About this Research Topic
Energy generated from renewable sources is fed into the grid by means of electronic power converters. These can handle powers of several hundred megawatts, as in the case of HVDC converters for offshore wind farms; several megawatts, as in onshore wind generators and large photovoltaic plants; and a range of hundreds of kilowatts to one kilowatt, such as power generation for sale to the grid, self-consumption, microgrids, etc. These converters have topologies that range from multilevel, for high power applications, to two-level converters for medium and low power, and controllers that achieve safe and efficient operation in both dynamic and stationary regimes. Converters can be supervised at system (grid) level to coordinate all productions points together with storages and loads. In future microgrids, it will be necessary to embed new interfaces and implement new features using technologies of computer science and telecommunication.
Some of the challenges that converters for renewable applications currently face are intended to be addressed. Regulations impose power supply quality requirements regarding harmonics, grid fault response and LVRT, which have been addressed by incorporating multilevel topologies, classic vector controllers, resonant controllers, etc. New converter topologies and controllers, better suited to the characteristics of renewable sources and transmission and distribution networks, are welcome. The progress of distributed generation presents challenges to converters such as island mode operation, voltage and frequency regulation of microgrids, simulation, etc. New collaborative solutions for “more smart” microgrids must be included to improve power quality, reliability, service quality and duty.
Areas of interest to this Research Topic include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Topologies and control;
• Converters for offshore wind farms (HVDC, MMC, etc);
• Control of converters in case of grid faults, unbalances and harmonics;
• Converters for microgrids;
• Simulation models;
• New architectural solutions for collaborative distributed generation;
• New solutions for more reliable power converters in smart grids;
• Smart transformers and power electronics for smart grids;
• Microgrid measurement processes;
• IoT and smart metering for microgrids;
• Control and estimation of the state of a microgrid.
Some of the challenges that converters for renewable applications currently face are intended to be addressed. Regulations impose power supply quality requirements regarding harmonics, grid fault response and LVRT, which have been addressed by incorporating multilevel topologies, classic vector controllers, resonant controllers, etc. New converter topologies and controllers, better suited to the characteristics of renewable sources and transmission and distribution networks, are welcome. The progress of distributed generation presents challenges to converters such as island mode operation, voltage and frequency regulation of microgrids, simulation, etc. New collaborative solutions for “more smart” microgrids must be included to improve power quality, reliability, service quality and duty.
Areas of interest to this Research Topic include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Topologies and control;
• Converters for offshore wind farms (HVDC, MMC, etc);
• Control of converters in case of grid faults, unbalances and harmonics;
• Converters for microgrids;
• Simulation models;
• New architectural solutions for collaborative distributed generation;
• New solutions for more reliable power converters in smart grids;
• Smart transformers and power electronics for smart grids;
• Microgrid measurement processes;
• IoT and smart metering for microgrids;
• Control and estimation of the state of a microgrid.
Keywords: distributed power generation, microgrids, power grids, PWM invertors, renewable energy sources
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