Kathryn Johnson

Professor, Electrical Engineering

Kathryn JohnsonKathryn Johnson received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Clarkson University in 2000, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Colorado in 2002 and 2004, respectively. In 2005, she completed a postdoctoral research assignment studying adaptive control of variable-speed wind turbines at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s National Wind Technology Center. In October 2005, she was appointed Clare Boothe Luce Asst. Prof. at the Colorado School of Mines in the Division of Engineering. Her research interests are in control systems and control applications, specifically wind energy. Her funded research projects have included modeling and control of a small wind turbine with a continuously-variable transmission and increasing the energy capture of a wind farm using coordinated turbine control.

Contact

Brown Hall 327F
303-273-3914
kjohnson@mines.edu
Personal Web Page

Education

  • B.S. Electrical Engineering, Clarkson University, 2000
  • M.S. Electrical Engineering, University of Colorado, 2002
  • Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, University of Colorado, 2004

Research Areas

  • control of wind energy systems
  • control systems applications
  • engineering education

Publications

See the complete list of publications on this personal web page

  • Johnson, K. and Fleming, P., “Development, implementation, and testing of fault detection and condition monitoring on the Controls Advanced Research Turbiness,” Mechatronics, Vol. 21, No. 4, June 2011, pp. 728-736.
  • Darrow, P.J., Johnson, K., and Wright, A., “Design of a tower and drive train damping controller for the 3-bladed Controls Advanced Research Turbine operating in design- driving load cases,” Wind Energy, Vol. 14, No. 4, May 2011, pp. 571-601.
  • Pao, L. and Johnson, K., “Control of wind turbines: Approaches, Challenges, and Recent developments,” IEEE Control Systems Magazine, Vol. 31, No. 2, April 2011, pp. 44-62.
  • Wang, N., Johnson, K., and Wright, A., 2011, “LIDAR-based FX-RLS feedforward control for wind turbine load mitigation,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, San Francisco, CA, pp. 1910-1915.
  • Wang, N. and Johnson, K., 2011, “Combined Lidar-based feedforward and feedback controllers for wind turbines with tower and blade damping,” Proceedings of the 2011 AIAA/ASME Wind Energy Symposium, Orlando, FL.
  • Johnson, K. and Rex, A., 2009, “Methods for controlling a wind turbine system with a continuously variable transmission in region 2,” Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, Vol. 131, No. 3, pp. 031012-1 – 031012-8.
  • Johnson, K. and Thomas, N., 2009, “Wind farm control: addressing the aerodynamic interaction among wind turbines,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, St. Louis, MO.
  • Pao, L. and Johnson, K., 2009, “A tutorial on the dynamics and control of wind turbines and wind farms,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, St. Louis, MO.
  • Darrow, P.J., Wright, A., and Johnson, K., 2009, “Wind turbine control design to reduce capital costs,” Proceedings of the AIAA/ASME Wind Energy Symposium, Orlando, FL, (electronic).
  • Johnson, K. and Fingersh, L., 2008, “Adaptive pitch control of variable-speed wind turbines,” Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, Vol. 130, No. 3, pp. 031012-1 – 031012-7. Paper available here to JSEE subscribers.
  • Rex, A. and Johnson, K., 2008, “Model Development of a Wind Turbine System with a Continuously Variable Transmission for Design of Region 2 Speed Control,” Proceedings of the 2008 AIAA/ASME Wind Energy Symposium, Reno, NV (electronic).
  • Johnson, K., and Fingersh, L., 2007, “Adaptive Pitch Control of Variable Speed Wind Turbines,” Proceedings of the 26th ASME Wind Energy Symposium, Reno, NV.
  • Invited review of Wind Turbine Control Systems by Fernando D. Bianchi, Hernan De Battista, and Ricardo J. Mantz, IEEE Control Systems Magazine, Oct. 2007, pp. 124-126.
  • Johnson, K., Pao, L., Balas, M., and Fingersh, L., 2006, “Control of Variable Speed Wind Turbines: standard and adaptive techniques for maximizing energy capture,” IEEE Control Systems Magazine, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 70-81.
  • Johnson, K., Fingersh, L., Pao, L., and Balas, M., 2005, “Adaptive Torque Control of Variable Speed Wind Turbines for Increased Region 2 Energy Capture,” Proceedings of the 24th ASME Wind Energy Symposium, Reno, NV, pp. 66-76.
  • Johnson, K., Fingersh, L., and Wright, A., 2005, Controls Advanced Research Turbine: Lessons Learned during Advanced Controls Testing, NREL Report No. TP-500-38130.
  • Johnson, K., Fingersh, L., Balas, M., and Pao, L., 2004, “Methods for Increasing Region 2 Power Capture on a Variable Speed Wind Turbine,” Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, Vol. 126, pp. 1092-1100.
  • Johnson, K., Pao, L., Balas, M., Kulkarni, V., and Fingersh, L., 2004, “Stability Analysis of an Adaptive Torque Controller for Variable Speed Wind Turbines,” Proceedings of the Conference on Decision and Control, Paradise Island, Bahamas, pp. 4087-4094.
  • Hand, M., Fingersh, L., Johnson, K., and Wright, A., 2004, “Advanced Control Design and Field Testing for Wind Turbines at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory,” Proceedings of the World Renewable Energy Congress VIII, Denver, CO.
  • Johnson, K., Fingersh, L., Balas, M., and Pao, L., 2004, “Methods for Increasing Region 2 Power Capture on a Variable Speed HAWT,” Proceedings of the 23rd ASME Wind Energy Symposium, Reno, NV, pp. 103-113
  • Fingersh, L. and Johnson, K., 2004, “Baseline Results and Future Plans for the NREL Controls Advanced Research Turbine,” Proceedings of the 23rd ASME Wind Energy Symposium, Reno, NV, pp. 87-93.
  • Fingersh, L. and Johnson, K., 2002, Controls Advanced Research Turbine (CART) Commissioning and Baseline Data Collection, NREL Report No. TP-500-32879.