Operation and protection of green low-voltage off-grid systems

The research group ELECTA-Ghent conducts applied research on photovoltaics (PV), energy storage, electrical distribution grids, electrical mobility and applied power electronics. The group consists of three professors, two postdocs and 8 researchers.
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Project

The candidate’s research will focus on off-grid systems. Off-grid systems contain a low-voltage grid that spans over a few hundred meters. As the name says, the off-grid system is not connected to a medium- or high-voltage grid. Therefore, local generation must satisfy the required load controlling voltage and frequency. 

The candidate supports the research project HYDE. This project is dedicated to the off-grid system of a military camp powered by PV and supported by batteries and hydrogen as storages. An electrolyzer produces hydrogen using surplus PV production. A fuel cell generates electricity with that hydrogen. The losses of these conversions support the warm water supply. The two major challenges are: First, the EMS must be compatible with the dynamics of the fuel-cell and electrolyzer. Second, the protection must be compatible with the weak short circuit currents from the power electronic converters of the PV plant and the fuel cell. For this off-grid system, the candidate will investigate the operation: Model the low-level voltage and frequency control and interface that with an energy management system (EMS). The candidate will also support the implementation of the EMS on a 10-kVA demonstrator. The candidate will also investigate the protection: Model the grid’s fault behavior, propose an earthing scheme and develop a protection against short-circuits. 

Next to research, the candidate will take up teaching activities. These are: Assisting students in lab-sessions and project work and guiding students during their master theses.

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Offer

Interested?

For more information please contact Prof. dr. Michael Kleemann, tel.: +32 9 398 64 21, mail: michael.kleemann@kuleuven.be or Prof. dr. ir. Jan Cappelle, tel.: +32 9 267 27 02, mail: jan.cappelle@kuleuven.be.

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