Control of Power Inverters in Renewable Energy and Smart Grid Integration

Integrating renewable energy and other distributed energy sources into smart grids, often via power inverters, is arguably the largest “new frontier” for smart grid advancements. Inverters should be controlled properly so that their integration does not jeopardize the stability and performance of power systems and a solid technical backbone is formed to facilitate other functions and services of smart grids.

This unique reference offers systematic treatment of important control problems in power inverters, and different general converter theories. Starting at a basic level, it presents conventional power conversion methodologies and then ‘non-conventional’ methods, with a highly accessible summary of the latest developments in power inverters as well as insight into the grid connection of renewable power. Consisting of four parts – Power Quality Control, Neutral Line Provision, Power Flow Control, and Synchronisation – this book fully demonstrates the integration of control and power electronics. Key features include:

the fundamentals of power processing and hardware design
innovative control strategies to systematically treat the control of power inverters
extensive experimental results for most of the control strategies presented
the pioneering work on “synchronverters” which has gained IET Highly Commended Innovation Award

Engineers working on inverter design and those at power system utilities can learn how advanced control strategies could improve system performance and work in practice. The book is a useful reference for researchers who are interested in the area of control engineering, power electronics, renewable energy and distributed generation, smart grids, flexible AC transmission systems, and power systems for more-electric aircraft and all-electric ships. This is also a handy text for graduate students and university professors in the areas of electrical power engineering, advanced control engineering, power electronics, renewable energy and smart grid integration.

Author Biography

Qing-Chang Zhong received his Diploma in electricalengineering from Hunan Institute of Engineering, Xiangtan, China,in 1990, his MSc degree in electrical engineering from HunanUniversity, Changsha, China, in 1997, his PhD degree in controltheory and engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University,Shanghai, China, in 1999, and his PhD degree in control and powerengineering (awarded the Best Doctoral Thesis Prize) from ImperialCollege London, London, UK, in 2004, respectively. He holds the Chair Professor in Control and Systems Engineeringat the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, TheUniversity of Sheffield, UK. He has worked at Hunan Institute ofEngineering, Xiangtan, China; Technion¨CIsrael Institute ofTechnology, Haifa, Israel; Imperial College London, London, UK;University of Glamorgan, Cardiff, UK; The University of Liverpool,Liverpool, UK; and Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK. Hehas been on sabbatical at the Cymer Center for Control Systems andDynamics (CCSD), University of California, San Diego, USA; and theCenter for Power Electronics Systems (CPES), Virginia Tech,Blacksburg, USA. He is the author or co-author of Robust Control ofTime-Delay Systems (Springer-Verlag, 2006), Control of IntegralProcesses with Dead Time (Springer-Verlag, 2010) and Control ofPower Inverters in Renewable Energy and Smart Grid Integration(Wiley-IEEE Press, 2013). His research focuses on advanced controltheory and applications, including power electronics, renewableenergy and smart grid integration, electric drives and electricvehicles, robust and H-infinity control, time-delay systems andprocess control. He is a Specialist recognised by the State Grid Corporation ofChina (SGCC), a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering andTechnology (IET), a Senior Member of IEEE, the Vice-Chair of IFACTC 6.3 (Power and Energy Systems) responsible for the Working Groupon Power Electronics and was a Senior Research Fellow of the RoyalAcademy of Engineering/Leverhulme Trust, UK (2009¨C2010). Heserves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on PowerElectronics and the Conference Editorial Board of the IEEE ControlSystems Society. Tomas Hornik received a Diploma in Electrical Engineeringin 1991 from the Technical CollegeVUzlabine, Prague, the BEng andPhD degree in electrical engineering and electronics from TheUniversity of Liverpool, UK, in 2007 and 2010, respectively. He wasa postdoctoral researcher at the same university from 2010 to 2011.He joined Turbo Power Systems as a Control Engineer in 2011. Hisresearch interests cover power electronics, advanced control theoryand DSP-based control applications. He had more than ten yearsworking experience in industry as a system engineer responsible forcommissioning and software design in power generation anddistribution, control systems for central heating and buildingmanagement. He is a member of the IEEE and the IET.