Wenxuan Yao won the 2019 NASPI (North American Synchrophasor Initiative) award for Outstanding Grad Student. The NASPI awards are issued to recognize significant accomplishments and contributions of its members in 2018.  This marks the third year in a row that a UT student has won a NASPI award.

The North American Synchrophasor Initiative (NASPI) is an international community of electric industry members, researchers, and vendors working together to advance the understanding and adoption of synchrophasor technology to enhance power system reliability and efficiency.

Wenxuan Yao is an exemplary graduate student whose work on m-UGA has improved PMU sampling accuracy and PMU signal acquisition. M-UGA allows higher resolution PMU deployment and enhances power system observability.

The award was presented during the The North American Synchrophasor Initiative (NASPI) Work Group meeting in San Diego, California last month. The conference featured technical sessions and presentations that showcased innovative applications of synchrophasor technology, wide-area streaming applications of high-speed (so-called “point-on-wave”) time-synchronized measurements, and issues associated with inverter-based generation and the ability to maintain essential reliability services. Mr. Ali Yari, Director, Electric Grid Operations, from San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) was the keynote speaker.