Elham B. Makram
Elham B. Makram
South Carolina Electric and Gas Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Clemson University
303 Riggs Hall
Clemson, SC 29634
USA
Tel:864-656-3378
Fax:864-656-5910
Email:
Website:http://www.clemson.edu/ces/departments/ece/faculty_staff/faculty/emakram.html
Academics and Experience
Prior to joining Clemson in 1985, Elham Makram was an assistant professor at North Carolina A&T University. She has worked for Siemens-Allis as a project engineer and also as an engineer in power system planning in Assiut, Egypt. Makram is an IEEE Fellow and a member of ASEE, Sigma Xi, NSPE and CIGRE. She is a registered professional engineer, and her present research interests include computer simulation of power systems, wind energy, power system harmonics and smart grid applications.
Research
Coastal Clean Energy Impact on South Carolina Power Transmission System
The power transmission system of South Carolina State is studied to analyze the effect of the wind energy penetration on the grid. The investigation is done in three steps of incremental wind energy production using power flow solution. For phase I, wind farm will deliver the amount of 80 MW. For phase II, an extra 1 GW of wind energy will be added at two different locations near the shore of South Carolina. For phase III, an extra 2 GW of wind energy will be added. The project is estimated to deliver a total of 3.08 GW by year 2030. South Carolina transmission system may need to be upgraded before the third phase takes place. Study may be extended to include switching transients and its impact on the existing South Carolina transmission system.
Wide Area Power System Transient Stability Assessment Using Synchrophasors
A technique to study the real time wide area power system transient stability assessment uses the sudden changes of the power system operation to study the stability margin of the system; unlike conventional approaches which are aimed to figure out numerous thresholds for different operating condition parameters. Further, this research is based on the stability between generator clusters. This is ideal for the distributed generation control in smart grid implementation.
Sensitivity Constrained PMU Placement Utilizing Integer Programming
Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU), which is based on GPS technique, is able to provide power engineers with immediate and precise measurements. By utilizing PMUs, the reliability and stability in power system are expected to be improved. Traditionally an optimal PMU placement is considered to use the least number of units to make the entire system completely observable. It is recommended to not only optimize the number of PMUs but also install the majority of PMUs on the most sensitive buses in a power system. A sensitivity-constrained Integer Linear Programming (ILP) method is used to solve for the optimal PMU placement.
Dr. Makram is the director of the Electric Power Research Association (CUEPRA). CUEPRA is funded by members from the power industry. For more than 25 years power faculty, students, and members of CUEPRA meet three-times per year to share research and to provide opportunities to interact with members of industry. For more than 10 years, CUEPRA members, power faculty, and power students host a spring power system conference at the Madren center in Clemson. This conference provides opportunities to share research work and to provide valuable feedback.
Dr. Makram has been specialized her research to studying transient-constrained optimal power flow, computer simulation of power systems, hybrid energy sources and smart grid applications.
