Research

Research Project:

    • PI: “An Intelligent Wind/Solar Microgrid with Wide Bandgap Multiport Converter,” the Xcel Energy, Inc, $600,634 Oct., 2017 - Nov., 2020

Research Topics:

    • Two-stage power decoupling control for Photovoltaic inverter: Using film capacitors only to achieve power decoupling for PV system.
    • Multiport GaN converter for renewable energy integration: Developing various GaN multiport converter for hybrid wind, solar, battery, and microgrid system.
    • Power management of Hybrid wind, photovoltaic, and battery System: Modeling and control of power converter for microgrid applications.
    • Intelligent control for a Microgrid grid system: Decentralized control.

Equipment & Facility

    1. Voltage sources

    • Programmable 18 kVA Power Source (1/3 phase Chroma 61512-220)
    • 2 programmable Single – Output DC Power Supply, 600V/8.5A
    • 6 DC power supplies (42 V/10A)

    2. Measurement & data collection

    • Lecroy oscilloscope (Waverunner 8104): 1 GHz, 20GS/s, 4Ch, 16 Mpts/Ch
    • High resolution Lecroy oscilloscope (HDO6104A-MS 4+16 Ch, 50Mpts/Ch) equipped with Power Analysis and spectrum analysis blockset
    • Arduino wireless data collection and transmission board
    • High speed current probe (N2782B: 50 MHz, 30Arms)
    • Current probes (20 kHz) AC/DC 1-100A + differential voltage probes

    3. Hardware-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-code

    • Two dspace (1104) and motor drives
    • MicroLabBox dSpace equipped with RTI Motor control blockset
    • eZdsp F28335 and eZdsp F2812 control boards

    4. Renewable energy sources

    • 600W horizontal wind turbine + anemometers
    • Two 500W solar panels (in progress)
    • Two PV simulators (PVS60085MR)
    • A 500W wind turbine simulator (built with two gamut motors)

    5. Power Electronics Converters

    • 1 kW Buck, Boost Converter
    • Four-port (Bidirectional) DC-DC Converter
    • H-Bridge Inverter
    • Two-stage Power Decoupling Photovoltaic Inverter