Improving grid behavior
Article Abstract:
The electric power grid system of the western US and British Columbia had two large outages in the summer of 1996 and they served as a wake-up call about reliability needed in the competitive environment then emerging according to Carson W. Taylor, a principal engineers, Bonneville Power Admin., and chair, IEEE Power System Stability Control Subcommittee. Attention to detail and application of best engineering practices can cut down on the likelihood of large power failures, but cost of reliability and cost of failure must be balanced against one another as the commercial structure of the industry evolves and competition and pressure to reduce costs become more important. Load and generation will go up without addition of much capacity in transmission lines. More may be invested in computer control and communications than transmissions lines and the starring role may be played by Information Age technology. Multiple failures will always be possible and defense in depth will always be needed. Interconnected power systems can be seen as the largest machines of the world. Includes accounts of the western US/Canada 1996 outages.
Publication Name: IEEE Spectrum
Subject: Engineering and manufacturing industries
ISSN: 0018-9235
Year: 1999
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Making Java real-time
Article Abstract:
The Java language, virtual machine and application programming interface (API) do not fully accommodate real-time programming, and the lack of an agreed-upon standard hampers full realization of Java's write-once, run-anywhere philosophy. Three areas need attention to make Java suitable for real-time systems: the way memory is dynamically managed, the inability to access hardware directly, and unspecified semantics in the language's programming model.
Publication Name: IEEE Spectrum
Subject: Engineering and manufacturing industries
ISSN: 0018-9235
Year: 1998
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Visualizing the electric grid
Article Abstract:
Visualization software, which can communicate a large amount of information in a computer-generated visual summary, is becoming critical for managing electricity grids. Moreover, this is becoming more true as grids are integrated over larger areas. The capabilities of such software are important to power traders, grid managers and public service boards, as well as to the public itself.
Publication Name: IEEE Spectrum
Subject: Engineering and manufacturing industries
ISSN: 0018-9235
Year: 2001
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