The Plenary session and Day One speakers have been announced for the 2015 Darnell Energy Summit (DES '15). DES '15 will be a combined event featuring the Twelfth Darnell Power Forum (DPF '15) + the Seventh Green Building Power Forum (GBPF '15) + the Sixth Smart Grid Electronics Forum (SGEF '15). Jeff Shepard, President of Darnell Group and one of the leading analysts and futurists of the power electronics industry will present the Keynote titled, "Devices, Dispersed Energy, and Software-Defined Power - Defining the next Decade." He will briefly look at where power electronics, energy storage and smart grid are today followed by a lively presentation of expected future developments. Come to DES '15 and hear where Mr. Shepard predicts the industry will be in ten years. DES '15 will be the perfect mix of practical and actionable technology updates as well as a vision of the future of our industry.
Following Mr. Shepard’s look into the future of our industry, the Plenary session will include several luminaries from various segments of the industry presenting their views of the future including: The GaN Effect – How GaN is Changing the Way We Live, by Alex Lidow, CEO, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation; Local Direct Current Power Based Electricity Infrastructure: Game Changer in Global Power, by Rajendra Singh, Professor, Clemson University; VPS' 'Software Defined Power®' Technology Provides an Important Platform for Innovations of the Next Generation of Data Centers, by Shankar Ramamurthy, CEO, Virtual Power Systems; Cost-Benefit Framework for the Integrated Grid: How to do the cost metrics determine the value?, by Brian Fortenbery, Program Manager, Electric Power Research Institute; and Interplay Between Power System and Power Management Technologies, Slobodan Cuk, CEO, Teslaco.
The afternoon of Day One at DES ’15 will include three parallel tracks of papers covering, Software-Defined Power, Devices and Materials, and DC Microgrids. Papers currently-scheduled in the Software-Defined Power Roundtable Session will include: Software-Defined Power Architecture - The Verification Challenge, by Torbjom Holmberg, System & Application Support Team Leader, Ericsson Power Systems; Live Updates for Software Defined Power Applications, by Tom Spohrer, Product Marketing Manager, Microchip; The Value of "Software Defined Management" for Data Centers, Clemens Pheiffer, CEO, Tier44 and The March toward Full Digital Systems, Keith Curtis, Technical Staff Engineer, Microchip. The session will close with a Roundtable Panel featuring the afternoon’s speakers.
Papers currently-scheduled in the Devices and Materials Roundtable Session will include: Manufacturability and Reliability of High Voltage GaN HEMTs, Primit Parikh, CEO, Transphorm; Practical Layout Techniques to Fully Extract the Benefits of Gallium Nitride Power Transistors, Ivan Chan, Field Applications Engineer, Efficient Power Conversion; Comparing Enhancement-Mode and Cascode GaN in Hard- and Soft-Switching Applications, Eric Persson, Infineon; and New System Architectures for the Smart Energy Grid Enabled by a New Generation of SiC-based High-Voltage Devices, Daniel Fernandez, CTO, INAEL Electrical Systems and Coordinator of EU Project SPEED. The session will close with a Roundtable Panel featuring the afternoon’s speakers.
Papers currently-scheduled in the DC Microgrids Roundtable Session will include: Robust, Adaptive, and Smart DC Microgrid Implementation, Luis Zubieta, VP Engineering and Co-Founder, Arda Power; Arc Faults and Arc Fault Detection in DC Grids, Christian Strobl, E-T-A Elektrotechnische Apparate GmbH; Energy Distribution with DC Microgrids in Commercial Buildings with Power Electronics, Bernd Wunder, Group Manager DC Microgrids, Fraunhofer Institute; and Advantages and Challenges of DC Microgrid for Commercial Building, Wendy Zhang, Professor, Xiamen University. The session will close with a Roundtable Panel featuring the afternoon’s speakers.
"'Software-defined power' will be the unifying theme of this year's Darnell Energy Summit. But no software runs without hardware," stated Jeff Shepard, President of Darnell Group. "Advances in power conversion technologies, micro grids and advanced smart grid implementations will be equally highlighted at this year's Summit. Join me at DES '15 and you will benefit from a perfect mix of practical and actionable technology updates as well as a vision of the future of our industry," Shepard concluded.
