Renowned Electric Power Engineer Gregory Reed to Serve as First Director of Pitt’s Power and Energy Initiative
The University of
Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering has named renowned electric power
engineer Gregory Reed the first director of its Power and Energy
Initiative. Reed is a worldwide authority on advanced electric power generation,
transmission and distribution systems, and power electronics technologies. He
brings to Pitt nearly a quarter-century of experience in the power industry
that will allow him to oversee the initiative’s main goals: to educate the next
generation of power and energy engineers and to connect University-based
researchers with industry partners and government sponsors in the power and
energy fields.
Reed worked with Pitt’s Swanson School and Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering over the past several years to help establish the Power
and Energy Initiative. The initiative combines educational and research
components into a type of problem-solving resource for existing energy-related
companies, Reed said. Researchers in the Power and Energy Initiative work with
industry partners to identify and address key areas of concern such as energy
efficiency, power system operation and management, energy technology
development, and increased demand for electricity. An educational component
also is being created so that Pitt professors could potentially transfer
industry projects into the classroom, teaching students with hands-on research
that addresses an existing need.
“We consider the Power and Energy Initiative a mechanism to develop mutually
beneficial and longstanding partnerships with industry, from the classroom to
large-scale research collaboration,” Reed said. “We strive to understand what a
company’s research needs are and provide a bridge to the University’s research
expertise. We then hope to use that relationship to develop and update a
curriculum that centers on topics that students are interested in, such as
alternative and renewable energy systems.”
The Power and Energy Initiative is one of the Swanson School’s components of
the University’s Center for Energy, which comprises more than 40 faculty
members and their research teams from various disciplines. The center’s five
focus areas are energy diversification, renewable energy, clean coal
technologies, hydrogen, and environmental solutions.
Many areas of energy research at Pitt look toward future concepts, from
harnessing solar energy to developing synthetic and biomass-derived fuels. The
Power and Energy Initiative focuses on making such existing electricity sources
as fossil fuels and nuclear power cleaner and more efficient, as well as
improving the operation of electrical transmission and distribution networks,
Reed said. Examples of research currently under way in Pitt’s electrical and
computer engineering department include brighter and more energy-efficient LED
lighting, computing techniques for lowering power demand in data centers, and
wireless sensor and control systems for digitally controlled power grids—or
SmartGrids—among other projects.
“The Power and Energy Initiative specializes not in asking ‘can it be done,’
but rather ‘can it be done better,’” Reed said.
Before coming to Pitt, Reed focused his career on creating more efficient and
advanced electric power systems. He has authored or coauthored more than 50
papers and technical articles on power system analysis and the application of
power systems technologies. He was a major contributor to the drafts and
proposals of the 2005 U.S. Energy Policy Act, including written language
pertaining to energy-related research, education, and market initiatives. Prior
to joining the Swanson School, Reed worked at KEMA Inc.—an international power
and energy consulting firm—as senior vice president of the power system
planning and management group where he advised North American firms on power
systems management, power transmission, and technology applications. He spent
most of the previous decade at Mitsubishi Electric Power Products Inc., most
recently as director of business and technology development. Reed began his
career in the electric power industry as an engineer at the Consolidated Edison
Company of New York, Inc.
Reed earned his PhD in electrical engineering at Pitt in 1997 with a
concentration in electric power. He earned his master’s degree in electric
power engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1986 and his BS in
electric power engineering at Gannon University in 1985. He is a member of the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Power and Energy and
Industrial Application Societies and the American Society of Engineering
Education.
The Swanson School frequently partners with companies in Western Pennsylvania
and around the world in research and education. Locally, the school draws upon
the expertise of people working in electric power, mining, nuclear power, and
other areas to teach and design courses to ensure that students receive an
up-to-date and practical education. In turn, the Swanson School helps provide
these companies with the workforce they require.
There is always newsworthy research and events happening in the Swanson School of Engineering.
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