Teaching Sustainable Energy and Power Electronics to Engineering Students in a Laboratory Environment Using Industry-Standard Tools

Abstract

Power electronics and renewable energy are two important topics for today's power engineering students. In many cases, the two topics are inextricably intertwined. As the renewable energy sector grows, the need for engineers qualified to design such systems grows as well. In order to train such engineers, new courses are needed that highlight the unique engineering challenges presented by renewable energy systems. This paper presents the theory, implementation, and assessment of a new laboratory course designed to teach power electronics and renewable energy to engineering students. A key element of the course is the use of real renewable energy systems in the laboratory setting. Students design, test, and troubleshoot power electronic circuits (such as dc/dc converters and pulse-width-modulated inverters) with tools used widely in industry (such as MATLAB/Simulink and dSPACE digital signal processors). Ten unique experiments are presented, as well as detailed descriptions of two open-ended design projects: a maximum power point tracker for a photovoltaic array and a full converter for a permanent-magnet wind turbine. Results from students' work on the experiments and final projects, as well as an assessment of the effectiveness of the course based on pre-and post-testing, are also presented.Index Terms-ac/dc power converters, converters, dc/dc power converters, electrical engineering education.

A survey on modeling and simulation practices for teaching power harmonics

“…With relation to harmonic distortion indicators, the prevalent indicator to measure the harmonic distortion is the representation of the “harmonic spectrum,” since it is used in 68% of the existing studies . With a similar level of penetration, the THD is used by 63% of the works , and the display of the “voltage and current waveforms” is included in 47% of the studies . The real PF is another metric commonly used in harmonic modeling and simulation, considered in 32% of the existing studies .…”

“…Other additional functionalities that have been considered are the analysis of the load power flow [3,12], the examination of the loads’ behavior for different frequencies or the modeling and simulation of filters to mitigate the effect of the non‐linear loads [12,38]. Several authors have contextualized modeling and simulation of harmonic distortion in particular types of electrical systems such as transformers [63,66], dc‐motors speed variators , energizing of capacitor banks, starting of induction motors , photovoltaic systems , wind generators , adjustable speed drives or grid systems , among others. The non‐linear loads most commonly used are power converters [11,51] such as rectifiers, inverters, etc.…”

“…It belongs to the OrCAD suite . PCFLO: It performs load‐flow, short circuit, and harmonics analysis . Alternative Transients Program (ATP): It is a transient analysis program, capable of simulating electrical power systems, controls, power electronics, and hybrid situations involving all of them . Hardware—dSPA CE DS1104 : It consists of a card installed in a PC and an I/O interface. It is used for control tasks and data collection via its interface with Simulink . Hardware—National I nstrument compact RIO 9082 : Embedded controller for advanced control and monitoring applications. It features an FPGA and a processor . The specific operating systems supported by the designed tools.…”

A flexible laboratory platform for multi-disciplinary electrical engineering courses

“…This is enabled by hands-on tools that provide a rich and rewarding experience. A number of papers have recently been presented on the teaching of the emerging field of the smart grid which incorporates multidisciplinary topics [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. As the applications are increasingly multi-disciplinary, a platform that incorporates and integrates these various aspects will produce a rich learning environment with improved learning results.…”

BYOE: An Introductory Laboratory-Based Course on Switching Regulator Analysis and Design

“…2,3 Other approaches focus on high-level concepts tied very closely to a particular technology. 4 Some course offerings tend to require large amounts of dedicated space and very expensive equipment requiring significant industry contributions.…”