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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.

In this paper, a new single-phase wind energy inverter (WEI) with flexible AC transmission system (FACTS) capability is presented. The proposed inverter is placed between the wind turbine and the grid, same as a regular WEI, and is able to regulate active and reactive power transferred to the grid. This inverter is equipped with distribution static synchronous compensators option in order to control the power factor (PF) of the local feeder lines. Using the proposed inverter for small-to-medium-size wind applications will eliminate the use of capacitor banks as well as FACTS devices to control the PF of the distribution lines. The goal of this paper is to introduce new ways to increase the penetration of renewable energy systems into the distribution systems. This will encourage the utilities and customers to act not only as a consumer, but also as a supplier of energy. Moreover, using the new types of converters with FACTS capabilities will significantly reduce the total cost of the renewable energy application. In this paper, modular multilevel converter is used as the desired topology to meet all the requirements of a single-phase system such as compatibility with IEEE standards, total harmonic distortion (THD), efficiency, and total cost of the system. The proposed control strategy regulates the active and reactive power using power angle and modulation index, respectively. The function of the proposed inverter is to transfer active power to the grid as well as keeping the PF of the local power lines constant at a target PF regardless of the incoming active power from the wind turbine. The simulations for an 11-level inverter have been done in MATLAB/Simulink. To validate the simulation results, a scaled prototype model of the proposed inverter has been built and tested.

The modular multi-level converter is an attractive topology for high-voltage DC/flexible AC transmission systems. In this article, a new single-phase modular multi-level converter based distribution static compensator inverter for grid connection is proposed. The proposed inverter is designed for grid-connected wind turbines in the small- to mid-sized (10–20 kW) range using the most advanced multi-level inverter topology. The proposed modular multi-level converter distribution static compensator inverter controls the DC-link voltage as well as the active and reactive power transferred between the renewable energy source, specifically the wind turbine, and the grid in order to regulate the power factor of the grid regardless of the input active power from wind turbine. The goal of this study is to present a new inverter with flexible AC transmission system capability in a single unit without any additional cost. The five-level distribution static compensator inverter is simulated, and the results ...

In this paper a new single-phase wind energy inverter (WEI) with FACTS capability is presented. The proposed inverter is placed between the wind turbine and the grid, same as a regular WEI, and is able to regulate active and reactive power transferred to the grid. This inverter is equipped with D-STATCOM option in order to control the power factor (PF) of the local feeder lines. Using the proposed inverter for small- to medium-size wind applications will eliminate the use of capacitor banks as well as FACTS devices to control the PF of the distribution lines. The goal of this work is to introduce new ways to increase the penetration of renewable energy systems into the distribution systems. This will encourage the utilities and customers to act not only as a consumer, but as a supplier of energy. Moreover, using the new types of converters with FACTS capabilities will significantly reduce the total cost of the renewable energy application. In this paper, MMC is used as the desired topology to meet all the requirements of a single-phase system such as compatibility with IEEE standards, THD, efficiency, and total cost of the system. The proposed control strategy regulates the active and reactive power using power angle and modulation index, respectively. The function of the proposed inverter is to transfer active power to the grid as well as keeping the power factor of the local power lines constant at a target power factor regardless of the incoming active power from the wind turbine. The simulations for an 11-level inverter have been done in MATLAB/Simulink. To validate the simulation results, a scaled prototype model of the proposed inverter has been built and tested.

Renewable energy systems have become a major part of the modern power systems. Clearly, to connect renewable energy systems to the main grid, a power inverter is needed. There are two major topologies for renewable energy inverters, namely conventional two-level topology and multi-level topology. The modular multilevel converter (MMC) is one of the most advanced multi-level topologies that have gained increasing attention recently. In addition to an inverter in a renewable energy system, capacitor banks or STATCOMs are needed to compensate the reactive power of the grid. In this paper a novel single-phase MMC-based inverter with STATCOM capability for grid connection is proposed. The proposed inverter is designed for grid-connected wind turbines in the mid-sized range. In the proposed control strategy, active and reactive power is controlled by the power angle and the modulation index, respectively. The function of the proposed inverter is to transfer active power to the grid as well as keeping the power factor of the local grid constant at a target power factor regardless of the incoming active power from the renewable energy source, especially from a wind turbine. Generally, the main goal of this paper is to present a new inverter with FACTS capability in a single unit without any additional cost. The simulations have been done in MATLAB/Simulink for a 5-level inverter. A scaled prototype model of the proposed inverter has been built and tested to verify the simulation results.

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) is an attractive topology for HVDC/FACTS systems. In this paper a new single-phase MMC-based D-STATCOM inverter for grid connection is proposed. The proposed inverter is designed for grid-connected wind turbines in the small- to mid-sized (10kW-20kW) range using the most advanced multi-level inverter topology. The proposed MMC D-STATCOM inverter controls the DC link voltage as well as the active and reactive power transferred between the renewable energy source, specifically wind turbine, and the grid in order to regulate the power factor (PF) of the grid regardless of the input active power from wind turbine. The goal of this paper is to present a new inverter with D-STATCOM capability in a single unit without any additional cost. The 5-level D-STATCOM inverter is simulated and the results are presented to verify the operation of the proposed system. The simulation studies are carried out in the MATLAB/Simulink environment. To validate the simulation results, an experimental configuration of a 5-Level DSTATCOM inverter has been built and tested.

This paper presents the design of a novel multi-level D-STATCOM inverter for renewable energy systems using modular multi-level converter (MMC) topology. The aim of the work is to design a new type of inverter with FACTS capabilities to provide utilities with more knowledge about the distribution systems, specifically on end points. The inverter is placed between the renewable energy source, specifically a wind turbine, and the distribution grid in order to regulate the active and reactive power required by the grid. This inverter is capable of controlling active and reactive power by controlling its phase angle and modulation index, respectively. The unique contribution of the proposed work is to combine the two concepts of inverter and D-STATCOM using a novel voltage source converter (VSC) multi-level topology in a single unit without any additional cost. Simulations of the proposed inverter, with 5 levels, have been completed in Matlab/Simulink. The simulation results validate the performance of the proposed control strategy.