Date of Award

8-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Electrical Engineering

Committee Chair/Advisor

Rajendra Singh

Committee Member

Umesh Vaidya

Committee Member

Kumar Venayagamoorthy

Committee Member

Yongqiang Wang

Abstract

This dissertation presents a novel approach to analyzing and controlling nonlinear systems using the Koopman operator framework and data-driven methods. Nonlinear power systems, characterized by complex behaviors and sensitivity to initial conditions, pose significant challenges for stability and safety assessment, especially during transient events.

The first part of this work focuses on reachability analysis using the spectral properties of the Koopman operator. By leveraging eigenfunctions extracted from sampled trajectory data, the approach computes forward and backward reachable sets efficiently, even in high-dimensional nonlinear systems, without requiring dense state-space sampling. This method is validated through numerical examples, demonstrating its ability to recover nonconvex reachable sets in both stable and unstable regimes.

Building on this, the dissertation develops a Koopman spectrum-based method for identifying stability boundaries in nonlinear systems. This method, applied to power system models, enables accurate computation of critical clearing times and transient stability analysis by constructing unstable eigenfunctions through a path integral formulation.

Finally, the dissertation addresses voltage safety under renewable generation uncertainty. A data-driven Koopman-based model is constructed using Extended Dynamic Mode Decomposition (EDMD), and a control barrier function is synthesized to enforce voltage safety. The resulting formulation is posed as a constrained optimization program, through which the minimum rated power capacity is computed to ensure safe operation across all disturbance scenarios.

The proposed methodologies provide scalable, data-driven tools for stability analysis and safe control in nonlinear systems, with practical applications in power system analysis and control.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.