Mr. Kim Wirgau will speak to the IEEE Akron/Canton Section on April 23, 2009 on the topic of wind power. Key discussion includes where we are with non-renewable wind energy, key aspects of incorporating wind into your power system, and where are we headed.

Location: The Tangier, 532 West Market Street, Akron, Ohio 44303
Time: Social/Dinner @ 5:30PM, Program @ 6:30PM
Menu: Buffet
Cost: Members (+1 guest) 15$, Students 10$, Nonmembers 20$

Contact Rick Buchanan at (330) 497-8250 or r.buchanan@ieee.org  for reservations. One CPD hour is available; please inform Rick if you would like a certificate.

Kim Arthur Wirgau was born and raised in Rogers City, Michigan. He received the following degrees:

• B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan Technological University (Houghton, Michigan) in 1969
• M.Eng. in Electrical Power Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, New York) in 1970
• A graduate of the General Electric Advanced Engineering Course (Schenectady, New York) in 1975

Mr. Wirgau retired from General Electric Company in March 2008 after 38 years of service. He is presently a member of the Lanier Consulting, LLC team.

He spent most of his career doing advanced research for the electrical power industry in the disciplines of optimal power system operations, transmission and generation planning, artificial intelligence, end-use load modeling, distribution system automation, voltage and transient stability evaluation, transmission feasibility for new generation in power systems including wind farms and other renewable fuels, multi-area production costing, and transmission and transformer insulation design.

He developed the software used to design insulation structures in layer and disk winding transformers. His work in the late ‘70s was instrumental in showing the industry that minimizing losses through optimal voltage control saved substantial fuel cost - this work started new research in the power system optimization area of system operations. During this work, he and a co-worker developed the new approach of using a projected Lagrangian algorithm based on solving sequences of linearly constrained subproblems in large-scale power system optimization. He developed new software for EPRI that improved the power industry modeling of loads which has in turn, improved power system design. He also was instrumental in developing software to evaluate voltage stability problems that has been a major problem and basic cause of most blackouts today. Mr. Wirgau developed some of the first large-scale artificial intelligence software for analyzing power systems in the late ‘80’s for TEPCO in Japan. Over the past 10 years he has assisted the GE Financial Services Group by evaluating various energy investments, where between $1 and $4 billion per year actually was invested. The last 5 years or so has consisted of consulting on placement and installation of non-renewable and renewable generation.

He and his wife Elaine presently live in Raleigh, North Carolina. They have two sons and daughter-in-law, Dr. Joseph Wirgau, an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Radford University in Radford, VA, Jessica Wirgau, a PhD candidate in Public Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, and Scott Wirgau, a Structural Engineer for American Tower Corporation in Raleigh, NC.