By Stephen Hardy, Anubhav Jain, Motaz Ayiad, Jovana Dakic, Davide Pinzan & Gayan Abeynayake
Europe's power system is undergoing significant change as it strives to meet its ambitious climate targets and mitigate the effects of global warming – moving from high carbon to low carbon renewable energy. This is a monumental task requiring, not just new technology, but a new generation of highly skilled specialists to boot! InnoDC is a collection of 16 organisations from academia and industry located throughout Europe and China.
This creates an ideal environment of knowledge and experience to support 14 researchers pursuing PhDs in renewable energy. They are looking at how to integrate the latest technology into offshore wind and HVDC grids; their work is divided into the following three areas, illustrated by their initials in the graphic below.
1. Components of DC grids and wind farms
The focus is on modelling, control and design of the various DC grid and wind farm components. This includes DC transformers, HVDC insulation, electronic converters, cabling and energy management.
Peng Yang, Cardiff University, works on design and control of DC transformers.
Daniel Westerman Spier, Cinergia, researches control and design of modular multilevel converters.
Motaz Ayiad, Efacec, implements SCADA power applications for Hybrid AC/DC networks.
Davide Pinzan, Cardiff University, investigates the conversion of existing overhead lines to HVDC, focusing on outdoor insulators.
Stephen Hardy, KU Leuven, develops optimisation strategies for offshore windfarm topology design.
2. Connection of offshore wind farms
The researchers work on developing different tools for offshorewind farm analysis. These tools cover reliability, stability, optimisation and black start analyses.
Gayan Abeynayake, Cardiff University, is designing a tool to analyse component and system reliability of DC wind collection systems.
Luis Orellana, UPC, is designing a tool for stability analysis of offshore AC grids rich in power converters.
Jovana Dakic, UPC, is developing a tool for the techno-economic analysis of AC and DC offshore systems.
Anubhav Jain, DTU, is developing a tool for black start and islanding operation in HVDC-connected offshore wind plants.
3. Hybrid AC/DC grids
The integration of HVDC systems into the existing grid is leading to faster dynamics and increasing the ability to control the overall system. The researchers’ objective is to analyse the interactions between AC and DC grids, and enhance reliability, stability and operation.
Wei Liu, Cardiff University, is developing fast and discriminate protection for HVDC systems.
Saman Dadjo Tavakoli, UPC, is designing advanced control systems for modular multilevel converters.
Vaishally Bhardwaj, KU Leuven, researches reliable operation of hybrid AC/DC power systems in different time frames.
Nathalia Campos, Elia, focuses on dynamic stability of power systems with high penetration of power electronics.
Emily Maggioli, U.Porto, is analysing the impact of HVDC connected wind farms on AC network protection.
Contact information:
Project Manager: Manon Davies
Email: DaviesM75@cardiff.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)29 2087 0890
Web: https://innodc.org/
InnoDC has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 765585
