OVER the past two decades, different laboratories focusing

Transcription

1 532 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, MAY 2005 Development of Power System Protection Laboratory Through Senior Design Projects Bhuvanesh A. Oza and Sukumar M. Brahma, Member, IEEE Abstract This paper describes a novel power system laboratory at Birla Vishvakarma Mahavidyalaya (B.V.M.) Engineering College, Gujarat, India, where every experiment was designed, wired and commissioned through senior design projects. The experiments on power system protection are especially unique in terms of their design and implementation and will be highlighted in this paper. They provide a real substation-like operating environment. Through these projects, the students, in addition to getting familiar with the fundamentals of protection, learned how different protection schemes are wired and how they operate in a real power system. For the institute, a quality laboratory was established at a low cost, which is a crucial issue for most colleges in many parts of the world. Index Terms Circuit breaker, fault, power distribution system, power engineering education, power system protection, protective device coordination, relay. I. INTRODUCTION OVER the past two decades, different laboratories focusing on teaching and researching the area of power system protection have been reported [1] [8]. Sidhu and Sachdev [1], [2] describe a laboratory at the University of Saskatchewan that focuses on designing relay strategies, modeling them and testing them using high speed digital signal processing (DSP) boards and an array of design softwares. Redfern et al. [3] describe testing relays using actual voltage and current data converted from the data files generated by power system simulation software. Lee et al. [4] report a relay performance testing facility using simulated transmission line modules. The paper describes both the hardware and the software strategy and documents the performance results of an instantaneous overcurrent relay and a reverse power relay. Carullo and Nwankpa [5] describe a laboratory that focuses on the data acquisition, energy management and supervisory control aspects of a power system that form the basis of a modern protection system. Kabir [6] documents the performance of a laboratory experiment on a scaled down power system protected by a single computer implementing an over-current protection strategy. Chen et al. [7] report the laboratory implementation of an intelligent embedded microprocessor based overcurrent protection scheme. McLaren et al. [8] report a relay testing facility based on Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS). Manuscript received February 18, 2004; revised May 28, This work was supported by a grant from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Paper no. TPWRS B. A. Oza is with the Electrical Engineering Department, B.V.M. Engineering College, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat, India ( bhuvanesh_oza@ yahoo.com). S. M. Brahma is with the Electrical Engineering Department, Widener University, Chester, PA 19013, USA ( Sukumar.M.Brahma@widener.edu). Digital Object Identifier /TPWRS The laboratory described in this paper is a result of the grant of rupees (approximately US$33 300) obtained form the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). The laboratory is designed to be used for illustrating the fundamentals of power system (concentrating more on protection) and as a professional relay testing and high voltage testing facility. The distinguishing aspects of this laboratory are several. All the experiments in this laboratory are conceived, designed and implemented through senior design projects. This helped in cutting down the cost tremendously as the grant was used only in purchasing high quality professional grade equipment for the laboratory, instead of buying expensive integrated systems from vendors. This also meant that a complete freedom to design the laboratory was left to the students and the faculty involved. This indeed led to a very innovative design. Every panel was so designed that it looked and functioned very similar to a panel in any actual substation. This gave the students, who subsequently performed the experiments as a part of their coursework, a real-life feel of a power system. In addition, since this approach allowed the purchase of professional grade equipment from the grant money, some equipment could be used for professional testing, generating revenue for the college. The following sections describe the features of the laboratory and the development process of the senior projects in detail. II. PURCHASE AND USE OF EQUIPMENT About 107 relays were purchased from the grant. These included fifty one overcurrent relays, three thermal relays, forty one auxiliary relays, seven differential relays, two motor protection relays, one negative phase sequence relay and two reverse power relays. The overcurrent relays were of all types like directional, nondirectional, phase, ground, definite time, instantaneous, and inverse definite minimum time (IDMT) with varying degree of inverse curves. All the relays were either electromechanical or static. The relays were bought during the time period from the late eighties to the early nineties when the cost of electromechanical and static relays was cheaper than digital relays. The other consideration for buying these relays was that about 98% or more relays in use all over the country were of these types then and were likely to remain in service for many years to come. Thus it was felt that the graduating students must have an exposure to these types of relays. However, from a subsequent grant, digital relays were procured during the late nineties and are also used in this laboratory now. The other major equipment bought from the grant were an English Electric make overcurrent relay test set, a V, 100-A dc rectifier to provide auxiliary voltage to the relays and contactors, thirty three-phase power contactors and miscellaneous items like push buttons, semaphore and /$ IEEE

2 OZA AND BRAHMA: DEVELOPMENT OF POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION LABORATORY 533 neon indicators, buzzers, control switches, capacitors, single phase transformers, miniature circuit breakers (MCBs), etc. A part of this grant was also utilized in procuring equipment for a high-voltage laboratory including a 100-kV high-voltage transformer with related accessories, a 100-kV, 100-pF measuring capacitor and an electrolytic tank. Once the equipment were procured, the students started working on designing and implementing different experiments in groups of two or three for their senior projects guided by faculty. Every year, about 30 to 35 students register for the senior project (EE 421) course. Out of these, about 12 to 15 students worked for the laboratory development. The laboratory was planned to serve four undergraduate courses. A list of the experiments working now for each of these courses as a result of this work is as follows. A. Power System I In this junior level course, the following experiments were created: 1) to observe the effect of a floating star point on a threephase distribution system; 2) to observe the voltage distribution along a string of suspension insulators; 3) to observe the performance of a transmission line using the short and the medium line models; 4) to observe the characteristics of an MCB. B. Power System II In this junior level course, the following experiments were created: 1) to observe the characteristics of a thermal relay; 2) to observe the characteristics of time delayed overcurrent relays. This includes definite time and IDMT relays with varying degree of inverse curves; 3) to observe the characteristics of a directional overcurrent relay; 4) to observe the characteristics of a differential relay; both biased and unbiased differential relays were used in this experiment. C. Power System Protection In this senior level course, the following experiments were created: 1) to understand the fundamentals of a radial protection scheme; 2) to understand the fundamentals of the protection of two parallel feeders; 3) to study the feeder protection scheme using two overcurrent and one earth fault relays; 4) to study generator differential protection; 5) to study transformer differential protection; 6) to study the protection of an induction motor; 7) to study the principles of reverse power protection. In addition to these experiments, the students perform some experiments involving testing insulation strengths of different dielectric materials and field plotting as part of the High-Voltage Engineering course at the junior level. From the equipment described in this section, the relay testing set and the high-voltage transformer are used for professional testing purpose, thus generating revenue for the college. Since it is not possible to describe how each of the experiments is designed and implemented, the next section will describe an experiment in power system protection that will capture the innovative but simple design features and hardware details of all the experiments. III. DESCRIPTION OF HARDWARE AND EXPERIMENTS In this section, the experiment designed to understand the concept of radial feeder protection will be described. Fig. 1 shows the main circuit for the experiment. Three-line sections are simulated by 9-ohm resistors, each being controlled by the power contact of a contactor (C1-1, C2-1 and C3-1). The relay for each section is an IDMT relay fed through a 10/5-A current transformer (CT). Section III is connected to the load through an MCB, which is the typical load controlling device at the consumer end. This can be replaced by a fuse if so desired. The load considered here is the equivalent load at the primary of the distribution transformer at the consumer-end. The circuit is supplied with 230-V, 50-Hz, single-phase ac supply. Except for experiment number 3 in Section II-C, each experiment was built with a single line circuit to economize on the number of relays required for each experiment. This, by no means affects the insight offered by the experiments, as the following description will show. It is worthwhile to note here that all the overcurrent relays are rated at 1 amp in order to be able to create faults without excessively loading the utility source. This becomes a serious issue especially when two experiments are performed simultaneously by two groups of students. The switches S1, S2 and S3, when switched on, simulate a fault in Sections I, II and III, respectively. The location of the fault can be changed by changing the variable terminal of the resistor modeling the line section. The fault is made through a fault resistance of 18 ohms. The students first calculate the relay settings required to coordinate these three relays using the system data. They are given the characteristics of the MCB, so relay R3 can be coordinated with the MCB for faults beyond the MCB. Once this is done, the students set the relay tap value (TV) and time setting multiplier (TSM) according to their calculations. The circuit is then energized. Faults are created at both ends of each section and the time of operation of the corresponding relays is measured with a timer. When the relay operates, a bulb glows and a buzzer operates. The student has to push the accept button on the panel to acknowledge the operation of the relay to set the buzzer off. The semaphore indicator shows the open status of the circuit breaker (contactor) when the contactor opens to isolate the faulted section. This is exactly the way it happens in a real substation. Fig. 2 shows the control circuit for the experiment. As shown in Fig. 2, the control circuit is wired to a 110-V dc supply simulating the battery bank in a substation. A rectifier is used in the laboratory that supplies all the experiment-benches with the required dc supply. In Fig. 2, R1-1, R2-1 and R3-1 are the main relay contacts. A1, A2 and A3 are the auxiliary relay coils, which remain de-energized unless the corresponding contact of the main relay closes. C1, C2 and C3 are the contactor coils.

3 534 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, MAY 2005 Fig. 1. Main circuit for the experiment on radial feeder protection. Fig. 2. Control circuit for the experiment on radial feeder protection. To energize the circuit, the circuit breakers (contactors here) have to be turned on. This is done by pushing the button PB-1. When PB-1 corresponding to the line Section I is pressed, the contactor coil C1 will be energized since the normally closed (NC) contact of A1, A1-1, is closed. This would make the contactor ON closing the power contact C1-1 in the main circuit shown in Fig. 1. This will also close the contact C1-2 to keep the contactor coil energized after the push button PB-1 is released. Similarly by pressing push buttons PB-1 associated with line Sections II and III, the contactors C2 and C3, respectively, can be made ON. Thus, the whole main circuit is energized (the MCB is switched on manually). To open any circuit breaker manually, the corresponding PB-2 push button has to be pressed. As shown in Fig. 2, the bulbs L1, L2 and L3 are ON when the corresponding contactors are ON and vice versa. These bulbs are circuit breaker status bulbs on the panel. Let us trace the operation pattern under a fault, when say, relay R1 operates. This results in closing the contact R1-1, which energizes the auxiliary relay coil A1. Since A1 energizes, the normally open (NO) contact A1-2 closes and the auxiliary relay gets an alternate path to remain energized even after the main relay drops off. The auxiliary relay will open the contact A1-1 which results in the contactor coil C1 getting de-energized opening the main contact C1-1 of the circuit breaker. The operation of the other two relays will similarly result into the opening of the corresponding circuit breaker. The only difference in the control circuits of relays R2 and R3 from that of R1 is the connection of switches T2 and T3. These are used to check the back-up operation. If the switch T2 is opened, the operation of relay R2 will not be able to open the corresponding circuit breaker because A2 cannot be energized. This simulates the stuck circuit breaker or a problem with the control wiring that requires back up. The students measure the operating time of the main relays as well as the back up relays for different fault locations and compare it with their calculations. Fig. 3 shows the connection of the indicating devices, viz., alarm, bulb and semaphores. As can be seen from the figure, as long as the contactor coil is energized, the corresponding semaphore indicator coil is energized. This means that the semaphores will show the line section as energized. When the circuit breaker opens, the semaphore will indicate the de-energized status of the line section. Moreover, the operation of any auxiliary relay (as a result of the main relay operating under a fault) will close the corresponding contact (A1-3, A2-3 or A3-3) activating the buzzer and the bulb. The user then has to press the accept push button PB3 in Fig. 2. This will de-energize the auxiliary relay and deactivate the buzzer and the bulb in Fig. 3. Fig. 4 shows how the operating time of a relay is measured. A digital timer is used for this purpose. The fault-activating switches S1, S2 and S3 are connected in parallel with the start contact of the timer. The timer starts when the start contact closes, which means, in this case, when the fault is created. The timer stops when any of the auxiliary relay is energized by the

4 OZA AND BRAHMA: DEVELOPMENT OF POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION LABORATORY 535 Fig. 3. Indication and alarm circuit for the experiment on radial feeder protection. Fig. 5. Front panel view of the experiment. and CTs are mounted on the bench at the back of the panel. Control wiring is done exactly as done in substations, using numbered ferrules to identify the two ends of a wire. The whole experiment involving design, fitting the equipment, wiring and commissioning constituted one senior project. Other projects involved creating other experiments listed in Section II in a similar way. Thus, the students were exposed to all aspects of a particular protection scheme and were challenged with translating all the important features of the scheme to a user-friendly experiment that can be used by future students. Fig. 4. Timer connections. main relay, closing the corresponding contact A1-4, A2-4 or A3-4. Thus, the timer measures the time between the inception of a fault and the operation of a relay. Through this experiment, students learn how a radial feeder is protected. They learn to set the IDMT relays for such protection. They can verify their calculated setting by actual experimentation. It is also possible to observe the effect of the source impedance to line impedance ratio through this experiment. Students verify that in Section III, where the ratio is high, a normal-inverse IDMT relay does not provide significant time discrimination for faults at two ends of the feeder (the relay behaves almost like a definite time relay); whereas a very inverse type IDMT relay performs much better. The energizing of the circuit and the operation under fault are so designed that during the performance of this whole experiment, the students get a real-life like feel. Fig. 5 shows the picture of the panel erected for the experiment just described. It looks similar to a substation panel. As can be seen from the picture, the panel has a one-line diagram of the system with semaphore indicators. The pushbuttons to make the circuit breaker on and off (PB1 and PB2) as well as the accept push buttons PB3 for each section can be seen. The relays and the MCB are mounted on the panel. The fault-creating switches S1, S2, S3 can also be seen. The switches T1 and T2 are mounted on the backside to avoid confusion. The circuit breaker status bulbs and the alarm system of Fig. 3 are also mounted on the panel. The contactors, auxiliary relays, rheostats IV. STAGES OF THE PROJECT DEVELOPMENT AND THE MEASURING TOOLS Now that the nature of the experiments and primary details of the laboratory (the final product) is clear to the reader, the stages in which the completion of the projects was achieved will be described in this section. Measuring tools used for evaluation will also be mentioned. A. Stage 1: Groundwork The faculty members first determined the experiments to be performed in this laboratory to support the syllabus for the existing power curriculum. The part of the curriculum covered by this laboratory deals with constructional, operational and modeling details of power generation, transmission and distribution systems, power system protection and high voltage engineering. The experiments are already listed in Section II. This stage did not involve any student input and was obviously accomplished before the grant was procured. B. Stage 2: Evolution of a Common Design Strategy Once the project was funded, the faculty members involved with the project met several times over one semester to work out the implementation plan. The most challenging part of the project was to design the experiments in such a way that they can be implemented through senior design projects and yet not lose the thoroughness in covering the related concepts. Thus, both the hardware implementation and the educational delivery were of essence. The experiments described in Section II-A were already being performed at the time the proposal was written, but were

5 536 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 20, NO. 2, MAY 2005 not permanently mounted. So it was decided to make them a part of the laboratory in the form of dedicated desktop panels. The thrust of the laboratory was on developing new experiments in Power System Protection as listed in Section II-B and II-C. Since the basic nature of these experiments and the equipments required for them were similar, it was possible to employ a common hardware strategy for all the experiments. It was felt that this would standardize some design aspects and hence would make it easier to implement the experiments through senior design projects. Several ideas were considered to be adopted as a common hardware strategy. Finally, it was decided to have all the experiments reflect the appearance and operation in a real substation. This was an important step because this was the feature that was most appreciated by all evaluators as unique. Circuit drawings of an actual substation were studied, which led to the formation of a general idea of the main, control and indication circuitry similar to those shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 and the general appearance shown in Fig. 5. It is easy to see that these circuits resemble closely to the wiring diagram in any substation, and the panel view resembles the panel of a substation. It was also decided to use rheostats to represent transmission and distribution lines, because they enable to change the fault location easily and are very cost effective. It was also decided to model the load with a rheostat to make it variable in order to observe the effect of the load current on relay settings. The design of the measurement circuitry was left for the students. Again, this stage did not involve any input from students. C. Stage 3: Design Now a group of three students was chosen to develop the first experiment. This experiment happened to the one described in Section III. The design tasks accomplished by the students can be subdivided as below: 1. To be completely familiar with the underlying theory for the experiment they were assigned. The participating students had taken two basic courses in Power Systems (Power System I and Power System II) at this point of time. This gave them knowledge of different types of relays, in addition to the constructional, operational and modeling details of power generation, transmission and distribution systems. In addition, they registered for a course on Power System Protection concurrently with the project. Therefore, this task was accomplished in one week. 2. To develop the experiment setup, procedure, learning outcomes, experiment-specific main, control and indication circuits as well as panel design. The formation of procedure and learning outcomes took two weeks and needed close interaction with faculty. Since the general idea of the circuitry was already formed by faculty members as described in Section IV-B, the students came up with the specific circuits in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and the panel design in Fig. 5 in two weeks. 3. To determine the ratings of the equipment to be used. The important factor considered here was to limit the load on the electrical outlets (230 volts, 50 hertz, single-phase) during normal and faulted operation. This determined the maximum load and fault current values allowed. Using these values, continuous and short time ratings of equipment like rheostats, contactors, current transformers, and relays were determined. Ratings of the indication devices, push buttons and the auxiliary relays were determined from the dc rectifier output voltage (110 volts). This was accomplished in one week. Now, circuits shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 were finalized to the last detail. D. Stage 4: Installation, Commissioning, Documentation, and Presentation Once the ratings were approved by the faculty, the equipments were ordered. There were no budgetary constraints imposed on the students. Since all the other experiments were to be designed with this common strategy, and hence would have similar ratings, the faculty could order the equipment in bulk. This introduced some delay for the first senior project group, but for all other experiments in later years, the time to order equipment was saved. This was another advantage of the common design strategy. The equipment list is given in Section II. Most of the items were available with the local vendors. All the required items except relays could be procured in less than four weeks. The students utilized this time in working on the measurement circuit design (see Fig. 4) and in preparing the wooden panel shown in Fig. 5. Since the students had used timers in other experiments, designing the measurement circuit was easily accomplished. The panel, with the necessary slots (for relays) cut, and holes (for push buttons, bulbs, buzzer, semaphores, switches and terminals) drilled, was mounted on a desk top with right angle clamps, leaving about one foot wide desk-space behind the panel. As the equipments arrived, the work on installation of components and wiring the circuit started. The circuit was connected adhering to the practices adopted in wiring sub station panels. Ferrules were used to identify wires and the wires were bunched up behind the panel. CTs, contactors and auxiliary relays were mounted on the desktop surface behind the panel. Rheostats were mounted on the rear flank of the desk itself. The process took about three weeks. Finally, the students performed the experiment, recorded all readings, prepared a written report and presented formally to a panel consisting of faculty and local industry representatives. They also had to present their progress to the faculty twice during the semester in the form of a slide presentation. During the course of the project, a very close interaction between the students and the faculty was maintained. Weekly meetings provided the required brainstorming and monitoring. During the physical implementation, the faculty supervised the project almost on a daily basis. The initial planning and detailing were done with so much care and collective inputs, and followed up by such close collaboration, that every experiment operated as intended. E. Other Experiments The experiments described in Section II-A were relatively easy to implement. A group of two students worked over a six-month period to implement each of these experiments. The

6 OZA AND BRAHMA: DEVELOPMENT OF POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION LABORATORY 537 experiments listed in Section II-B required a relay-testing panel. Two desktop panels were created to accommodate all the relays. Each panel was designed and commissioned by a group three students. In these projects, the students designed and implemented a comprehensive relay testing circuit that measured the supplied current and/or the applied voltage as well as the time of operation of a relay, automatically disconnecting the supply as soon as the relay operated. The features of the circuit were similar to the circuits shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 4. This circuit produced results comparable with the results from the professional relay testing set mentioned in Section II. Each experiment described in Section II-C was considered as a senior project and was undertaken by a group of three students. The high voltage part of the laboratory was professionally installed as a part of the purchase agreement, since this was beyond the scope of the students. All projects lasted for one semester. It is worthwhile to mention here that the semester involved a three-week winter break, which was utilized by the students for concentrated effort. The listed projects were completed over a period of five years. F. Measuring Tools and Dissemination The quality of the project itself (the hardware development) was evaluated by representatives from local industry as well as faculty. The effectiveness of the educational delivery provided by the resulting experiments has been evaluated over the years by alumni who performed the experiments as part of their coursework. Both evaluations have been extremely positive. Several alumni who joined power utilities after graduation felt very comfortable working in a substation due to being exposed to a similar environment in the laboratory. The laboratory is being used as a model by some of the new colleges coming up in the state of Gujarat. This laboratory has also been lavishly praised as one of its kind by a visiting committee from the All India Council of Technical Education as well as officially recognized by the Director of Technical Education for the state of Gujarat. For further dissemination, the authors are planning to design a web page associated with the college web site ( or with one of the authors home pages ( where the laboratory manuals for all experiments will be made available. V. CONCLUSION The paper describes a power system laboratory unique in some ways. It is prepared fully through senior projects. This has enabled the college to spend the entire grant in procuring quality equipment. From a really small sum of approximately US$ , a laboratory has been created that encompasses all major fundamentals of power system through insightful experiments. This is very crucial for colleges in developing countries. The laboratory is being used by approximately 180 students every year as a part of their coursework. In addition, the students from other nearby colleges regularly come to perform experiments in this laboratory. Another novel feature of the laboratory is that it provides a real substation like operating environment, especially for the protection related experiments. The high voltage transformer and the relay testing set procured with this grant, in addition to being used for experiments, are used for professional testing too, thus generating revenue for the college. The process of fully integrating digital relays into the experiments is ongoing and constitutes the second phase of the laboratory. This phase aims at creating experiments using these relays that can illustrate, along with the protection fundamentals, the full capability of these relays to the students. REFERENCES [1] T. S. Sidhu and M. S. Sachdev, Laboratory setup for teaching and research in computer-based power system protection, in Proc. Int. Conf. Energy Manage. Power Del., vol. 2, 1995, pp [2] M. S. Sachdev and T. S. Sidhu, Laboratory for research and teaching of microprocessor-based power system protection, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 11, no. 2, pp , May [3] M. A. Redfern, R. K. Aggarwal, and G. C. Massey, Interactive power system simulation for the laboratory evaluation of power system protection relays, in Proc. Int. Conf. Develop. Power Syst. Protect., vol. 302, 1989, pp [4] L. Wei-Jen, G. Jyh-Cherng, L. Ren-Jun, and D. Ponpranod, A physical laboratory for protective relay education, IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 45, no. 2, pp , May [5] S. P. Carullo and C. O. Nwankpa, Interconnected power system laboratory: a computer automated instructional facility for power system experiments, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 17, no. 2, pp , May [6] S. M. Lutful Kabir, Computer operated coordinated over-current protection scheme, in Proc. Univ. Power Eng. Conf., 2000, pp [7] Z. Chen, A. Kalam, and A. Zayegh, Advanced microprocessor based power protection system using artificial neural network techniques, in Proc. Int. Conf. Energy Manage. Power Del., vol. 1, 1995, pp [8] P. G. McLaren, R. Kuffel, R. Wierckx, R. J. Giesbrecht, and L. Arendt, A real time digital simulator for testing relays, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 7, no. 1, pp , Jan Bhuvanesh A. Oza was born in Rajkot, India, in He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees, both in electrical engineering, from Sardar Patel University, Gujarat, India, in 1972 and 1982, respectively. His industrial experience from 1974 to 1986 includes working with Rakot Phones Subdivision, Baroda Meters, and Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB). At Baroda Meters, he was in charge of energy meter production. At GEB, he was part of a 22-member team to commission unit number five of Ukai Thermal Power Station, Gujarat. Since 1986, he has been with Birla Vishvakarma Mahavidyalaya Engineering College, Vallabh Vidyanagar, India, first as a Lecturer and from 1990 onwards as an Assistant Professor. His areas of interest are power system protection and operation. Sukumar M. Brahma (S 00 M 04) was born in Ahmedabad, India, in He received the B.Eng. degree from Lalbhai Dalpatbhai College of Engineering, Ahmedabad, India, in 1989, the M.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, in 1997, and the Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Clemson University, Clemson, SC, in From 1990 to 1999, he was a Lecturer in the Electrical Engineering Department with Birla Vishvakarma Mahavidyalaya Engineering College, Vallabh Vidyanagar, India. He is presently an Assistant Professor at Widener University, Chester, PA. His research interests are power system analysis, protection, and operation.