Research Supervisor Connect
Utilities and customers will face significant economic challenges and need to be empowered with information and technologies to reduce electricity consumption, and related future costs. By enabling the electricity consumers to actively participate in power system operation, the problem of energy efficiency and demand side management is tackled right at the core level. In short, the electric power systems (EPSs) of the future will need to cope with increased penetration of distributed generation and with much larger participation of the demand in power system operation. As a result, the EPSs will become increasingly complex, which will render the conventional control approaches inappropriate.
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Masters/PHD
The main focus of this proposal is the transformation of conventional EPSs to Smart Grids and the unique opportunities brought about by the emerging technologies. The project deals with distributed aggregation and control of distributed energy resources (DERs). This is done in two levels: (i) first, energy management of DERs is performed at the device/residential level in small clusters (e.g. in a 'smart' house), so the bottom layer of the proposed control architecture is fully distributed; (ii) next, the clusters are aggregated in several layers, the top layer being the central control entity, e.g. the distribution system operator. There might be several intermediate aggregators in between. The control objective is to use DERs for providing, essentially, power reserves, as instructed by the responsible control entity (e.g a distribution/transmission system operator or a market operator) so the need for power reserves provided by the conventional generation is significantly reduced. The aim is to make the demand side more flexible, so the systems can accommodate significantly more intermittent generation. The main challenges are in developing a scalable control architecture and to enable seamless integration of new devices in a plug-and-play manner.
http://sydney.edu.au/engineering/electrical/
The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is 1396