Vijay Vittal

Biography

One of the world’s leading authorities on power system stability analysis, the innovations of Vijay Vittal have helped protect the power grid from cascading power outages and large-scale blackouts. Dr. Vittal’s contribution to the transient energy function method has provided a real-time process for quickly calculating conditions of electric power systems. His stability analysis methods have improved reliability and security to allow increased transmission capacity. The first real-time dynamic security analysis method was successfully implemented at the grid control center of the Northern States Power Company in Minneapolis, MN, USA, in 1993. Dr. Vittal’s methods have since been adopted by control centers around the world. He has also proposed the concept of rapid islanding of the power grid to prevent power outages from spreading.

An IEEE Fellow and member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, Dr. Vittal is the Ira A. Fulton Chair Professor at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.