Advanced modelling and operation of multiple voltage source inverters for distributed generation

Completed

Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electric power conversion)
Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electricity transmission and distribution)

Basic and strategic applied research

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor T Green
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Imperial College London

Standard

EPSRC

01 October 2007

30 September 2010

36 months

£202,024

Energy

London

Energy : Engineering

Professor T Green, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London

Most forms of new and renewable energy produce power in DC form or as AC at an inconvenient frequency. To inject this energy into the electricity network requires a power converter known as an inverter. As the proportion of energy from such sources rises, the inverters will be expect to take a role in controlling the network beyond just supply energy. This research proposal addresses two aspects of the system that must be modelled and understood before the control design can be concluded: thedetailed dynamic behaviour of the inverters when subjected to sudden changes such as large load changes will be modelled and the role the proprieties of the data communications (such as latency and bandwidth) play in shaping the control properties of remotely controlled distributed resources will be studied. Once this analysis has been verified against experimental observation, the research will tackle an example application of controlling inverters within a power system under the umbrella ofthe emerging concept of "active distribution networks". The control aspects of forming self-sufficient power "islands" out of fractions of the grid will be developed as a means to continue supplying local customers from local generators when the national system experiences a failure

01/01/07