Efrain O'Neill-Carrillo

Efficient Home Appliances for a Future DC Residence

This paper focuses on the adaptation of residential home appliances to recent advances in power electronics technology and to a DC supply of power. This is motivated by the DC nature of most home appliances, and also the DC output of many renewable technologies. With the advances in power electronics technologies, the monthly power consumption of a residence can be greatly reduced, and as a result, system costs associated with the acquisition of a renewable system can be reduced by increasing the efficiency of each individual appliance through the use of a DC supply. Furthermore, completely operating a residence from renewable sources increases the reduction of CO2 emissions from the residential sectors.

Sustainable Energy: Balancing the Economic, Environmental and Social Dimensions of Energy

Many of the problems the World faces are managed from a mostly technical or economical perspective, even though problems also have social and environmental dimensions and could be better managed with a more integrative, global perspective. A common trait of these global issues is their interdisciplinary nature, which makes them complex problems difficult to address from one particular discipline. Energy is an example of a global, interdisciplinary problem which is usually approached from a narrow technical or economical perspective. This paper will approach the energy dilemma from the broader perspective of sustainability, striving to achieve a balance among the economic, environmental and social dimensions of energy. Such a balance can benefit the energy policy process by providing a framework that account for many of the interests involved in developing future energy directions and policies.

Social, Ethical and Global Issues in Engineering

The College of Engineering of the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (UPRM) adopted an ethics across the curriculum (EAC) strategy in 2005. EAC is based on the combination of faculty development workshops, a stand-alone course in ethics, and ethics learning modules integrated at various levels of the engineering curriculum. In 2006 the EAC strategy was expanded to include social and global issues in engineering. A Coordinator for Social, Ethical and Global Issues (SEGI) in Engineering was appointed in the College of Engineering to coordinate and support activities related to these areas at all engineering departments. Such a position is valuable in demonstrating the commitment to educating integral engineers that are both technically capable and socially responsible. This SEGI work presents a more integrated curriculum to students through activities that link liberal arts courses and topics to engineering. The position also serves as a liaison with other Colleges in these matters, and supports the achievement of eight of the learning outcomes from ABETpsilas criterion 3. This paper describes the various activities of the coordination of the SEGI work, and its relationship to the general education component of engineering curricula.

Advancing a Sustainable Energy Ethics Through Stakeholder Engagement

The Worlds dependence on fossil fuels and the need to move to more beneficial energy alternatives pose daunting challenges to humanity. Historically, economic and political rationality has driven the exploration, development and management of natural resources in the search for stable energy supplies. The insistence on continuing the unsustainable consumption patterns of developed countries has jeopardized human rights, political stability, environmental quality and sustainable improvement for vulnerable communities. This single-minded pursuit of economic rationality pushes to the side a more beneficial, holistic sustainability framework that integrates environmental, ethical and social value with economic and practical considerations. This paper will focus on responding to the challenge of energy sustainability by advancing a new energy ethics founded on the bedrock of solid environmental, social and ethical principles. It will also expand this baseline by presenting a new vision of ethical and practical excellence in energy, a vision that will translate readily into new and implementable energy policies.

Intelligent power routers : a distributed coordination approach for electric energy processing networks

The Intelligent Power Router (IPR), a concept based on scalable coordination, is proposed to control the next generation power network. Our goal is to show that by distributing network intelligence and control functions using the IPR, we will be capable of achieving improved survivability, security, reliability, and reconfigurability. Each IPR has embedded intelligence into it allowing it to switch power lines, shed load, and receive/broadcast local state-variable information to and from other IPRs. The information exchange capability of the routers will provide coordination among themselves to reconfigure the network when subject to a natural or man-made disaster. In this paper, we report our progress on six different activities around the creation of the IPR: IPR architecture; Communication Protocols among IPR; distributed controls; risk assessment of a system operated with and without IPR; power system reconfiguration based on a controlled islanding scheme using IPR; and the definition of the power routing as an ancillary service, since the IPR may provide improved efficiency and security in the context of a realistic market structure, such as Standard Market Design with LMP pricing algorithm. Finally, we present our effort to link this new concept to an education plan that addresses the socio-technical nature of power systems and the education needs of the new workforce.

Undergraduate research and new laboratory practices in power engineering

A recent NSF Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) grant supported the adaptation and creation of activities that connect power engineering theory to actual scaled-implementations at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (UPRM). To this end, laboratory practices and undergraduate research projects were conducted at the new Energy Systems Instrumentation Laboratory (ESIL). Activities at ESIL include: traditional laboratory practices; laboratory practices integrated within courses; undergraduate research projects; demonstrations, seminars and short-courses. Laboratory practices were created for two introductory courses and two Senior design courses. ESIL has also enabled more students to participate in power engineering research projects in power quality, photovoltaic systems and power electronics. Assessment tools have been developed with the collaboration of a specialized team from the Social Sciences Department. ESIL also fosters the integration of teaching and research, and the development of new teaching methods for the improvement of undergraduate education.

Creating ethical awareness in electrical and computer engineering students: a learning module on ethics

The complex interaction between engineering, technology, social needs and values challenges engineering education programs to prepare new professionals to respond to real engineering problems with more than technical skills. The goal of the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez is to develop a full-scale program of Ethics Across the Engineering Curriculum. As a first step we have developed an Ethics Module for ECE students. Ethics workshops were given to students of Pattern Recognition and Power Engineering. Instruments were developed to assess student learning and perception about the ethical and social implications in engineering. At the end of each workshop, participants completed the assessment instrument. The assessment instruments were used to evaluate the impact of the Ethics Module in two aspects: the learning process of the students and their perception, and the impact on their ethical conduct

Analysis of wind projects considering public perception and environmental impact

Nowadays, we arc confronting many different problems and limitations associated with conventional electricity generation. People are concerned about the pollution emitted by energy sources like coal, oil and natural gas. Wind power is one of the most rapidly growing technologies for renewable power generation, and is taking an important role as an accepted utility generation technology. It is important to consider the direct and indirect environmental impacts associated with wind energy. Some of them are related to the visual impact, noise, use of lands, electromagnetic interferences, the impact on birds and the impact of construction in terrestrial ecosystems. This paper focuses on the perception of the public about wind energy, and potential environmental impacts. The paper also presents an example of the analysis for a wind project in the island of Puerto Rico, considering impact on bird mortality.

The power of undergraduate research

Over the years, the power engineering program at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (UPRM) has prepared engineers to deal successfully with industry challenges. An important strategy in a power engineering curriculum renovation has been to give a more prominent role to undergraduate research. A new Energy Systems Instrumentation Laboratory (ESIL) has been established at UPRM to support the integration of undergraduate research within the power curriculum. ESIL is both a physical space and a teaching philosophy. It occupies two laboratory spaces at the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department, and it is also an environment where students are active participants in the learning process. Undergraduate research projects at ESIL provide an opportunity for students to study in detail theoretical concepts presented in class, improve their understanding of engineering principles and applications, and explore the frontiers of knowledge in power engineering. The ESIL also fosters the integration of teaching and research and the development of new teaching methods for the improvement of undergraduate education. This is done by adapting the results from projects to courses in the form of demonstrations and laboratory practices. Research projects also provide measurable outcomes of student work that can be used to comply with new ABET accreditation criteria.

Experiences with stakeholder engagement in transitioning to an increased use of renewable energy systems

Transitioning to an infrastructure that integrates a more substantial portion of renewable energy sources into the larger energy portfolio is not effortless or without sacrifice; it has economic, technical as well as social challenges related to the decisions, choices and consequences in trying to establish new energy systems. Those decisions, choices and consequences are highly dependent on the social, economical and environmental context in which they are made. It is of paramount importance to look for a means of involving more sectors in the policy discussions that are taking place in facing the challenges of an increased use of renewable energy. All energy stakeholders should be engaged in discussions about a new energy future. This paper presents lessons learned from experiences with energy stakeholder engagement in Puerto Rico. Both theoretical and practical issues are presented, in the context of a fossil-fuel dependent society which has the added challenge of being geographically isolated from the main sources of fuel. The paper also presents alternatives for broader participation of energy stakeholders in the energy decision-making process as well as education and outreach challenges.