Seminar in Electric Power Systems¶

Course Overview¶

• Institution: MIT
• Course code: 6.691
• Track: Power Systems and Electric Machines
• Tier: A
• Role: Alternative
• Level: Not standardized by provider (use prerequisites)
• Last reviewed: 2026-07-28

MIT's Seminar in Electric Power Systems supplements power-systems study through solved problems and project examples, while its 2006 grid and market context needs explicit modernization notes.

Why choose this course

Alternative course. A reliable option that can serve as a main course or strong alternative.

Before you start

• Recommended foundation: Circuit Analysis
• Recommended foundation: Electromagnetic Fields and Waves
• Recommended foundation: Engineering Mathematics

Verifiable learning outcomes

• Explain the core models in Power Systems and Electric Machines, including their assumptions and limits
• Solve representative derivations and problems, checking units, limiting cases, or numerical results
• Complete a reproducible experiment or implementation with raw data, parameters, versions, and verification

Workload and pacing

11 weeks at 7 hours/week. This maintainer planning estimate is derived from course role and the density of public practice and labs; it is not a provider workload promise. Pilot two weeks while logging instruction, practice, lab, and review time, then adjust the remaining plan when actual effort differs by more than 25%.

Safety level

Simulation only. The default practice scope is software, computation, or simulation only; a lab label in the resource inventory does not authorize connecting physical equipment, and any hardware extension requires provider-scope verification and a new risk assessment.

Course Resources¶

Software, hardware, and cost

Software

• Maintainer-suggested open-source/free verification path: pandapower, OpenDSS, Python 3, Jupyter, and GNU Octave
• The resource inventory lists public code coverage; pin interpreter, dependencies, toolchain, datasets, and PDK versions where applicable

Hardware

• The resource inventory lists lab coverage, but this course's maintainer path explicitly limits it to computational or simulation work. It assumes only a general-purpose computer able to run the software above and retain results; do not purchase or connect an institution-supervised three-phase/machine trainer, isolation and protection, measurement interface, and emergency shutdown

Cost note

The current maintainer path uses computation and simulation only, with no dedicated hardware purchase, and prefers open-source/free tools. This is not a provider requirement; platform, commercial-software, or cloud-compute costs still vary by provider, region, and plan.

Public resource coverage

Resources and access

“Listed by official page” means the link was discovered on a successfully fetched official source on the verification date; it does not guarantee that every region or account can open the target directly. Access does not grant redistribution rights. Re-check the provider page, target link, and third-party notices before downloading, adapting, or publishing material.

Practice and Verification¶

Practice loop

Seminar in Electric Power Systems · MIT 6.691: Small-Grid or Machine Operating-Boundary Study

This is a maintainer-suggested self-study project for Seminar in Electric Power Systems · MIT 6.691, not an official course assignment. Build a compact load-flow, fault, or machine dq model for Power Systems and Electric Machines and audit convergence, thermal or current constraints, and disturbance stability.

Origin: Maintainer-suggested project

Deliverables

• A one-line diagram or machine parameters, per-unit bases, load or torque range, and operating constraints
• Load-flow, fault, or dynamic model, scenario generator, and constraint-check sources
• Raw voltage, current, power or torque, and state trajectories for nominal and at least 20 disturbances
• A report defining operating boundaries, worst bus or winding proxy, and a nonconvergent case

Verification

• Keep nominal power-balance residual below 0.1% with explicit margin on every constraint
• Cover no load, peak load, one element out, a fault proxy, and parameter extremes
• Cross-check key results with a second load-flow method, analytic short-circuit value, or energy balance
• Increase load or torque until the first voltage, thermal, or stability failure and locate the cause

Reproducibility

• Commit network or machine data, solver, scenarios, checks, and plotting sources
• Pin per-unit bases, solver, tolerances, time step, and data version
• Preserve raw scenario inputs, state trajectories, convergence logs, and the generated report

Safety boundary: Simulation only — Use grid and machine simulation only; do not connect mains, generators, motors, high-voltage sources, or any high-power physical equipment.

Risks, gaps, and boundaries

Solved problem sets and project examples are valuable, but 2006 grid and market context needs explicit updating annotations.

Completion evidence

• Weekly learning log with time, questions, corrected errors, decisions, next steps, and links to that week's reproducible artifacts
• Theory dossier with explicit assumptions, notation, derivation, units, and boundary conditions, checked by at least one independent method
• Simulation package with model or netlist, inputs, solver and version, parameter-sweep script, benchmark comparison, expected results, and one rerun command
• Code repository with pinned dependencies and toolchain, a minimal run command, tests or waveform/benchmark checks, expected output, and license notes