August 21 seminar: Matthew Reno

August 21, 2026

Detecting Electrical Faults in Downtown Areas with Distributed Generation

Matthew Reno, Sandia National Laboratories

3:00 pm, UNM Centennial Engineering Center, Room 1026
Online Guests: Contact Prof. Santhanam (bsanthan@unm.edu) for a Zoom link

Abstract: The topology of the electric power grid in downtown areas is different than most of the rest of the U.S. These meshed low-voltage secondary networks provide highly reliable service to critical customers and densely populated areas, but they also require different fault protection systems (e.g. circuit breakers and fuses). Research is ongoing at Sandia to develop new algorithms to detect faults while also allowing distributed generation like solar and backup generators into the system.

Bio: Dr. Matthew Reno is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in the Electric Power Systems Research Department at Sandia National Laboratories. Dr. Reno leads a diverse portfolio of research initiatives aimed at developing next-generation protective relaying schemes and applying AI to the grid. These novel protection algorithms are working to reduce wildfire risk and solve protection challenges for microgrids and systems with high penetrations of inverter based resources.