MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science EECS Great Educators

Professor Schweppe was a recognized world leader in the field of electric power. An engineer with a thorough understanding of modern control theory and estimation techniques, he applied these concepts to a variety of practical problems in the electric utility industry.

Professor Schweppe was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1934. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Arizona in 1955 and 1957, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1959. He began his professional career as a staff member at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, where he worked on control and identification of rocket trajectories. He was appointed Visiting Associate Professor in our department in 1966. Two years later he became Associate Professor (no longer "Visiting"). He then advanced to the rank of full professor in 1975, in which capacity he served until his death in 1988.

Upon joining our faculty. Professor Schweppe directed his research efforts to problems facing the electric utility industry. His initial interest in power systems was motivated by what was at that time the biggest power failure in history, the Great Northeast Blackout of November 9, 1965. In order to learn about the industry, Professor Schweppe spent a year in residence at American Electric Power Service Corp. His initial work involved the application of modern control theory to power-system control and stability. Eventually his interests expanded into a broad array of power systems issues, including the development of analytical methods for optimizing power system operations and planning with emphasis on environmental constraints, and short- and long-term load demand modeling. He was regarded as an individualist, almost a renegade, with new and highly creative ideas, someone who was determined to bring these ideas to fruition. He was also a prolific writer who gave both inspiration and editing help to colleagues and graduate students in their efforts to get new ideas published.

Throughout his career, Professor Schweppe maintained close contacts with power system operators in order to ensure the relevance of his work to their needs. His most notable contribution, for which he received international recognition, was his development of a methodology for estimating the operating state of power-system networks, a technique that makes it possible to evaluate network operating condi-tions at any instant in order to enhance reliability and control. As a result of this work, he gained the confidence and respect of power industry leaders, a major tribute from a conservative industry that is sometimes slow to respond to innovative ideas. His research on estimation techniques culminated in his book Uncertain Dynamic Systems, published in 1973. Toward the end of his career Professor Schweppe's research involved models for electricity spot-market pricing and an assessment of the effects of possible deregulation of the power industry, a most foresighted topic in light of deregulation policies that have recently been put into place. His spot pricing research is documented in Spot Pricing of Electricity, a book which he coauthored and which was published posthumously in 1988.

Professor Schweppe invigorated our department's teaching program in electric power through two graduate subjects which he organized and regularly taught: Planning and Operation of Power Systems, and System Identification. As a member of the department's Electric Power Systems and Engineering Laboratory and as Associate Director for two years, he supervised over 75 undergraduate and graduate theses, of which 27 were at the doctoral level. He was author or coauthor of 70 professional journal articles and 20 conference papers.

Professor Schweppe is now regarded as one of the visionary people who foresaw changes to the electric-power industry to permit competition, long before others. Within ten years after his death, deregulation had been introduced, and a few states had already begun to allow consumers to select an independent power producer, while relying on regulated monopolies for transmission and distribution.

In 1977 Professor Schweppe was elected a Fellow in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers "for contributions to the application of state estimation, load forecasting and system dynamics to the control electric power systems."