Advanced Control of Power Electronic Converters in Microgrids with Distributed Energy Resources

Project Title:

Advanced Control of Power Electronic Converters in Microgrids with Distributed Energy Resources

Supervisor(s):

Dr. Jiefeng Hu (Lead), Prof. Syed Islam (Assoc.)

Area of Research:

Power Engineering, Power Electronics, Control and Optimization

Contact person and email address:

Jiefeng Hu  j.hu@federation.edu.au

A brief description of the project:

With growing concern on the environmental issues and the rapid depletion of traditional fossil fuel, electrical grids tend to be more distributed, intelligent, and flexible with high penetration of renewable energy sources. Electrical and energy engineering now have to face a new scenario in which small distributed power generators and dispersed energy-storage devices have to be integrated together into microgrids. A microgrid is a cluster of microgenerators connected to the local low voltage network through power electronic converters.

A power electronic converter forms the interface between the grid and a renewable energy source, and hence they have an important role in grid integration. For instance, in photovoltaic (PV) power electronic converters are used to convert the generated power with variable DC voltage into a suitable constant AC voltage. This requires a maximum power point tracker (DC-DC conversion) and an inverter (DC-AC conversion). Since the power converters have a direct impact on the power quality and system stability within a microgrid, they are required to operate more efficiently and effectively to maintain high power quality and dynamic stability. This project aims to develop advanced control technologies of power electronic converters of microgrids to supply reliable and high-quality electrical power.

Project Objectives:

  1. Mathematical modelling of microgrids with power electronic interfaced distributed energy resources such as solar PVs, wind generators, batteries, etc.
  2. Understand the topologies of power electronic converters and their working principle
  3. Development of advanced control methods of enabling stable operation of microgrids
  4. Numerical simulation and experimental verification