Namaskaram!
D Venkatramanan
Power Engineer || Researcher || Educator || Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB)
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Energy Science & Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), Mumbai. I received my Ph.D. in Power Electronics technology from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore; I was advised by Prof. Vinod John. Before taking up the faculty position, I was a postdoctoral associate with Prof. Sairaj Dhople at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Broadly, I work in the area of distributed renewable energy and storage systems, in an endeavor to promote sustainable energy transition and address climate-change challenges gripping our society at large. I specialize in grid integration of solar PV resources and energy storage systems (e.g., batteries and ultracapacitors) using high-performance PWM power converters. I have strong expertise and domain knowledge---with contributions via relevant research publications---in converter modeling & control, simulations, hardware design & integration, as well as experimental validation. I have four years of professional work experience in industrial R&D pertaining to commercial-scale power conversion applications. I am a Senior Member of IEEE. My current research interests are towards next-generation inverter-based resources (IBRs) for large-scale PV integration, infrastructure development for Electric vehicle charging, grid modernization & transportation electrification at large. I am deeply passionate about teaching, research, and academia.
Opportunities
If you are interested in working with me for a higher degree and making scientific research contributions by solving exciting problems in the broad areas of Grid Decarbonization and/or Transportation Electrification using Power Electronics technology and Control, I welcome you to get in touch by emailing me your résumé. If you are affiliated with the industry and are looking to advance technological solutions in the said broad areas via industry-academia collaborations, I welcome you to reach out to me for further discussion.
Latest
[Oct'24] Our EMPES lab hosted Prof. Sunanda Sinha, a good friend & Assistant Professor in the Center of Energy & Environment at MNIT Jaipur. We discussed methods & modalities needed to firmly integrate the Energy Departments & Centers across India in their efforts towards sustainability. [pic]
[Oct'24] Our EMPES lab played an instrumental role in bringing industry partnership to academia for setting up a modern teaching lab facility & infrastructure, which led to the signing of an MoU between ABB India & IIT Bombay. This state-of-the-art motor-drives laboratory will be set up in DESE, IITB. [pic]
[Oct'24] Our EMPES lab hosted Dr. V V S Pradeep Kumar, a good friend & an industry technocrat, currently with Hitachi Energy, India. We discussed prospective collaboration opportunities with their organization as we recognized several overlapping interests. [pic]
[Aug'24] Nominated as a member of the Board of Studies (BoS) for the Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, NIT Trichy.
[Aug'24] Our research paper Design Comparison and Investigations into Thermal Failure of High-frequency Transformers in Isolated DC-DC Converters won the IEEE WiE Best Paper Award at the IEEE International Communications Energy Conference (INTELEC-2024), held in Bengaluru, India.
Archives
[Aug'24] Our EMPES lab hosted Prof. Harish Krishnamoorthy (a long-time friend and peer) from the University of Houston. He also gave an invited seminar on GaN FET–based Power Converters: Practical Design Challenges and Machine Learning-assisted In-situ Health Prediction. [pic]
[Aug'24] Participated & served as a technical oral session chair in the IEEE International Communications Energy Conference (INTELEC-2024), held in Bengaluru, India. [pic]
[Aug'24] Participated in the IEEE International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Future Electric Transportation (SeFeT-2024), held in Hyderabad, India. [pic]
[Jul'24] Our EMPES lab hosted Prof. Kaushik Rajashekara from the University of Houston. He also gave an invited seminar on Present and Future Trends in the Electrification of Road and Air Transportation. [pic]
[Jul'24] Hosted Prof. Kamalesh Hatua (a long-time friend & senior at IISc, Bangalore) of IIT Madras and Prof. Senthil Kumar (my undergrad teacher) of NIT Trichy, at EMPES lab. It was delightful to interact with them and get their perspectives. [pic]
[Jul'24] Participated in the India Energy Storage Week 2024--International Conference & Expo., held in New Delhi, along with Prof. P Sunthar of IITB, to get the pulse of the industry & policymakers in energy storage space. [pic]
[Jun'24] Our EMPES lab celebrated the successful completion of MTech & Dual Degrees by the outgoing group students with a team dinner at Mantra, Powai, Mumbai. [pic]
[May'24] Hosted A G Vishal Anand, Director of Engineering, Bloom Energy R&D, India, at EMPES lab. He also delivered a splendid invited seminar on Alternate Energy, Microgrids, & Hydrogen Economy. [pic]
[May'24] A research paper accepted at the IEEE International Communications Energy Conference (INTELEC-2024), to be held in Bengaluru, India.
[Apr'24] Hosted Prof. Sivanesan from the Singapore Institute of Technology at EMPES lab. It was indeed nice of him to offer a perspective on research focal points and thrusts from a Singaporean lens. [pic]
[Apr'24] As a part of our EMPES lab initiatives, we conducted an industrial visit with the student group to Innomotics, India (a Siemens subsidiary focusing exclusively on LV & MV motor drives) in Mumbai. The students got to witness their factory shop floor & manufacturing line. [pic]
[Mar'24] Prof. Pavan Hari, myself, and Prof. Ravi Prakash Reddy, have come together to form the Electrical Machines & Power Electronics Systems (EMPES) Lab, at the Department of Energy Science & Engineering, IIT Bombay. Our energy will be channeled towards advancing scientific research and developing (novel) technological solutions for applications spanning E-mobility, Renewable Energy integration, and Sustainable Macro-grids. Building in-house hardware prototypes for demonstration & validation is a key focal point of our lab. We look forward to working together towards a sustainable future.
[Feb'24] Accepted to serve as a Technical Program Committee Co-chair, to play a facilitative role in the IEEE International Communications Energy Conference (INTELEC)-2024 to be held in Bangalore, India.
[Dec'23] Visited Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indore, and delivered an invited talk on Supercapacitor Energy Storage: Past, Present, and Future, at the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Indore. [pic]
[Dec'23] Played an organizational role in the 9th International Conference on Advances on Energy Research (ICAER)-2023, a flagship bi-yearly conference organized by the Department of Energy Science & Engineering, held at IIT Bombay.
[Nov'23] Played a facilitative role in the workshop "Rural Mini Grids: Sustainability Challenges and The Way Forward", held at IIT Bombay, and organized by the Sustainable Energy and Entrepreneurship Development (SEED) Center at IITB and Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany. [pic]
[Oct '23] Participated in the workshop "India-US Bilateral Collaborations in Solar Energy and Allied Areas", held at IIT Bombay, and organized by the National Centre for Photovoltaic Research and Education (NCPRE) and the Photovoltaic Technology and Innovation Centre (PoTIC), at IIT Bombay
[Oct '23] Delivered a technical seminar on Energy Storage: Introduction, Challenges & Opportunities, as a part of the Continuing Education Program (CEP) on Electromagnetics: Principles and Applications, at the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay.
[Aug '23] Paper on Large-signal Stability Analysis of Three-phase Grid-following Inverters accepted in IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion.
[June '23] Joined the Department of Energy Science & Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), Mumbai, as an Assistant Professor.
[Apr '23] Visited MISO Energy at Eagan, MN, to discuss prospective project collaboration (and also to take a peek at the control room). [pic]
[Apr '23] Attended the NSF-UMN-sponsored 2023 Midwest Workshop on Control and Game Theory held in Minneapolis, MN, USA. [pic]
[Apr '23] Delivered a guest lecture on "Inverter-based Resources for Green Power Grids: Operation and Control ", for the course Advanced Power Electronics-EE5741, at the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota (UMN).
[Apr '23] Paper on control of grid-interfaced modular multi-level converter accepted in IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion.
[Mar '23] Delivered a guest lecture on "Introduction & Circuit Modeling of Solar PV Resources", for the course Advanced Power Electronics-EE5741, at the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota (UMN).
[Mar '23] Participated (as a part of the host team from UMN ) in the NSF-NAE-sponsored workshop on "Building A Robust Workforce in Electric Power Engineering", held in Albuquerque, NM, USA. [pic]
[Mar '23] Paper accepted in IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) 2023, to be held in San Juan, PR, USA.
[Jan '23] Paper accepted in IEEE PES General Meeting 2023, to be held in Orlando, FL, USA.
[Oct '22] Two papers were presented in IEEE IES IECON 2022, held in Brussels, Belgium.
[Oct '22] A paper was presented in IEEE PES ISGT Europe 2022, held in Novi Sad, Serbia.
[Sept '21] Visited the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, to meet with the research group of Prof. Alejandro Dominguez-Garcia, a frequent project collaborator. [pic]
[Sept'22] Paper on secondary control of networks with inverters & generators presented at the Allerton Conference. [pic]
[Sept'22] Paper on per-unit modeling of dynamical systems accepted in IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion.
[Aug '22] Paper on fault behavior of grid-forming inverters accepted in IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion.
[Aug '22] Hosted Prof. Anjan Bose of Washington State University at UMN. Visited the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul for a tour of the new microgrid facility. [pic]
[July '22] Presented a technical paper on Integrated system models for networks with generators and inverters at IREP 2022, held in Banff, Canada. [pic]
[July '22] Attended the first in-person UNIFI consortium general meeting, held at NREL, Golden, CO. [pic]
[July '22] Poster on Ultracapacitor modeling for designing energy-storage banks was presented in EE Summer School at the Dept of Electrical Engineering, IISc, Bangalore.
[Feb'22] Elevated to Senior Member in IEEE.
[Nov '21] Presented (virtually) a technical paper on Dynamic modeling of 3L NPC inverter for examining neutral-point instability at IEEE COMPEL 2021, held in Colombia.
[Nov '21] Visited the University of Washington, Seattle, to meet with Dr. Brian Johnson, the current Project PI and frequent collaborator. [pic]
[Oct '21] Presented (virtually) a technical paper on Quantitative analysis of third-harmonic neutral-point current, its impacts, and mitigation in three-level NPC inverters at IEEE ECCE 2021, held in Vancouver, Canada.
[Aug '21] Co-organised and hosted the first UNIFI seminar series in collaboration with Prof. Duncan Callaway, at UC Berkeley.