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Research Framework and Interests
I specialize in Advanced Optimization for Power System Flexibility, Cyber-Physical System Security and Privacy Protection towards the affordable, reliable and sustainable goal for the clean energy future. My research vision is to adopt a holistic approach to enhancing the operational flexibility of high-renewable power systems, which involves achieving an optimal dispatch solution at the system level, ensuring feasibility at the device level, and strengthening cyber-physical and privacy security at the information level. Here are three research directions focused on power system flexibility:
- System Level: Power System Optimization
- Device Level: High-Fidelity COMSOL Simulation-enabled Grid-Edge Optimization
- Information Level: Cyber-Physical System Security and Privacy Protection
System Level: Power System Optimization
- Convex optimization:
convex hull relaxation,disjunctive programming,mixed-integer programming - Decentralized computation:
Benders decomposition,ADMM,Lagrangian relaxation - Data-driven optimization:
DBSCAN,SVM,k-means - Neural Networks:
Neural ODE,Input Convex Neural Network,Fully Monotonic Neural Networks,Lipschitz Neural Networks,Multi-layer perceptron, etc.
Project 1.1. Economic Dispatch for Renewable Power Systems with Flexible Load Transfer
Representative References
- C. Lei, S. Bu, Q. Wang, Q. Chen, L. Yang, and Y. Chi, “Look-ahead Rolling Economic Dispatch Approach for Wind-Thermal-Bundled Power System Considering Dynamic Ramping and Flexible Load Transfer Strategy,” IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 186-202, Jan. 2024.
- C. Lei, Q. Wang, G. Zhou, S. Bu, N. Zhou, T. Lin and W. Fang, “Probabilistic wind power expansion planning of bundled wind-thermal generation system with retrofitted coal-fired plants using load transfer optimization,” International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, vol. 151, 2023.
- C. Lei, S. Bu, Q. Wang, N. Zhou, L. Yang, and X. Xiong, “Load transfer optimization considering hot-spot and top-oil temperature limits of transformers,” IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 2194-2208, June 2022.
- C. Lei, S. Bu, J. Zhong, Q. Chen and Q. Wang, “Distribution Network Reconfiguration: A Disjunctive Convex Hull Approach,” IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 38, no. 6, pp. 5926-5929, Nov. 2023.
- C. Lei, N. Wei, Q. Wang and S. Bu, “Load Transfer Optimization with Graph Characterizations on Multiple Time-Scales for Multi-Voltage Distribution Networks Against Overload Cascades,” IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, 2025 (Early Access).
Device Level: COMSOL Simulation-enabled Grid-Edge Optimization
- Underground Cable:
Degraded Underground XLPE Cable,Life Cycle Prediction for Underground Cables - Battery Pack:
Electrochemical-Thermal Coupled Modeling - Electric Circuit Breaker:
Arc Simulation
Project 2.1. Mimic the Water Tree Growth in Medium Voltage Underground Cable to Assess Cable Condition and Predict Remaining Useful Life
Representative References
- S. Bu, G. Lu, E. Yim and C. Lei, “A Health Index System and Method of Predicting Health Condition in Underground Cables,” HK30064886, 08/07/2023, Hong Kong. (Winning the Golden Prize at 49th The International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva, Switzerland, 2024)
Project 2.2. Electrochemical-thermal coupled Blade Lithium-Ion Battery for BYD Company
Representative References
- C. Lei, Y. Christine Chen and S. Bu, “Battery Dispatch Optimization for Electric Vehicle Aggregators: A Decentralized Mixed-Integer Least-Squares Approach with Disjunctive Cuts,” IEEE PES General Meeting 2025, 2025 (Best Paper Award).
- C. Lei, Y. Christine Chen and S. Bu, “Aging-Aware Vehicle Battery Dispatch for Aggregators: A Digital-Twin-enabled Rolling Optimization Framework,” IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 2024 (working paper).
Project 2.3. Efficient Battery Dispatch Optimization for Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and Ship-to-Grid (S2G)
Representative References
- C. Lei, Y. Christine Chen and S. Bu, “Battery Dispatch Optimization for Electric Vehicle Aggregators: A Decentralized Mixed-Integer Least-Squares Approach with Disjunctive Cuts,” IEEE PES General Meeting 2025, 2025 (Best Paper Award).
- C. Lei, S. Li and Y. Christine Chen, “Optimal Ship-to-Grid Dispatch Considering Battery Thermal and Voltage Electrochemical-Thermal-Coupled Constraints,” IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 2025 (under review).
Information Level: Cyber-Physical Security and Privacy Protection
- Cyber-Physical Security:
observability defense,false data injection - Privacy Protection:
differential privacy,Homomorphic encryption - Differentially private optimization:
Gaussian mechanism,Laplace mechanism
Project 3.1. Cyber-Physical Security and Privacy Protection for Smart Distribution Grids
Representative References
- C. Lei, S. Bu, Q. Wang and L. Liang, “Observability Defense-Constrained Distribution Network Reconfiguration for Cyber-Physical Security Enhancement,” IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 2379-2382, March 2024.
- C. Lei, S. Bu, Q. Chen, Q. Wang and D. Srinivasan, “Decentralized Optimal Power Flow for Multi-Agent Active Distribution Networks: A Differentially Private Consensus ADMM Algorithm,” IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 6175-6178, Nov. 2024.
- C. Lei, S. Bu, Q. Chen, Q. Wang and D. Srinivasan, “A Consensus ADMM-based Differentially Private Reconfiguration Approach for Multi-Agent Active Distribution Networks,” IEEE Transactions on Energy Markets, Policy and Regulation, 2025 (Under Review).