The exploitation of renewable energy resources, the advancement of grid systems and the deployment of energy efficient technologies are urgently needed to mitigate impacts of climate change. This Programme conducts research and development of power electronic hardware, firmware and software solutions to achieve the reliable grid system integration of renewables. These include converters and inverters using the latest power devices and topologies coupled with Information & Communication Technologies (ICT). Micro grids are weak systems due to the inclusion of lower inertias of smaller rotating generators and their lower power capacity. Frequent change in source generation or load consumption will result in significant system disturbance. An Energy Management System (EMS) which is dedicated to the operation and control optimisation of micro grids where the effective integration of renewable sources such as photovoltaic (PV) and wind with energy storage (batteries, flywheel and compress gas) is one of the main focus areas of research. The integration of storage solutions is key to mitigating intermittency associated grid instability. Besides land-based micro grids, integration of off-shore wind turbine power plants to enhance system efficiency and stability using HVDC transmission is being studied.
