Research @ Texas A&M University recently published this article mentioning the work of Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor, Dr. Zheng O’Neill. The research team is working to better manage and withstand future challenges using technology and distributed energy resources like rooftop solar panels in Puerto Rico.
Link to origional article - Research @ Texas A&M
Dr. Zheng O'Neill has been with the J. Mike Walker '66 Department of Mechanical Engineering since 2020. Her research areas include:
Building/HVAC&R energy efficiency
Intelligent building controls and optimization
Grid-interactive efficient buildings
Heat pump technologies
Uncertainty quantification in building energy systems
Well-being in the built environment
Her research supports the above project alongside the nonprofit organization Slipstream, which is leading the effort.
“This community is highly susceptible to electric outages stemming from Puerto Rico’s fragile power infrastructure,” O’Neill said. “After Hurricane Maria, fallen trees and debris blocked roads, which isolated residents for 10 days—first responders had to arrive via helicopter. The community remained without power for six months. This project will develop an innovative community-based energy resilience plan and explore and demonstrate a VOLTTRON-based automated sensing and control system to enable rapid energy restoration.”
The team defines energy resilience as the inherent and adaptive capacity of buildings, infrastructure and urban energy systems to anticipate, absorb, recover from and adaptively respond to disruptions in energy supply and demand while ensuring sustained functionality, efficiency and equitability both in the short and long term, O’Neill said.
With the implementation of more robust renewable energy sources, such as solar panels, battery energy storage systems and two multi-property microgrids, the team hopes to provide energy security for the more than 2,000 residents of the area — as well as a blueprint for others to follow.
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