Jan Kleissl
University of California-San Diego, CA·Engineering
The power grid is shifting toward rooftop solar, batteries, electric vehicles and other small, scattered energy sources known as distributed energy resources (DERs). These sources are hard to coordinate.
- Fields
Engineering
Earth & Environmental Science
Computer Science
- Topics
power grid
smart grid
distributed energy resources
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Oct 2026
What they work on
- Build DERConnect, a remote-access testbed that integrates solar panels, battery storage, electric vehicles, wind and solar emulators, and controllable building lighting and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems.
- Enable testing of real-time data analytics, machine learning and distributed control algorithms for coordinating many distributed energy resources under changing grid conditions.
- Support joint optimization of grid operations and communications networks under normal and adversarial (cyberattack-like) conditions, including studies of human behavior and incentives.
More about the research
Demand is inflexible, grid operations are outdated, and human behavior adds uncertainty. A major barrier to new grid technology is the lack of large, realistic places to test control algorithms before using them on the real grid.
Why it matters
A realistic, cyber-secured test environment could speed the development of control methods that let utilities integrate more solar, wind, batteries and electric vehicles reliably. It also offers microgrid design experience relevant to communities, such as California Native American tribes, that rely on microgrids for energy security.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Javad Khazaei
Lehigh University, PA·Engineering·Early-career
Learn low-dimensional manifolds from time-series measurements of distributed energy resources and use them for real-time predictive control of voltage, frequency and power sharing in microgrids.
Yuhong Liu
Santa Clara University, CA·Engineering
Gather critical use cases from stakeholders in grid-interactive communities to define research problems that call for multidisciplinary, international collaboration on clean energy.
Kathryn Hinkelman
University of Vermont, VT·Engineering
Translate honeybee trophallaxis, food sharing between bees, into mathematical models and bio-inspired control methods for peer-to-peer energy sharing among electric vehicles, heat pumps, water heaters and batteries.
The school
University of California-San Diego: 84 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 637 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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