Dr. Rajiv K. Varma is a Professor at The University of Western Ontario (UWO) in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering .
Prof. Varma did his B.Tech and PhD in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1980 and 1988 respectively. He began his academic career as Assistant Professor at IIT Kanpur in 1989.He was given the Government of India BOYSCAST Young Scientist Fellowship in 1992-93 to conduct research on FACTS ( Flexible Alternating Current Transmission System) at UWO, London, ON, Canada. Till 1994, Prof. Varma was an Assistant Visiting Professor at UWO. He then returned to India and joined IIT Kanpur in 1997. He was the recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship of U.S. Educational Foundation in India (USEFI) to travel to the United States in 1998 and do research in HVDC Transmission and FACTS at Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Dept. of Energy, at Portland, Oregon. Prof. Varma's research focuses on developing new technologies to improve the grid-integration of renewable solar PV, wind, and energy storage systems.
Prof. Varma was the UWO Project Lead in the $6.125 Million project on "Large-Scale Photovoltaic Solar Power Integration in Transmission and Distribution Networks", along with the University of Waterloo, funded by Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), Ontario Power Authority (OPA, now IESO), a transmission utility - Hydro One, two local distribution utilities - Bluewater Power Corporation and London Hydro, and a major solar farm developer - First Solar. He later led two multi-university (UWO - Waterloo - Ryerson) projects, of $2 Million, on "Enhancing Grid Connectivity of Renewables through Innovative Controls of PV Solar Farms" and "Smart Management of Short Circuit Currents from Distributed Generators".
Prof. Varma has developed a technology named as PV-STATCOM which allows utilizing solar PV farms in day as well as night time . Thus, providing numerous benefits for transmission and distribution systems. These technologies can convert a solar farm into a dynamic power compensator.
