Modern energy resources, such as photovoltaics, batteries, wind, and electric vehicles are interfaced to the grid through power electronics. These interfaces are fundamentally distinct from conventional synchronous generators in that they do not contain moving parts and their dynamics are shaped with digital controls. As generation shifts from large rotating machines to collections of electronic interfaces dispersed across the grid, system dynamics will accelerate under reduced inertia and system structures will become increasingly decentralized. Our group is reimagining the way grids are built and stands at the forefront of grid-forming inverter technologies that enable scalable and resilient power systems. UT Austin is also a co-lead of the UNIFI Consortium.

low inertia

Selected Publications

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2025

35.

Chatterjee, Debjyoti; Yang, Bowen; Johnson, Brian; Seo, Gab-Su

Interaction Energy-Based Transient Stability Framework for Multi-Grid-Forming Inverter Systems Proceedings Article

In: Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, 2025.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling, systems

34.

Chatterjee, Debjyoti; Baeckeland, Nathan; Johnson, Brian; Seo, Gab-Su; Dhople, Sairaj

Demystifying Grid-forming Inverter Large-signal Stability Assessment with Equivalent-circuit Models Proceedings Article

In: Workshop on Control and Modeling of Power Electronics, 2025.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverter control, modeling, systems

33.

Chatterjee, Debjyoti; Seo, Gab-Su; Johnson, Brian

Stability analysis of multi-inverter systems with heterogeneous grid-forming dynamics Proceedings Article

In: Power and Energy Society General Meeting, 2025.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverter control, inverters, modeling, systems

32.

Cai, Weiqian; Wen, Bo; Johnson, Brian

Grid-forming control of two-stage PV systems under capacity constraints Proceedings Article

In: Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics, 2025.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: dc-dc converters, inverter control, systems

31.

Chandran, Pranav; Mallik, Rahul; Kim, InYong; Brekken, Ted; Johnson, Brian

Design and analysis of an integral MPPT control law for wave energy conversion systems Proceedings Article

In: Workshop on Control and Modeling of Power Electronics, 2025.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: electromechanics, inverter control, modeling, systems

30.

Liu, Shaohui; Cai, Weiqian; Zhu, Hao; Johnson, Brian

A unified approach for learning the dynamics of power system generators and inverter-based resources Proceedings Article

In: Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2025.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, neural network, systems

2023

29.

Lu, Minghui; Cai, Weiqian; Dhople, Sairaj; Johnson, Brian

Large-signal stability of phase-balanced equilibria in single-phase grid-forming inverter systems Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 2023.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling, systems

28.

Ramasubramanian, Deepak; Kroposki, Benjamin; Dhople, Sairaj; Groß, Dominic; Hoke, Anderson; Wang, Wenzong; Shah, Shahil; Hart, Philip; Seo, Gab-Su; Ropp, Michael; Du, Wei; Vittal, Vijay; Ayyanar, Raja; Flicker, Jack; Benzaquen, Joseph; Johnson, Brian; Arsuaga, Pedro; Achilles, Sebastian; Pant, Siddharth; Bhattarai, Rojan; Howard, Dustin; Gong, Maozhong; Divan, Deepak; Tuohy, Aidan

Performance specifications for grid-forming technologies Proceedings Article

In: Power and Energy Society General Meeting, 2023.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverter control, inverters, systems

27.

Ramasubramanian, Deepak; Farantatos, Evangelos; Ajala, Olaoluwapo; Dhople, Sairaj; Johnson, Brian

A universal grid-forming inverter model and simulation-based characterization across timescales Proceedings Article

In: Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2023.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling, systems

2022

26.

Ajala, Olaoluwapo; Baeckeland, Nathan; Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj; Domínguez-García, Alejandro

Model reduction and dynamic aggregation of grid-forming inverter networks Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 2022.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, systems

25.

Lin, Yashen; Eto, Joseph; Johnson, Brian; Flicker, Jack; Lasseter, Robert; Pico, Hugo Villegas; Seo, Gab-Su; Pierre, Brian; Ellis, Abraham; Miller, Jeremiah; Yuan, Guohui

Pathways to the next-generation power system with inverter-based resources: Challenges and recommendations Journal Article

In: IEEE Electrification Magazine, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 10-21, 2022.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, systems

2021

24.

Lu, Minghui; Dutta, Soham; Johnson, Brian

Self-synchronizing cascaded inverters with virtual oscillator control Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, pp. 1-1, 2021.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, systems

23.

Jafarpour, Saber; Purba, Victor; Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj; Bullo, Francesco

Singular perturbation and small-signal stability for inverter networks Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, pp. 1-1, 2021.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, systems

22.

Dutta, Soham; Lu, Minghui; Majmunović, Branko; Mallik, Rahul; Seo, Gab-Su; Maksimović, Dragan; Johnson, Brian

Grid-connected self-synchronizing cascaded H-bridge inverters with autonomous power sharing Proceedings Article

In: Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, pp. 2806–2813, IEEE 2021.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, systems

21.

Billmeyer, Ryan; Lu, Minghui; Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj

Modeling and simulation of power-electronic inverters in analog electronic circuit simulators Proceedings Article

In: International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, pp. 1–5, IEEE 2021.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, systems

2020

20.

Dutta, Soham; Lu, Minghui; Mallik, Rahul; Majmunović, Branko; Mukherjee, Satyaki; Seo, Gab-Su; Maksimović, Dragan; Johnson, Brian

Decentralized control of cascaded H-bridge inverters for medium-voltage grid integration Proceedings Article

In: Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics, pp. 1–6, IEEE 2020.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, systems

2019

19.

Purba, Victor; Johnson, Brian; Jafarpour, Saber; Bullo, Francesco; Dhople, Sairaj

Dynamic aggregation of grid-tied three-phase inverters Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 1520–1530, 2019.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, systems

18.

Pico, Hugo Villegas; Johnson, Brian

Transient stability assessment of multi-machine multi-converter power systems Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 3504–3514, 2019.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, systems

17.

Purba, Victor; Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj

Reduced-order aggregate model for parallel-connected grid-tied three-phase photovoltaic inverters Proceedings Article

In: Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, pp. 0724–0729, IEEE 2019.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, systems

16.

Pierre, Brian; Pico, Hugo Villegas; Elliott, Ryan; Flicker, Jack; Lin, Yashen; Johnson, Brian; Eto, Joseph; Lasseter, Robert; Ellis, Abraham

Bulk power system dynamics with varying levels of synchronous generators and grid-forming power inverters Proceedings Article

In: Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, pp. 0880–0886, IEEE 2019.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, systems

2018

15.

Lu, Minghui; Yang, Yongheng; Johnson, Brian; Blaabjerg, Frede

An interaction-admittance model for multi-inverter grid-connected systems Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 34, no. 8, pp. 7542–7557, 2018.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, systems

14.

Khan, Mohammed; Lin, Yashen; Johnson, Brian; Sinha, Mohit; Dhople, Sairaj

Stability assessment of a system comprising a single machine and a virtual oscillator controlled inverter with scalable ratings Proceedings Article

In: Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, pp. 4057–4062, IEEE 2018.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, systems

2017

13.

Kroposki, Benjamin; Johnson, Brian; Zhang, Yingchen; Gevorgian, Vahan; Denholm, Paul; Hodge, Bri-Mathias; Hannegan, Bryan

Achieving a 100% renewable grid: Operating electric power systems with extremely high levels of variable renewable energy Journal Article

In: IEEE Power and energy magazine, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 61–73, 2017.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: systems

12.

Sinha, Mohit; Dörfler, Florian; Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj

Phase balancing in globally connected networks of linear oscillators Proceedings Article

In: Conference on Decision and Control, pp. 595–600, IEEE 2017.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, systems

11.

Purba, Victor; Dhople, Sairaj; Jafarpour, Saber; Bullo, Francesco; Johnson, Brian

Reduced-order structure-preserving model for parallel-connected three-phase grid-tied inverters Proceedings Article

In: Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics, pp. 1–7, IEEE 2017.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, systems

10.

Lin, Yashen; Johnson, Brian; Gevorgian, Vahan; Purba, Victor; Dhople, Sairaj

Stability assessment of a system comprising a single machine and inverter with scalable ratings Proceedings Article

In: North American Power Symposium, pp. 1–6, IEEE 2017.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, systems

2016

9.

Sinha, Mohit; Dörfler, Florian; Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj

Synchronization of linear-type oscillators in uniform electrical networks Proceedings Article

In: American control conference, pp. 4311–4316, IEEE 2016.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, systems

2014

8.

Dall’Anese, Emiliano; Dhople, Sairaj; Johnson, Brian; Giannakis, Georgios

Optimal dispatch of residential photovoltaic inverters under forecasting uncertainties Journal Article

In: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 350–359, 2014.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: systems

7.

Dall’Anese, Emiliano; Dhople, Sairaj; Johnson, Brian; Giannakis, Georgios

Decentralized optimal dispatch of photovoltaic inverters in residential distribution systems Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 957–967, 2014.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: systems

6.

Dhople, Sairaj; Johnson, Brian; Dörfler, Florian; Hamadeh, Abdullah

Synchronization of nonlinear circuits in dynamic electrical networks with general topologies Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, vol. 61, no. 9, pp. 2677–2690, 2014.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, systems

5.

Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj; Hamadeh, Abdullah; Krein, Philip

Synchronization of nonlinear oscillators in an LTI electrical power network Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, vol. 61, no. 3, pp. 834–844, 2014.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, systems

2013

4.

Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj; Hamadeh, Abdullah; Krein, Philip

Synchronization of parallel single-phase inverters with virtual oscillator control Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 29, no. 11, pp. 6124–6138, 2013.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, systems

2011

3.

Johnson, Brian; Davoudi, Ali; Chapman, Patrick; Sauer, Peter

A unified dynamic characterization framework for microgrid systems Journal Article

In: Electric Power Components and Systems, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 93–111, 2011.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: modeling, systems

2.

Johnson, Brian; Krein, Philip; Chapman, Patrick

Photovoltaic AC module composed of a very large number of interleaved inverters Proceedings Article

In: Applied Power Electronics Conference, pp. 976-981, 2011.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, systems

2010

1.

Johnson, Brian; Davoudi, Ali; Chapman, Patrick; Sauer, Peter

Microgrid dynamics characterization using the automated state model generation algorithm Proceedings Article

In: International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, pp. 2758-2761, 2010.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: systems