Innovation Anthology #179: Associate Vice President Research and Innovation
The static or buzz you hear sometimes on the phone is caused by harmonics that transfer between power and telephone lines.
Harmonics, like power surges and blackouts, create many costly problems for utility companies and their customers. But help is on the way thanks to the research of Dr. Wilsun Xu at the University of Alberta.
Alberta’s utility companies have joined forces with iCORE, the Informatics Circle of Research Excellence and NSERC, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, to support Dr. Xu with an industrial research chair in power quality.
One project for Dr. Xu is the development of sophisticated sensors to predict and fix power problems.
Dr. WILSUN XU: We place sensors in the power system. So the sensors pick up localized information. But collectively from our sensors we can know what are the source of the disturbances and what are the conditions of the power system. The key question is how do you interpret the data. That is what we try to do.
Dr. Xu says this technology will also prevent shutdowns in industries that depend on reliable power to run sensitive processes in their mills and factories.
Thanks today to ICORE, The Informatics Circle of Research Excellence.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY,
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
Chris Dambrowitz, PhD,
NAIT – Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,
Sponsor
Program Date: 2008-10-28