Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

The complexity of modern electrical energy systems is rapidly growing with evolving smart energy grids and increased use of renewable distributed energy resources and power electronics. The development and operation of these systems are only possible due to highly sophisticated computer models and programs. Thousands of engineers in control centers and research facilities around the world are working full-time developing models and subsequently conducting various studies with them. Accurate and fast simulations enable safe design and optimal operation of future electric grids and may prevent potential blackouts and failures; however, the existing tools are much lagging behind. Canada has been a leader in developing solution approaches and computerized tools for electric power systems. Power Systems Technology Centre at Manitoba Hydro International Ltd and RTDS Technologies Inc. are the two leading Canadian companies that are developing the state-of-the-art program PSCAD and RTDS Simulator that became industry standard for offline and real-time transient simulation of power systems around the world. This grant envisions a very close collaboration of research group lead by Dr. Jatskevich at UBC and these two industrial partners for the development of advanced techniques for simulation of modern power systems with renewable energy sources and subsequently enhancing the capabilities of PSCAD and RTDS Simulator. This research will: 1) develop accurate and efficient models of energy sources based on rotating electrical machines and power converters; 2) develop more efficient models of power converters for offline and real-time system-level studies ; 3) develop efficient techniques and tools for automatic aggregation and model reduction for systems with a large number of power-electronically-interfaced energy resources such as large wind and PV parks; and 4) develop multi-domain solutions and interfacing techniques for hybrid simulation of power networks with different time-steps for more efficient utilization of available simulation programs and hardware. These features will help Canadian companies to lead the transformative changes in the industry.