Birchfield Research Group

Adam Birchfield


Assistant Professor
Energy and Power Group
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Texas A&M University

Email: abirchfield@tamu.edu
Google Scholar Profile
Department Page
Office: Wisenbaker 215-E
Phone: 979-862-2545
Curriculum Vitae

 

Adam B. Birchfield is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Prior to this he was a research engineer at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). He received the B.E.E. degree from Auburn University in 2014, M.S. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016, and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University in 2018. Dr. Birchfield’s research is in power system modeling, large system transient dynamics, applications of synthetic power grid datasets, and the resilience of power systems to high-impact, low-frequency events. Dr. Birchfield is a recipient of the 2025 NSF CAREER award.

More about Prof. Birchfield

News

  • 5/2025: Dr. Birchfield presents on “Applying Network Synthesis Methods to Long-Term Transmission Planning” for the CURENT seminar series at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN. More Info.
  • 5/2025: Dr. Birchfield presents on “Electric grid dynamic simulation: open synthetic datasets and stability assessment frameworks” for a seminar at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN.
  • 4/2025: Dr. Birchfield receives the NSF CAREER award, with project title “CAREER: Spatial Complex Network Analysis of Bulk Electric Grids for Long-Term System Planning.” More Info on the NSF Website.
  • 4/2025 UG student Joshua Xia successfully complete his senior capstone thesis, titled “Transmission expansion planning with complex networks.” Congratulations, Josh!
  • 3/2025: Dr. Birchfield presents on “Electric grid dynamic simulation: open synthetic datasets and stability assessment frameworks” for the UT-Austin Energy Institute Symposium, Austin, TX.
  • 2/2025: Our paper “Cascading failure propagation and perfect storms in interdependent infrastructures” is published in ASCE Open: Multidisciplinary Journal of Civil Engineering. Paper is available Open Access.
  • 2/2025: Dr. Birchfield presents on “Creating Realistic Synthetic Electric Grids to Promote Open Science in Power Engineering” at the 3rd In-Person Workshop: Foundation Models for the Electric Grid and participates in the Data Challenges Panel Discussion, at Argonne National Lab, Lemont, IL.
  • 2/2025: Dr. Birchfield gives the dinner keynote talk at the 2025 Texas Power and Energy Conference on “Doing Great Research (with some Pointers from Faraday and Maxwell)”.
  • 12/2024: We hosted the kickoff meeting for the “SCIDAC-OE: Next Generation Grid Simulations” project.
  • 12/2024: Dr. Birchfield is an instructor for the Energy Institute intensive course ICPE 615: Smart Grid Fundamentals.
  • 10/2024: Project “SCIDAC-OE: Next Generation Grid Simulations” is awarded by U.S. Department of Energy, with collaborators from Oak Ridge National Lab, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Virginia Tech.
  • 9/2024: Our paper “Structural characterisation for the synthesis of large-scale combined electric–gas networks” is published in IET Energy Systems Integration. Paper is available Open Access.
  • 8/2024: Our paper “Building and validating a large-scale combined transmission & distribution synthetic electricity system of Texas” is published in International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems. Paper is available Open Access.
  • 5/2024: Our paper “Geographic coordinate validation and assignment using an edge-constrained layout” is published in Journal of Engineering and Applied Science. Paper is available Open Access.
  • 4/2024: Dr. Birchfield presents on “Detecting and Mitigating Hidden Failure Modes in Transitioning Electric Power Grids” as an invited seminar at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.
  • 4/2024: The TAMU Smart Grid Center’s industry short course on Electric Grid Dynamics and Stability involved one session taught by Dr. Birchfield on “Introduction to Electromagnetic Transient Analysis in Power Systems.” Course Website.
  • 4/2024: Dr. Birchfield presents on “Detecting and Mitigating Hidden Failure Modes in Transitioning Electric Power Grids” as an invited seminar at the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA), San Antonio, TX.
  • 4/2024: Dr. Birchfield is quoted in an interview for Vox Media for the article “The solar eclipse is a critical test for the US power grid.” Link.
  • 3/2024: Dr. Birchfield presents on “Our future electric grid — resilience and sustainability” in the Energy Systems Seminar at Cornell University, College of Engineering, Ithaca, NY.
  • 3/2024: Dr. Birchfield is quoted in an interview for New Scientist for the article “Storm-proofing 1% of power lines protects entire grid from blackouts.” Link.
  • 2/2024: Dr. Birchfield presents on “Our future electric grid — resilience and sustainability” as a seminar at Rice University, Houston, TX.
  • 2/2024: Our poster “Electric power grid and natural gas pipeline network interdependence and joint resilience” is presented by Dr. Birchfield at the Texas Academies of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology (TAMEST) Annual Meeting, as part of the Protege Program, Austin, TX.
  • 2/2024: A successful Texas Power and Energy Conference (TPEC 2024) is completed! Link.
  • 1/2024: The paper “An integrated assessment of a G3 GMD event on large-scale power grids: from magnetometer data to geomagnetically induced current analysis” is published in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications. Link.
  • 1/2024: Dr. Birchfield is interviewed by KBTX in Bryan, TX for the story “Focus at Four: Bitcoin mining company profits off Texas Grid”. Link.
  • 1/2024: Dr. Birchfield is interviewed by KBTX in Bryan, TX for the story “Texas A&M Assistant Professor discusses plan to link ERCOT to other Southeastern grids.” Link.
  • 1/2024: Dr. Birchfield is teaching ECEN 460: Power System Operations and Control for Spring 2024. Course Website.
  • 12/2023: Dr. Birchfield is an instructor for the Energy Institute intensive course ICPE 615: Smart Grid Fundamentals.
  • 11/2023: The TAMU Smart Grid Center’s industry short course on Electric Grid Impacts of Geomagnetic Disturbances involved two sessions taught by Dr. Birchfield. Link.
  • 10/2023: Dr. Birchfield gives the October webinar for the Texas A&M Smart Grid Center on “Creating and validating dynamic models for synthetic electric grids.”
  • 10/2023: Our group has papers and presentations at the 2023 North American Power Symposium (NAPS) in Asheville, NC.
  • 10/2023: NSF Awards project 2341300 for $15k to support student travel to TPEC 2024 (PI: Birchfield).
  • 8/2023: Dr. Birchfield gives an invited guest lecture at UT-Austin on “The future of large electric grids and synthetic test cases.”
  • 8/2023: Dr. Birchfield is teaching ECEN 615: Methods of Large-Scale Electric Grid Analysis in Fall 2023. Course Website.
  • 8/2023: Dr. Birchfield is interviewed by KBTX in Bryan, TX for the story “Grid conditions remain tight as record temperatures continue”. Link.
  • 8/2023: MS Student Rida Fatima successfully defends her thesis, Geomagnetic Storm and its Impact on Time-dependent Transformer Thermal Response in Large Power Systems. Congratulations Rida!
  • 8/2023: MS Student John Penaranda successfully defends his thesis, Application and Parameter Sensitivities of a State-space Cold Load Pickup Model for a Synthetic Restoration Test Case. Congratulations John!
  • 6/2023: The paper “The electric grid and severe resiliency events” is published in The Bridge: National Academy of Engineering Journal. Link.
  • 6/2023: Dr. Birchfield serves as an External International Advisory Committee Member for PowerTech 2023, Belgrade, Serbia.
  • 6/2023: The paper “A review on providing realistic electric grid simulations for academia and industry” is published in Current Sustainable Renewable Energy Reports. Link.
  • 5/2023: MS Student Oluwatoyin Oshinkoya successfully defends her thesis, Feasibility Study on the Future Impact of Electric Vehicle Fleets on the Power System Inertia Floor. Congratulations Toyin!
  • 5/2023: MS Student Yousef Abu-Khalifa successfully defends his thesis, A Methodology for Building and Simulating Synthetic Natural Gas Transmission Grids to Analyze the Inter-dependencies Between Natural Gas and Electric Power Systems. Congratulations Yousef!
  • 3/2023: The paper “Techniques for creating synthetic combined electric and natural gas transmission grids” is published in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications. Link.
  • 2/2023: Our final report to USDOE ARPA_E on Creation of Electric Grids (SPP/MISO) Supporting Perform is released. Link.
  • 2/2023: Our group has two papers and presentations at the 2023 Texas Power and Energy Conference in College Station, TX.
  • 1/2023: Dr. Birchfield gives the January webinar for the Power System Engineering Research Consortium (PSERC) on “Synthetic datasets for energy infrastructure modeling.”
  • 1/2023: Dr. Birchfield is teaching ECEN 460: Power System Operations and Control for Spring 2023.
  • 12/2022: Dr. Birchfield is an instructor for the Energy Institute intensive course ICPE 615: Smart Grid Fundamentals.
  • 11/2022: Our group’s paper “Graph decomposition for constructing blackstart restoration strategies in benchmark cases” is published in Electric Power Systems Research.
  • 9/2022: Dr. Birchfield gives the September webinar for the TAMU Smart Grid Center on “Modeling and analysis of interdependent electric power grid and natural gas network”.
  • 9/2022: Our group has two papers and presentations at 2022 North American Power Symposium (NAPS), Salt Lake City, UT.
  • 8/2022: Dr. Birchfield is teaching ECEN 616: Electromagnetic Transients in Power Systems in Fall 2022. Course Website.
  • 7/2022: Dr. Birchfield presents on inertia adequacy in transient stability models for synthetic grids at the 11th Bulk Power System Dynamics and Control Symposium (IREP) in Banff, Alberta, Canada.
  • 6/2022: Dr. Birchfield presents on blackstart restoration strategies in benchmark cases at the Power System Computation Conference (PSCC) in Porto, Portugal.
  • 2/2022: Our group contributes to the EPRI report Updated Late-Time High-Altitute Electromagnetic Pulse (E3 HEMP) Transformer Thermal Assessment. 3002023452.
  • 2/2022: Our group has two papers and presentations at the 2022 Texas Power and Energy Conference in College Station, TX.
  • 1/2022: Dr. Birchfield gives the January webinar for the TAMU Smart Grid Center on “Auto-layout techniques for displaying large-scale, geographically-embedded power system data”.
  • 1/2022: Dr. Birchfield is teaching ECEN 214: Electrical Circuit Theory in Spring 2022. Course Website.
  • 1/2022: The 7th Edition of Power System Analysis and Design, by Glover, Overbye, Birchfield, and Sarma is available from Cengage. Link.
  • 1/2022: NSF Awards project 2208780 for $15k to support student travel to TPEC 2023 (PI: Birchfield).
  • 11/2021: Our group has two papers and presentations at the 2021 North American Power Symposium in College Station, TX.
  • 11/2021: Dr. Birchfield serves as publications chair for the 53rd North American Power Symposium in College Station, TX.
  • 10/2021: The TAMU Smart Grid Center’s industry short course Power System Analysis is co-taught by Dr. Birchfield.
  • 8/2021: MS Student Ramyaa Kumar successfully defends her thesis, Considerations for Real-Time Data Analysis Using Multiple Magnetometer Sources for GIC Studies to Improve the Situational Awareness of an Electric Grid Model. Congratulations Ramyaa!
  • 8/2021: Dr. Birchfield is teaching ECEN 615: Methods of Large-Scale Electric Grid Analysis in Fall 2021.
  • 4/2021: Dr. Birchfield presents a collaborative paper with Rice University on the analysis of network fragility and resilience in large grids (virtual) at 2021 IEEE Power and Energy Conference (PECI).
  • 2/2021: Dr. Birchfield gives the TAMU ECEN Department Seminar on “The design of large synthetic transmission networks and implications for grid fragility and resilience assessment”.
  • 1/2021: Dr. Birchfield is teaching ECEN 460: Power System Operations and Control for Spring 2021.
  • 12/2020: Dr. Birchfield gives the December 2020 webinar for the TAMU Smart Grid Center on “Techniques for designing large transmission networks in synthetic electric grids”.
  • 11/2020: The paper “Building highly detailed synthetic electric grid data sets for combined transmission and distribution systems” is published in IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy.