Probabilistic Assessment and Robustness Analysis of Power Electronic Sub-System for Grid Applications

Nowadays, stability and performance robustness analysis of the power electronics based power systems (PEPS) and also reliability assessment of such systems, have become more and more challenging. Because PEPS are subjected to various uncertainties and disturbances. So that power system conditions change substantially during the day, due to variation of the number and characteristics of connected generators and loads, equipment exhaustion and nonlinear effects of power converters.

To overcome these issues, design engineers may need to think beyond the classic analysis methods (Routh–Hurwitz test, Root Loci, eigenvalues evaluation and etc.) and employ new analysis tools (μ-analysis, Kharitonov’s theorem, Edge theorem, and etc.) that can offer more effective solutions to deal with introduced issues of the future power system.

In this respect, the goal of this project is to develop purposely-designed robustness analysis methods with improved performance compares to conventional counterparts. In order to validate the developed method, a comprehensive study would be conducted to determine its highlights and shortcomings with respect to conventional methods.

The advanced and developed methods are employed to evaluate different photovoltaic (PV) power system configurations, which are considered as the substantial parts of PEPS, under various uncertainties and grid conditions. Moreover, other important issues are related to lifetime prediction and reliability assessment of the PV power systems. In this respect, many studies have presented to cover different aspects of PV power system reliability. However, there are still many open questions on the reliability analysis of the PV power system where solar tracker is used for PV panels. Another problem is the presence of local nonlinear loads at PCC which change significantly the inverter electrothermal loading. These questions are going to be answered in this PhD project.

Funding: Villum Foundation.