PhD Position in Electrical power engineering and mechatronics, Early stage researcher

Tallinn University of Technology, School of Engineering, Department of Electrical Power Engineering and Mechatronics offers a 4-year PhD position in the field of electrical power engineering and mechatronics.

Proposed doctoral thesis topic: "Energy Management in Positive Energy DC Buildings and Districts".

Supervisor: Senior Researcher Andrei Blinov and Senior Researcher Roya Ahmadiahangar

Abstract

The Ph.D. project is focused on the study of energy management methods in the context of DC buildings and districts. The primary task is to research and develop control methods that would be able to manage DC grid supply and demand by integrating renewable generation, energy storage and flexible load management, with the aim of achieving energy neutrality or even positivity at the neighborhood level.

Description

Advancing electrification with its broad use of electronic devices and renewable energy sources has increased the role of power electronic interfaces in the power distribution system. Particularly, in the residential sector a significant part of loads now uses built-in power electronics with DC voltage for the power supply. Since renewable sources (e.g. photovoltaic solar) and storage systems (batteries, supercapacitors) are also DC in nature, this has triggered a growing interest towards the concept of residential DC microgirds. The DC distribution avoids any frequency stability and reactive power issues and can potentially provide easier and more efficient integration with reduced system costs. In this regard, the transition of a grid that have already realized much of its savings potential to DC power could be one of the largest remaining sources of energy-efficiency increase and one of the key enablers of positive energy district concept.

Project tasks:

• Analysis of centralized and decentralized control methods in DC microgrids
• Study of existing and developing DC microgird standards, requirements and other specifics
• Characterization of advantages and drawbacks of various power management methods
• Development of efficient control methods (e.g. based on droop, DC bus signaling)