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Can Huang and Fengkai Hu will speak at the SLC Seminar on April 10th, 2015 at 12:20 pm in Min H. Kao, Room 524. Speaker information can be found below.


 Speaker: Can Huang

Title: Maximum Power Point Tracking Strategy for Large-Scale Wind Generation Systems Considering Wind Turbine Dynamics

Abstract: Under the global trend of renewable energy development, various advanced techniques such as forecasting algorithm, intelligent computation, and optimal control are expected to make the complex and uncertain renewable energy system stable and profitable in the near future. This paper presents a new control strategy for large-scale wind energy conversion systems to achieve a balance between power output maximization and operating cost minimization. First, an intelligent maximum power point tracking (IMPPT) algorithm is proposed such that short-term wind speed prediction, wind turbine dynamics, and MPPT are collectively considered to improve system efficiency. Second, in view of a spatial and temporal distribution of wind speed disturbances, a box uncertainty set is embedded in the forecast wind speed, which is likely more realistic for practicing engineers. Then, the IMPPT and box uncertainties are applied to the wind energy conversion system (WECS) control strategy, which is formulated as a min-max optimization problem and efficiently solved with semi-definite programming (SDP). Finally, a comparison with the conventional MPPT control method demonstrates that the proposed approach can obtain higher efficiency, which validates this paper.

Bio: Can Huang (S’13) received the B.S.E.E degree from Hohai University, Nanjing, China, in 2008, and the M.S.E.E. degree from the Southeast University, Nanjing, China, in 2011. Currently, he is pursuing the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA. From 2011 to 2012, he was with the State Grid Electric Power Research Institute (NARI Group Corporation), Nanjing, China. His research interests include renewable energy integration, power system planning and operation, and IT applications in power system measuring, protection and communications.


Speaker: Fengkai Hu
Title: Measurement-based Voltage Stability Assessment and Its Applications

Abstract: As a transmission network operates closer to its loading limit, the difficulties for monitoring and controlling to maintain the voltage stability have been raised significantly than ever. In order to help the operators foresee potential voltage instability and take control action promptly to mitigate the critical instability, online measurement-based voltage stability and closed loop control turn to be the key and effective functions in power system operation area. This talk will address an adaptive three-bus power system equivalent for measurement-based voltage stability analysis. With that equivalent identified online, a measurement-based approach is developed to estimate real-time voltage stability margin for a load-rich area supported by remote generation via multiple tie lines. This method is applied on the Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) system and also demonstrated on the CURENT Hardware Test Bed system (HTB), which is a power electronic converter-based research and experiment platform that emulates a real-time operating two-area power system with communication and control architectures.

Bio: Fengkai Hu received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in automation from University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China, in 2009 and 2012, respectively. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA. His research interests include power system voltage stability, wide area measurement system visualization and smart grid communication.