This 30 ECTS research program is for one semester with start either February 1 or September 1.
Preferred student profile
Master student in electrical power engineering, power electronics or other closely related fields.
Background and interest in one or more of the following fields:
- Smart Grids
- Protection and relaying
- Renewable energy systems
- Microgrids and distributed generation systems
- Control of power electronic systems
- Power quality and harmonics
Research topics:
The main topics are but not limited to the following:
- Plant and network protection for renewable energy systems (RES)
- Low Voltage and Fault Ride Through (LVRT and FRT) of RES
- Control of power electronics for applications such as wind turbines (WT), photovoltaic (PV) systems, distributed generation, microgrids, High Voltage DC (HVDC), energy storage systems (ESS), and electric vehicle charging stations
- Power quality challenges and solution with high penetration of RES
- Power-to-X
- Multi-Energy Hubs
Description
The increase of RES penetration in electrical grids has introduced new challenges in the network operation. An important part of such challenges is related to the power quality problems such as voltage rise, harmonic distortion, voltage unbalances, etc. On the other hand, since RES are interfaced to the grid through power electronic converters, such problems can be mitigated and even additional services such as reactive power support and power quality improvement can be envisioned.
Furthermore, with the increasing integration of RESs in the electrical grids, the conventional protection schemes and devices are no longer effective enough since for instance the power flow direction, short circuit capacity and the fault current level can be significantly different. In addition, the RES interface converters are more susceptible to high fault currents. In addition, dc power transmission such as high and medium voltage DC (HVDC and MVDC) with their protection challenges are getting more popular. On the other hand, there are some grid codes for Fault FRT and LVRT which should also be met, and the control of the interface converters should also be designed to comply with grid codes and protection requirements.
The aim of the research program is to develop efficient control and protection schemes to address the aforementioned challenges of high penetration of power-electronic-interfaced RES in smart grids by proposing effective control and protection schemes.
The participating students will be engaged in an innovative environment and be involved in state-of-the-art research projects with possible interaction with the industry. Research projects can be either a specific module of an ongoing research projects or be extension of an earlier project of promising results, or an independent project aimed at opening a new research area of high potential. According to the assigned topic, applicants will define a tailored project with their supervisors. The valuable outcomes of the projects will be presented in high-rank internationally-recognized conferences and journals.