Chairholders

Profile

Wilsun Xu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Alberta

Chair title

NSERC / iCORE / Alberta Power Companies Industrial Research Chair in Power Quality

Chair program

Industrial Research Chairs program

Role

Senior Chairholder since 2008

Summary

The electric power system is one of the most critical components in the energy infrastructure of modern society. In Alberta, the power system has become increasingly important due to the developments in the resource sector and the shortage of power engineers. This Chair program is a proactive response by Alberta power companies and the University of Alberta to address these challenges.

The chair program will bring together Alberta power companies, with the University of Alberta as the coordinating organization and the Chairholder as the main proponent:

• to research technical issues of strategic importance to the power industry, especially in the areas of power quality, asset utilization and energy conservation;
• to increase the number and quality of graduate and undergraduate students to meet growing industry needs;
• to support the professional development of practicing engineers in Alberta; and
• to promote cooperation and exchange within the Alberta power and energy community.

The Alberta’s Informatics Circle of Research Excellence (iCORE) also co-funds this program. The iCORE grant will enable the program to pursue cross-disciplinary research in informatics and energy systems. The IRC program will conduct fundamental and applied research in the following three directions:

• Information extraction and utilization for smart distribution grid;
• Flexible AC signaling technology for active power system protection and monitoring; and
• Power quality control for systems with distributed disturbance sources.

The Chairholder, Dr. Wilsun Xu, is an internationally recognized expert in power quality and a fellow of IEEE. He has close to 20 years of experience in industry and academia.

Partners

• Informatics Circle of Research Excellence of Alberta (iCORE)
• AESO Alberta Electric System Operator
• ALTALINK, L.P. Management Ltd.
• ATCO Electric Ltd.
• EPCOR Distribution & Transmission Inc.
• FortisAlberta Inc.

Contact information

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Alberta
ECERF BLDG 2nd Floor
9107 116 Street
Edmonton, Alberta
T6G 2V4

Tel.: 780-492-5965
Fax: 780-492-1811
Email: wxu@ualberta.ca

Website:
http://www.ece.ualberta.ca/~wxu/