connect with professionals working in similar lines of investigation.