Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

This proposal concerns primarily the modelling and simulation of power electronic voltage source converters (VSC) using intelligent or advanced control techniques to meet the increasingly complex and integrated utility demands. Such converters are mostly employed in the flexible AC transmission (FACTS) systems. The use of FACTS based devices is needed in the next generation of integrated power system to control power flow over specified rights of way. Although this is an area of active research in academia, little is being done at the utility level to provide suitable models and tools to evaluate the performance and impact of such devices. Since hardware implementation of these controllers is likely to be very expensive, the software modelling approach is being relied upon. The use of software tools, such as EMTP RV and other power system packages, which are standard tools within the industry (i.e. PSSE) are being used to (a) verify the models, (b) provide valuable guidance to the industry, and (c) to train the next generation of utility engineers. Strong links to local industry have been established so that the proposed research work will have a practical element.