Controls of Power Electronics based Microgrids
Wenxin Liu
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Lehigh University, USA
Time：14:00-15:00, 21 Dec. 2017
Venue：Conference Hall, School of Mathematics, SEU
Abstract：
Power electronics based microgrids have advantages in terms of flexibility, reliability, and power density. However, such microgrids are hard to control due to reduced inertia, increased uncertainties, and wide range of operating conditions. In microgrids, the strong physical couplings between subsystems must be properly considered. Otherwise, the control solutions might cause large transient line currents, which could accidently trigger the protection system. The droop-based primary controls unnecessarily link electrical frequency to supply-demand mismatch. Since most solutions for microgrids were only evaluated through simulation or oversimplified experimentation, a lot of critical practical issues were not sufficiently addressed, such as synchronization of reference frames, measurement and communication of system frequency, etc. To fully unlock potentials of power electronics based microgrids, novel control solutions with high technology readiness level need to be developed and tested through hardware experimentation. During Dr. Liu’s talk, he will introduce his recent work on controls of AC/DC microgrids and discuss on envisioned control scheme, open problems, promising solutions, and testbed development.
Short Bio：
Dr. Wenxin Liu received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Controls from Northeastern University, China in 1996 and 2000, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology. From 2005 to 2009, he was an Assistant Scholar Scientist with the Center for Advanced Power Systems at Florida State University. He was an Assistant Professor with the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New Mexico State University between 2009 and 2014. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Lehigh University. So far, he has published more than 40 papers in peer-reviewed journals/transactions and received over $2 million research funding from the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and California Energy Commission. He was named ConocoPhillips Faculty Fellow in 2011, received the Dean's Recognition Award in 2012, received the Early Career Award in 2013, and awarded the P.C. Rossin professorship in 2016. He is an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid and an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics.
