Uzi is an Assistant Professor and Goddard Junior Faculty Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering with an affiliated appointment at NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress.
Testimony – May 26, 2020
Testimony given before The New York City Council Committees on Consumer Affairs, Environmental Protection, Health, and Resiliency and Waterfronts Joint Oversight Hearing on Consolidated Edison’s Summer Preparations and the City’s Cooling Needs Summer Preparations and the City’s Cooling Needs
Research Interests: Developing modeling and algorithmic solutions to assist society in accommodating emerging smart grid technologies (e.g., intermittent generation, demand response, storage, smart appliances, cyberinfrastructure) using multi-disciplinary methods in engineering, operations research, economics, policy analysis, cybersecurity, urban, and sustainability.
Moscow Power Engineering Inst. 2011
B.S., Electrical Engineering
University of Washington 2016
Ph.D., Electrical Engineering
Journal Articles
- Y. Dvorkin, R. Fernandez-Blanco, D. S. Kirschen, H. Pandzic, J. P. Watson, and C. A. Silva-Monroy, "Ensuring Profitability of Energy Storage," IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 611 - 623, 2017.
- M. Lubin, Y. Dvorkin, and S. Backhaus, "A Robust Approach to Chance Constrained Optimal Power Flow with Renewable Generation," IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 31, No. 5, pp. 3840 - 3849, 2016.
- Y. Dvorkin, M. Lubin, S. Backhaus, and M. Chertkov, "Uncertainty Sets for Wind Power Generation," IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 3326 - 3327, 2016.
- K. Bruninx, Y. Dvorkin, E. Delarue, H. Pandzic, W. D’haeseleer and D. S. Kirschen, "Coupling Pumped Hydro Energy Storages with Unit Commitment," IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 786 - 796, 2016.
- H. Pandzic, Y. Dvorkin, Y. Wang, and D. S. Kirschen, "Toward Cost-Efficient and Reliable Unit Commitment under Uncertainty," IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 970 - 982, 2016.
- Y. Dvorkin, H. Pandzic, M. A. Ortega-Vazquez, and D. S. Kirschen, "A Hybrid Stochastic/Interval Approach to Transmission-Constrained Unit Commitment with Uncertainty," IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 621 - 631, 2015.
Research Briefs
Inequitable access to EV charging infrastructure
This research was led by Yury Dvorkin, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and member of the C2SMART Tier 1 Transportation Center at NYU Tandon; and included Hafiz Anwar Ullah Khan and Sara Price, Ph.D. and M.S. candidates, respectively, under Dvorkin's guidance; and post-doctoral researcher Charalampos Avraam.
Electrified transportation is one of the critical aspects of the global trend towards decarbonization. However barriers to consumer adoption of EVs by the public exist. Principally, they are access to, and affordability of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. The latter concern is lessening as light-duty electric vehicle (EV) prices rapidly declining to as low as $18,875 after federal tax credits and state rebates and their ranges increase with battery and drivetrain improvements.
To address charging availability major efforts are underway in the United States to roll-out public EV charging infrastructure. But persistent social disparities in EV adoption call for interventions.
In a paper, the investigators led by Yury Dvorkin, analyzed existing EV charging infrastructure across New York City (NYC) to identify features that correlate with the current distribution of EV charging stations. They found that population density is not correlated with the density of EV chargers, hindering New York’s EV adoption and decarbonization goals.
To determine the socio-demographic and transportation factors affecting the distribution of EV charging stations in NYC, they used the publicly available Alternative Fuel Station Locator dataset from Alternative Fuel Data Centre at the US Department of Energy. This dataset provides a current accounting of the types and locations of all alternative fuel stations in NYC.
Based on correlation analysis, hypothesis testing, and conditional analysis, the results demonstrate that the availability and affordability of EV charging stations in NYC are not determined by the population density, but are correlated with the median household income, percentage of White–identifying population, and presence of highways in a zip code, with the distribution of EV charging stations heavily skewed against low–income, Black–identifying, and disinvested neighborhoods in NYC.
The results underscore the need for policy frameworks that incorporate equity and justice in the roll-out of EV charging infrastructure.
Authors
- Uzi (Yury) Dvorkin
Spatiotemporal Decoupling of Water Electrolysis for Dual-Use Grid Energy Storage and Hydrogen Generation
This research is led by Miguel Modestino, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and Yury Dvorkin, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.
Increased efforts to curb global warming have led to a drastic surge in the deployment of renewable electricity sources, such as wind and solar power. However, as these sources form a larger fraction of the energy in the grid, their intermittency has started to cause supply instability and large fluctuations in energy prices.
To mediate this challenge, electrochemical energy storage devices such as lithium ion batteries have started to enter the utility scale market. Also gaining traction are redox flow batteries (RFB) because of their long cycle life and power and energy capacity. Despite their promising performance RFB costs remain high due to low energy density of redox energy carriers, which results in large operational costs.
An alternative energy storage method is the production of energy-dense electrofuels, such as hydrogen (H2). H2 has gained significant attention as a promising energy vector for a renewable-rich energy future, given its high gravimetric energy density that makes it desirable for both stationary and mobile applications.
To make electrochemical hydrogen production more competitive, renewable energy sources need to be used with new strategies for electrochemical hydrogen production. The researchers, including Ph.D. students Daniel Frey (lead author) and Jip Kim, show a cerium-mediated decoupled electrolysis system that produces hydrogen and stores energy in the redox couples. They present electrochemical studies to observe the effects of diffusive transport, convective transport, and thermal effects. Following this, the team performed a techno-economic analysis, focusing on the optimization of the system operation and the identification of target operation parameters to achieve hydrogen production at a competitive price.
Authors
- Uzi (Yury) Dvorkin,
- Miguel Modestino
Research Centers, Labs, and Groups
Power Lab
Smart Energy Research (SEARCH) Group
