Jason MacDonald

Jason MacDonald

Principal Scientific Engineer Associate
510-486-7085

Bio

Jason MacDonald, a Senior Scientific Engineering Associate at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has focused his career in distributed energy resources.  As a member of the Grid Integration Group in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at LBNL, Jason researches fast, automated demand response for bidding into bulk power system ancillary service markets.  This work includes analyses of market and policy barriers to DR’s market entry into ISO/RTO markets, the development of mathematical models for demand response availability and pilots to test control paradigms for resource aggregation of thermostatically controlled loads and PEVs for AS participation.  Prior to joining LBNL, he pursued his graduate work in Mechanical Engineering and Sustainable Systems in the University of Michigan’s Engineering Sustainable Systems dual degree program. As a student researcher, Jason examined the electricity consumption profile, fleet marginal electricity demand and environmental impacts of PEVs.  He has held positions as a system engineer for a photovoltaic integrator in Southern California, and as a systems integration engineer on the Chevy Volt powertrain at General Motors.

Awards

2015 R&D 100 Award -  November 17th 2015

A Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) team led by Samveg Saxena of the Energy Technologies Area’s Grid Integration Group won a 2015 R&D 100 award for developing V2G-Sim, a vehicle-to-grid simulator. The development team also included Jonathan Coignard and Jason MacDonald.

V2G-Sim quantifies energy use for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) by the second, under various driving conditions or while charging or discharging to/from the grid. The simulator enables users to predict how each vehicle will perform with different drivers, and how each vehicle will interact with the electricity grid. Grid operators can use the tool to forecast electricity demand for a time interval during the day, and industry and policy stakeholders can use it to better understand how PEVs can draw electricity from the grid or provide power to the grid when it is needed during peak demand.

Each year, R&D Magazine presents the R&D 100 Awards, which recognize the top 100 technology products from industry, academia, and government-sponsored research. For more information on the awards, see the links below.

Publications

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2012