Description
Power electronic converters are an essential component of renewable and distributed energy sources, including wind turbines, photovoltaics, marine energy systems and energy storage systems. It is necessary to gain a clear understanding of, and be able to examine, the technical implications of providing sustainable electrical energy to meet the energy demand of the future.
The unit will also explore the potential impacts of climate change and why more, and different forms of, sustainable energy sources are required together with the need for energy efficiency measures.
By the end of this unit students will be able to examine the technological concepts behind providing a sustainable electrical energy supply for the future. They will also be able to describe how the fundamental technical and economic processes and drivers at play in the electrical power industry affect the selection and use of energy sources.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this unit students will be able to:
1. Evaluate energy demand to determine the technology and methods of energy production.
Energy demand:
Historical energy production, energy consumption, environmental aspects and global warming
The need for energy systems and global energy demand over the short to long term
Environmental effects associated with energy generation and consumption
Practicality, benefits, drawbacks and effectiveness of renewable energy sources
Overview of renewable energy technologies (wind, solar, bio, hydro, geothermal) and the associated costs
Future energy trends, scenarios and sustainable energy sources
2. Discuss current energy efficiency measures, technologies and policies specific to the building and transportation sectors.
Energy auditing, management, costs, requirements, bench marking and optimisation:
Energy management, planning, monitoring, policy, ecology and environment
Energy and buildings:
Overview of the significance of energy use and energy processes
Internal and external factors on energy use and the attributes of the factors
Status of energy use in buildings and estimation of energy use in a building
Standards for thermal performance of building envelope and evaluation of the overall thermal transfer
Measures and technologies to improve energy efficiency in buildings
Energy and electric vehicles:
Electrical vehicle configurations, requirements, and circuit topology; electric and plug in hybrid vehicles
Policies, measures and technologies to support more sustainable transportation
Use of Matlab/Simulink or alternative appropriate software to model, simulate and analyse the energy efficiency of a typical standard house or electric vehicle
3. Analyse the control techniques of power electronics for renewable energy systems.
Control techniques:
Environmental aspects of electrical energy conversion using power electronics
Introduce design criteria of power converters for renewable energy applications
Analyse and comprehend the various operating modes of wind electrical generators and solar energy systems
Introduce the industrial application of power converters, namely AC to DC, DC to DC and AC to AC converters for renewable energy systems
Explain the recent advancements in power systems using the power electronic systems. Introduction to basic analysis and operation techniques on power electronic systems
Functional analysis of power converters’ main topologies
Use of Matlab/Simulink to model, simulate and analyse the dynamic behaviour of a simple renewable energy system
4. Investigate the impacts of renewable resources to the grid and the various issues associated with integrating such resources to the grid.
Impact of renewable resources:
Safe and secure operation of a simple power system
Standalone and grid connected renewable energy systems
Introduction to smart grid, features, functions, architectures, and distributed generation. Grid interactive systems, grid tied systems, inverters, and application of its devices
Smart homes, power management, smart grid, intelligent metering
Communication technologies and power electronics modules for smart grid network, importance of power electronics in smart grid, for example energy storage (electrical, chemical, biological, and heat), and the future of smart grid
Use of Matlab/Simulink to model, simulate and analyse the dynamic behaviour of a standard smart grid.