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Brian Johnson, Ph.D., P.E.

Brian Johnson, Ph.D., P.E.

University Distinguished Professor, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Endowed Chair in Power Engineering

Office

Gauss-Johnson 201

Phone

208-885-6902

Mailing Address

Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Idaho
875 Perimeter Drive, MS 1023
Moscow, ID 83844-1023

  • PhD, Electrical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1992
  • MS., Electrical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1989
  • BS., Electrical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1987

  • ECE 240 Digital Logic
  • ECE 241 Logic Circuit Laboratory
  • ECE 320 Energy Systems I
  • ECE 421 Introduction to Power Systems
  • ECE 422 Power Systems Analysis
  • ECE 424 Power Electronic Circuits
  • ECE 521 Power Systems Planning and Resources
  • ECE 523 Symmetrical Components
  • ECE 524 Transients in Power Systems
  • ECE 525 Power System Protection and Relaying
  • ECE 528 Understanding Power Quality
  • ECE 529 Utility Applications of Power Electronics

  • Power system protection
  • Power quality
  • Superconductivity applications in transmission and distribution
  • Energy storage systems
  • Real time simulation of traffic systems
  • Intelligent transportation systems

Professional Registration

  • Registered Professional Engineering in Idaho
  • Registered Professional Engineering in Wisconsin

Industrial Experience

  • 1989: Electronics Engineer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories 

University and Department Activities

  • Member University Research Council
  • Coordinator for the Certificate in Power Systems Protection and Relaying
  • Chair, Department Graduate Committee
  • Member, Department Laboratories Committee
  • Member, Computer Engineering Program Committee
  • Undergraduate Advisor for Computer Engineering Seniors and Computer Engineering Transfer Students
  • Advisor for IEEE Student Branch

Research Interests

Power electronic applications for the control of power transmission and distribution systems (FACTS devices, Custom Power Devices, Distributed generation and storage), power system protection, power quality, superconductivity applications in transmission and distribution, energy storage systems, real time simulation of traffic systems, intelligent transportation systems. 

Current Research Projects

  • Protection and Reconfiguration of Zonal Distribution Systems. Sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.
  • Controller Interface Device.

Affiliations Within the University of Idaho

Note, the IEEE Transactions papers are available in electronic form at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org if you are a member of IEEE and subscribe to those journals.

  1. Darcy Bullock, Brian Johnson, Richard B. Wells, Michael Kyte, and Zhen Li, “Hardware in the Loop Simulation,” Submitted to Transportation Research. Part C: Emerging Technologies,
  2. G. Venkataramanan and B.K. Johnson, “A Pulse Width Modulated Series Compensator,” IEE Proceedings on Generation, Transmission and Distribution. Vol. 149, No. 1, Jan 2002, pp. 71-75.
  3. P. Ribeiro, B. Johnson, M. Crow, and A. Arsoy, “Energy Storage Systems for Advanced Power Applications,” Proceedings of the IEEE. Vol. 89, No. 12, Dec 2001, pp. 1744-1756.
  4. Brian K. Johnson, Joseph D. Law, Gerald P. Saw, “Using a Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage Coil to Improve Efficiency of a Gas Turbine Powered High Speed Rail Locomotive,” IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity. Vol. 11, No. 1, March 2001, pp. 1900-1903.
  5. B.K. Johnson and H.L. Hess, “Active Damping for Electromagnetic Transients in Superconducting Systems,” IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity. Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 318-321, June 1999.
  6. B.K. Johnson and G. Venkataramanan, “A Hybrid Solid State Phase Shifter Using PWM AC Converters,” IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery. Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 1316-1321, October 1998.
  7. B.K. Johnson, R.H. Lasseter, and F.L. Alvarado, “Incorporation of a SMES Coil into a Superconducting LVDC Transmission System,” IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity. Vol. 7, No. 2, Part 1, pp. 419-422, June 1997.
  8. G.Venkataramanan and B.K. Johnson, “A Pulse Width Modulated Power Line Conditioner for Sensitive Load Centers,” IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 844-849, April 1997.
  9. R.W. Wall and B.K. Johnson, “Using TACS Functions Within EMTP to Teach Protective Relaying Fundamentals,” IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery. Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 3-10, February 1997.
  10. G.Venkataramanan, B.K. Johnson, and Ashok Sundaram, “An AC-AC Power Converter for Custom Power Applications,” IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery. Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 1666-1671, July 1996
  11. B.K. Johnson, R.H. Lasseter, F.L. Alvarado, and R. Adapa, “Superconducting Breakers and Current Transfer Devices For Use with a Superconducting LVDC Mesh,” IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity. Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 216-222, December, 1994.
  12. B.K. Johnson, R.H Lasseter, F.L. Alvarado, D.M. Divan, H. Singh, M.C. Chandorkar, and R. Adapa, “High Temperature Superconducting DC Networks,” IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity. Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 115-120, September 1994.
  13. B.K. Johnson, R.H Lasseter, F.L. Alvarado, D.M. Divan, H. Singh, M.C. Chandorkar, R. Adapa, “Superconducting Low Voltage DC Transmission Networks,” Journal of Electric Machines and Power Systems. Vol. 22, No. 6, pp. 629-645, November-December, 1994.
  14. B.K. Johnson, R.H. Lasseter, F.L. Alvarado, and R. Adapa, “Expandable Multiterminal DC Systems Based on Voltage Droop,” IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery. Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 1926-1932, October 1993.
  15. Johnson, B.K. R.H. Lasseter, and R. Adapa, “Power Control on a Superconducting LVDC Mesh.” IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery. Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 1282-1288. July 1991.

Invited Papers

  1. R. B. Wells, J. Fisher, Y. Zhou, B. Johnson, M. Kyte “Hardware and Software Considerations for Implementing Hardware in the Loop Traffic Simulation,” IEEE IECON'01 November 2001.

Conference Publications

  1. B.K. Johnson, and J.D. Law, “Using a Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage Coil to Improve Efficiency of a Gas Turbine Powered High Speed Rail Locomotive” Presented at 2000 Applied Superconductivity Conference. Virginia Beach, Virginia, September 2001.
  2. L. Henriksen, B.K. Johnson and H.L. Hess, Dispersed Fuel Cell Generation Applied to Rural Electric Distribution Systems. Fuel Cell Seminar, Palm Springs CA, November 16-19, 1998.
  3. B.K. Johnson and H.L. Hess, “Active Damping for Electromagnetic Transients in Superconducting Systems,” 1998 Applied Superconductivity Conference. Palm Desert CA, Sept. 14, 1998.
  4. H.L. Hess and B.K. Johnson, “Incorporating SMES Coils in FACTS and Custom Power Devices,” 1998 Applied Superconductivity Conference. Palm Desert CA, Sept. 14, 1998.
  5. A.A. Miller, W. Qian, B.K. Johnson, J.D. Law, and R.W. Wall, “High Speed Locomotives with Energy Storage,” Proceedings of the 1997 North American Power Symposium (NAPS). October 13-14 1997, Laramie Wyoming, pp. 557-562.
  6. B.K. Johnson, J.D. Law, T. Busch, T. Brown, D. Angell, “Dynamic Simulation of Internal Transients in Synchronous Machines,” Proceedings of the International Symposium on Power System Transients. June 22-26 1997, Seattle WA, pp. 211-216
  7. B.K. Johnson and R.E. Wilson, “The Use of EMTP Relay Models to Teach Power System Protection in a Distance Education Setting.” 1997 American Society of Engineering Education Annual Meeting. June 16-19, 1997, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
  8. B. K. Johnson, G. Venkataramanan, J. Hamann, D. Egolf, V. Gerez “Graduate Teaching Alliances - Experiences from a Western Experiment,” 1997 American Society of Engineering Education Annual Meeting. June 16-19, 1997, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
  9. B.K. Johnson, “Incorporation of a SMES Coil into a Superconducting LVDC Transmission System,” Presented at 1996 Applied Superconductivity Conference. Pittsburgh, PA, August 1996.
  10. B.K. Johnson, G. Venkataramanan, and M. Manjrekar, “A Hybrid Solid State Phase Shifter for Continuous Phase Shift Control in Transmission Lines,” Proceedings of the 1996 Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering. Calgary, Alberta, May 26-29, 1996, pp 851-954.
  11. F.L. Alvarado, B.K. Johnson, J. Mahseredjian, “The Design of Time Domain Simulation Tools: the Computational Engine Approach,” 1995 MATLAB Conference. Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 16-18, 1995.
  12. B. Johnson, T. Kakar, P. Larrondo, and G. Venkataramanan, “Role of Energy Islands, Power Fences, and Electronic Gateways in a Deregulated Utility Environment,” Proceedings of the Eight International Power Quality Solutions '95. Long Beach, California, pp. 143-154, September 9-15, 1995.
  13. G. Venkataramanan, B. Johnson, and J. Law, “A DC Power System Architecture for Small Stand-Alone Power Systems,” Proceedings of the Eight International Power Quality Solutions '95. Long Beach, California, pp. 307-315, September 9-15, 1995.
  14. B.K. Johnson, “Superconducting Low Voltage Direct Current Transmission,” NSF Symposium on Power Systems Infrastructure. Oct 27-29, 1994.
  15. G. Venkataramanan, B.K. Johnson, and A. Sundaram, “AC-AC Power Converters for Distribution Control,” NSF Symposium on Power Systems Infrastructure. Oct 27-29, 1994.
  16. B.K. Johnson, F.L. Alvarado, and R.H. Lasseter, “A DC Power Distribution System Featuring UPS Properties,” Proceedings of the Seventh International Power Quality/Telecomputer Infrastructure Conference. Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas, September 17-22, 1994, pp 96-106.
  17. S. Srinivasan, G. Venkataramanan, B.K. Johnson, and A. Sundaram, “Custom Power Using AC Power Converters,” Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth International Power Conversion Conference. Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas, Sept. 17-22, 1994, pp. 341-350.
  18. Johnson, B.K. and R.H. Lasseter “An Industrial Power Distribution System Featuring UPS Properties,” 1993 IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference Record. Seattle, WA, June, 1993, pp. 759-765.
  19. Johnson, B.K. and M.C. Chandorkar, `Power Conditioning Interfaces for Medium Power Photovoltaic Systems.' Presented at: International Conference on Electrical Rotating Machines. January 15-16, 1992, Bombay, India. Session VI-B, Paper 10.

Panel Session Presentations

  1. “Power Semiconductors (part of panel on Data for Modeling Power System Transients),” IEEE Power Engineering Society Winter Meeting. Columbus Ohio, February, 1, 2001.
  2. “Sensitivity Assessment to Line and Cable Data on Protection Studies (part of panel on Statistics, Sensitivity and Precision in Transient Analysis,)” IEEE Power Engineering Society Winter Meeting. Columbus Ohio, February, 1, 2001.
  3. “Simulation of TSC and TSSC (part of panel on Simulation of FACTS and Custom-Power Controllers,)” IEEE Power Engineering Society Winter Meeting. Columbus Ohio, February, 1, 2001.
  4. “Innovations and Challenges in Distance Education,” IEEE Power Engineering Society Winter Meeting. Tampa, Florida, February 11, 1998.
  5. ”International Distance Learning,” IEEE Power Engineering Society Summer Meeting. Berlin, Germany, July 23, 1997.
  6. “The Power Quality Challenge of Utility Deregulation,” PCIM/Power Quality '95. Long Beach, CA, September 12, 1995.

Contact Us

Buchanan Engineering Building Rm. 213

Mailing Address:

Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of Idaho
875 Perimeter Drive MS 1023
Moscow, ID 83844-1023

Phone: 208-885-6554

Fax: 208-885-7579

Email: ece-info@uidaho.edu