April 1998

 Thirty is one of those "magic numbers". Magic for the Electric Utility Management Program because this is "Annual Report Number Thirty". Since I am the only one who is still around from when the program started thirty years ago, it is safe to say that we never expected it to last this long. Most programs that start at a university are relatively short lived. I certainly hoped back in 1968 that the program would be successful and provide the power industry with the new engineering talent so needed in those days of the "space race". Once the flow of new power engineers had started I figured the program would ride off into the setting sun, so to speak. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect the program to be with me for the remainder of my career at NMSU. The success of the program still is a direct result of the outstanding support that we have received from industry and the dedicated faulty and students who have been associated with the program for the last thirty years.

This year has brought about the usual differences from previous years. After many years of a bad job market for engineers, the tide has turned. All areas of electrical engineering, including power, have started hiring again. I have received many calls from power companies wanting to hire a young graduate with five years experience and holding the professional engineer’s license. It has finally dawned on these companies that their experienced engineers have retired or left the company and they don’t have young engineers to replace them. At the same time that the job market is opening, we (and all other engineering schools) are experiencing a very low output of graduating students. While the job market was down the number of new students entering engineering was down. There is a direct relationship between the job market and the number of high school graduates entering engineering colleges. That very small wave of students is now graduating at the same time that the job market is opening up. It is a great time to be graduating, needless to say.

The small graduating class and the wide-open job market are having a significant impact on the number of students entering graduate school. When the job market was down, we had record numbers of students entering graduate school. With the job market up, the number of students entering graduate school is down. This is having an impact on EUMP. For the first time in 30 years I do not have a single new student applying for the program starting in the fall. Fortunately all of the EUMP students in the program this spring will be returning in the fall. It won’t be until next spring that we face a severe student shortage. I plan on advertising in trade magazines and on the Web this summer. I know the students are out there; we just have to find them.

 New Mexico Society of Professional Engineers Away

Last summer the New Mexico Society of Professional Engineers celebrated their 50^th anniversary. As part of the celebration they sponsored the "50^th Anniversary Engineering Award Program". Sixty three engineering projects were entered. The scope of the projects entered covered a wide variety of engineering achievements across the state. The Awards Program Committee selected eight different categories of engineering achievement. I am very proud that the Electric Utility Management Program was selected to receive the "Professional Development" award for continuously providing leaders for the electric power industry.

After four years of televising live graduate power classes to the Public Service Company of New Mexico and Sandia, we are closing out that project at the end of this semester. The closing is not because of a lack of interest or success, rather it is closing because of the tremendous success the project has achieved. This semester four of the TV students will complete the requirements for the degree. Four additional students only lack completion of their technical reports. The students completing their courses this semester are:

1. Steve Conrad PNM
2. Dick Curtner PNM
3. Tom Duane PNM
4. Gene Wolf PNM

Students completing their technical reports are:

1. Ross McCorcle PNM
2. Gerard Ortiz PNM
3. John Rathbun Sandia
4. Dan Sherman Sandia

 At the end of this semester we will have eight graduate power classes on video tape. As I reported last year, we are still trying to figure out how to make these tapes available to engineers at other utilities on a "self study" basis. As of this time, "distance" students must enroll as regular graduate students and sign up for a class at the start of a regular semester. This is workable, but we would prefer to be able to offer the classes via the tapes anytime during the year.

 Rural Electric Engineers Organization

The Rural Electric Engineers Organization is alive and thriving. We had a very successful meeting on campus during the fall semester. The engineers met at the same time that the fall underground school for the cooperative linemen was taking place. The engineers participated in some of the classes with the linemen and then met on campus. This spring the engineers met in Albuquerque and had a two day session on remote meter reading and microprocessor based relays.

 The organization membership includes 8 engineers from New Mexico cooperatives, one engineer from an Arizona cooperative, 5 consulting engineers and several technicians. Our of the 8 New Mexico Engineers, 7 are graduates of NMSU. John Benard (EUMP – 1981) is the president of the organization. Keven Groenewold (EUMP – 1988) is also an active member and participates in the organization. At this time Keven is the acting Executive Vice President of the New Mexico Rural Electric Cooperative Association

 Lineman’s Training School

The lineman’s training facility on campus continues to be used by the New Mexico Rural Electric Cooperatives. Each fall a week-long school on underground systems is held and during the spring the overhead school is conducted. These schools are planned and conducted by the line superintendent’s organization. The first two days of the schools typically are classroom instruction followed by two days of field work. This past fall the cooperatives engineer’s organization attended some of the underground classes.

  Graduated Students

The following students have completed the program since the Annual Meeting held last April:

1. Gary Buchingham – returned to the US Department of Energy in Albuquerque
2. Brian DeBlanc – accepted employment with Underwater Electric Boat Co.
3. Duane Lopez – accepted employment with Honeywell in Albuquerque
4. Eric Olson - returned to Hughes Missile Systems
5. Tore Soltvedt – returned to Norway
6. Selim Borecki – continuing in Ph.D program

 Three students completed their course work and have gone to work before completing their technical reports:

1. David Claudio
2. Danny Murillo
3. Dustin Volquardsen

The updated list of graduates of the program (203 total) is given in Appendix A. This list shows either the first or (if different and known to me) the present employer of each graduated student. Table 1 is a summary of employment of all of the graduates while Table 2 is a summary of just the EUMP Fellows. Table 1 shows that 65.0% of the total graduates accepted employment with member companies while Table 2 shows that 75.2% of the EUMP Fellows accepted employment with member companies. Table 3 is a breakdown of the number of EUMP graduates employed by member companies. Arizona Public Service Company has employed the most number of graduates (20). Without a doubt, the member companies have derived the maximum benefits of the program by hiring quality engineers who have made significant contributions to their employers.

  1997-98 Graduate Students

 Graduate students enrolled in EUMP this academic year are:

Dale Harrell , Javad Moghaddas, Abraham Ellis and Selim Borecki are enrolled in the doctoral program.

  Fall and Spring Courses Taught

Graduate and undergraduate power systems taught during the fall were:

Power systems courses being offered this spring are:

The enrollment in our power courses is slowly building up again after several years of decreasing. During this year we have offered one less power course each semester primarily because Dr. Smolleck has a funded research project and with that can only teach one course per semester.

 The "management" courses being taken by the graduate students this year are:

ECON 585 ------ Public Utilities Regulation

IE 523 ------ ---- Advanced Engineering Economy

IE 563 ----------- Topics in Engineering Administration

ACCT 505 ------ Financial Accounting

MGT 504 ------- Management and Organization

MKTG 503 ----- Marketing Analysis

In addition to the course work, the students are at various stages of their research projects that will lead to either a technical report or a thesis.

  Graduate Student Theses and Technical Reports Completed

 Student: Brian DeBlanc

Topic: A Novel Method of Fault Current Interruption Using a Controlled

Thyristor-Based Bridge-Type Circuit Breaker

Type: Thesis

Sponsor: Public Service of New Mexico

Advisor: Dr. Smolleck

Completion Date: Spring 1997

________________________________________________________________________

Student: Matthew Leyba

Topic: Study of ASD/Conventional Motor Interaction under Unbalanced

Conditions

Type: Thesis

Sponsor: Arizona Public Service Company

Advisor: Dr. Ranade

Completion Date: Fall 1997

_______________________________________________________________________

Student: Duane Lopez

Topic: Design of a Pulsed 6 kV, 480 MVA Solid-State Switch for a

Repetitively-Pulsed Magnet

Type: Thesis

Sponsor: Los Alamos National Laboratory

Advisor: Dr. Smolleck

Completion Date: Spring 1997

________________________________________________________________________

 Student: Eric Olson

Topic: Neural Network for Arc Furnace Voltage Flicker Compensation

Type: Thesis

Sponsor: Hughes Fellowship, Klipsch Fellowship

Advisor: Dr. Ranade

Completion Date: Summer 1997

________________________________________________________________________

Student: Scott Reed

Topic: Daily Unit Commitment Program

Type: Technical Report

Sponsor: Central and South West

Advisor: Dr. Ranade

Completion Date: Fall 1997

________________________________________________________________________

Student: Selim Borecki

Topic: Novel Approach to Active Harmonic Filter

Type: Technical Report

Sponsor: EUMP

Advisor: Dr. Ranade

Completion Date: Fall 1997

Student: David Claudio

Topic: A Feasibility Study for the Generation of Power within a

Chili Processing Plant

Type: Technical Report

Sponsor: El Paso Electric

Advisor: Prof. Kersting

________________________________________________________________________

Student: Danny Murillo

Topic: Power Quality Assessment Procedure Case Study

Type: Thesis

Sponsor: Intel

Advisor: Dr. Ranade

_______________________________________________________________________

Student: Dustin Volquardsen

Topic: The Theory and Analysis of Step-Type Voltage Regulators and

Connections Including a Closed Delta

Type: Technical Report

Sponsor: Pacific Gas & Electric

Advisor: Prof. Kersting

______________________________________________________________________

Student: Davis Erwin

Topic: Lightning Performance Topics for the PNM Transmission System

Type: Technical Report

Sponsor: Public Service of New Mexico

Advisor: Prof. Kersting

Completion Date: Fall 1998

_____________________________________________________________________

Student: Anthony Hudson

Topic: The Application of Power System Switching Procedures Using an

Expert System

Type: Technical Reprot

Sponsor: Intel Corporation

Advisor: Prof. Kersting

Completion Date: Fall 1998

______________________________________________________________________

Student: Tom Duane

Topic: Rio Puerco Series Capacitor Project

Type: Technical Report

Sponsor: Public Service of New Mexico

Advisor: Prof. Kersting

Completion Date: Spring 1998

______________________________________________________________________

Student: Steve Conrad

Topic: Engineering Considerations when Adding an EHV Transformer

to an Existing Switching Station

Type: Technical Report

Sponsor: Public Service of New Mexico

Advisor: Dr. Ranade

Completion Date: Spring 1998

______________________________________________________________________

Student: Dick Curtner

Topic: The Design, Development, Application and Philosophy of a System

to Improve the Security of Electric Transmission Protective Relays

Type: Technical Report

Sponsor: Public Service of New Mexico

Advisor: Dr. Ranade

Completion Date: Spring 1998

______________________________________________________________________

Student: Gene Wolf

Topic: Blackwater HVDC Converter Station-SVC Operation

Type: Technical Report

Sponsor: Public Service of New Mexico

Advisor: Dr. Ranade

Completion Date: Spring 1998

______________________________________________________________________

Student: Dan Sherman

Topic: A Coordinated Protection Plan for Sandia National Labs

Distribution System

Type: Technical Report

Sponsor: Sandia National Labs

Advisor: Prof. Kersting

Completion Date: Fall 1998

In addition to the MSEE projects described above, Javad Moghadas is working on his Ph.D Dissertation "Fuzzy Clustering Application for Power Flow Analysis". Dr. Prasad is his advisor.

  Power System Papers Published and/or Accepted for Publication

W. H. Kersting, W. H. Phillips, R. Clay Doyle

"Distribution feeder reliability studies", presented at the 1997 IEEE Rural Electric Power Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 20-22, 1997. Accepted for publication in a future issue of IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.

 W.H. Kersting, W.H. Phillips, W. Carr

"A new approach to modeling three-phase transformer connections", accepted for presentation at the 1998 IEEE Rural Electric Power Conference, St. Louis, MO, April 27-28, 1998.

 F. Shabani, N. R. Prasad, and H. A. Smolleck

"A fuzzy-logic-supported weighted least-squares state estimation", Electric Power Systems Research, vol. 39 (1997), pp.55-60.

 H. A. Smolleck and L. P. Huelsman

Descriptive summary and illustration of the HARMDEM software developed under the author's direction, appearing in "PC Programs for Engineers" column in IEEE Circuits and Devices, July 1997, pp. 3-4.

 S. Saneifard, N. R. Prasad, and H. A. Smolleck "A fuzzy logic approach to unit commitment", accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems; to appear in 1998. This paper was also presented by myself at the IEEE Power Engineering Society Summer Power Meeting, Denver, CO, July 30, 1996..

S. Saneifard, N. R. Prasad, and H. A. Smolleck

"Fuzzy logic speed control of a shunt dc motor", accepted for publication in IEEE Trans. EDUC, February 1998.

 H. A. Smolleck and L. P. Huelsman

Descriptive summary and illustration of the MACHDEM software developed under the author's direction, to appear in the "PC Programs for Engineers" column in IEEE Circuits and Devices in 1998.

H. J. Boenig, J. W. Schwartzenberg, L. J. Willinger, D. E. Piccone, D. A. Lopez, H. A. Smolleck

"Design and testing of high power, repetitively pulsed solid-state closing switches", accepted for publication in IEEE Trans IAS. This paper was judged Best Paper by the Awards Subcommittee of the Power Electronic Devices and Components Committee of the IEEE Industry Application Society.

H. A. Smolleck,

"A program of continuing education to address critical electrical facility-related concerns associated with environmental issues", Proc. of the Joint Conference on the Environment (WERC/HSRC), Albuquerque, NM, April 22-24, 1997.

F. Shabani, N. R. Prasad, and H. A. Smolleck,

"Fuzzy state prediction for power systems", Annie '97 Artifical Neural Networks in Engineering conference, St. Louis, MO, November 9-12, 1997.

H. A. Smolleck,

"Development of microcomputer-based instructional aids for introductory technology courses: a new approach and initial work" (invited paper), presented at the NSF/ATE Principal Investigators' Conference, Washington, D.C., November 21-23, 1997.

H. A. Smolleck,

"Development of Microcomputer-based instructional aids for introductory technmology courses: initial accomplishments", accepted for presentation at the ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Tempe, AZ, Nov. 4-7, 1998.

S. J. Ranade, W. Xu,

" Overview of Harmonics" Chapter 1, in IEEE Tutorial on Harmonics Modeling and Simulation, 1998

W. Xu, S. J. Ranade,

" Harmonics in Unbalanced Systems" Chapter 6, in IEEE Tutorial on Harmonics Modeling and Simulation, 1998

 S. J. Ranade – co-author as member of IEEE Task Force on Harmonics Modeling andSimulation

Ellis, A., Ranade, S. J.,

"Numerical modeling of pv array performance", To be presented at the Solar98 conference, Albuquerque, June 1998.

N. R. Prasad

"Neural Networks and Fuzzy Logic-Based Integrated Systems", Contributed Chapter to Handbook of Fuzzy Systems, Vol. VI, Kluwer Academic Press, 1997.

N. R. Prasad, E. M. Shabani

"Parameter optimization for an autofocus system using genetic algorithms", Proceedings of the International Society for Optical Engineers, Vol. 2855, April 1997.

Title: "Development of user-friendly microcomputer-based instructional aids for introductory courses in electrical technology and engineering"

Investigator: Dr. Smolleck

Agency: National Science Foundation

Amount: $169,177

Duration: August 1996 - December 1998

________________________________________________________________________

 Title: "Development of user-friendly microcomputer-based instruction aids for introductory EE courses"

Investigator: Dr. Smolleck

Agency: Westinghouse Foundation

Amount: $35,000

Duration: August 1996 - August 1999

________________________________________________________________________

Title: "Advanced Load Modeling"

Investigator: Dr. Ranade

Agency: EPRI

Amount: $158,000

Duration: 1997-1999

________________________________________________________________________

Title: "Development of Fuzzy Controllers for Laser Beam Quality"

Investigator: Dr. Prasad

Agency: Coherent, Inc.

Amount: $ 18,000

________________________________________________________________________

Proposal Submitted:

In February 1998, a proposal was submitted to NSF for the establishment of a Center for Soft Computing. The proposal requests approximately $15 million dollars to establish the Rio Grande Center for Soft Computing with collaboration from UTEP, NMIMT, LANL, SNL and the US Army’s White Sands Missile Range. Several industry partners have shown willingness to contribute and participate in the Center’s activities.

  The Curriculum

A listing of the requirements for the MSEE degree and course descriptions for undergraduate, graduate and related courses can be found in Appendix B.

 Dr. Dave Smith will meet with the Advisory Board and discuss plans for "restructuring" the utility regulation courses.

  The Future

What does the future hold for EUMP? What does the future hold for the electric power industry? These two questions go hand-in-hand. As the industry moves into the new era of de-regulation the future of EUMP will become clear. I personally have very strong feelings that the industry is going to have increasingly greater need for more young engineers who will understand the technical problems created by the new industry in addition to having a knowledge of the "wheeling" and "dealing" that create the new engineering challenges. In many ways I am reminded of a recent "Dilbert" comic strip sequence. For several days the engineer had been trying to get rid of his old computer that was no longer working. He couldn’t trade it in for a new one and he couldn’t throw it away because of company policy. Finally he built a catapult and sent his old computer flying out of his cubicle. His remark to a co-worker was that " there is always an engineering solution to a problem". There will be engineering solutions to the problems created by the new industry. Let’s all work towards keeping EUMP strong and healthy so that we can produce the new engineers who will find those solutions.

W. H. Kersting

Director

I. Options

A. Thesis

1. 24 hours of course work

2. 6 hour thesis

B. Technical Report

1. 30 hours of course work

2. 3 hour technical report

II. Electrical Engineering Courses

A. Senior elective/graduate courses (these are taken by students coming to NMSU with a non-power background)

B. Graduate Electric Power Courses

*3. EE 533 - Power System Operation (3 hours)

*4. EE 534 - Power System Protection (3 hours)

5. EE 535 - Applied Power System Planning (3 hours)

6. EE 536 - Power System Overvoltage Transients (3 hours)

7. EE 537 - Power Electronics (3 hours)

8. EE 538 - Advanced Distribution Systems (3 hours)

9. EE 590 - Power Utilization and Power Quality (3 hours)

C. Appropriate Graduate Electrical Engineering Courses

*1. EE 511 - Networks I (3 hours)

2. EE 512 - Networks II ( 3 hours

3. EE 590 - Expert Systems (3 hours)

III. Related Area Courses

A. Economics

1. ECON 585 - Public Utilities Regulation

2. ACCT 505 - Financial Accounting

3. FIN 506 - Financial Analysis

4. MKTG 503 - Marketing Analysis

B. Industrial Engineering

1. IE 523 - Advanced Engineering Economy

2. IE 563 - Topics in Engineering Adminstration