ONR/NSF-Sponsored Faculty/Industry Workshop Reforming Power-Related Curriculum Power Electronics Presenter: Hariharan Krishnaswami Assistant Professor University of Texas at San Antonio
New Electric Power Engineering Curriculum at University of Texas at San Antonio Highlights The ECE department added a new concentration area for UG seniors in power engineering in 2011 Power Engineering curriculum is offered with three fundamental courses: Power Electronics, Analysis of Power Systems and Electric Drives Lab offered as a separate course with hardware experiments in power electronics and simulation experiments in power electronics and power systems Member of DOE consortium led by University of Minnesota.
Increasing enrollment and positive feedback Highlights Power Electronics course UG enrollment increased from 15 in Spring 2011 to 24 in Spring 2012 Student feedback on course : 4.9/5.0 Lab offered along with the course with 6 hardware experiments Student verbatim feedback on lab The lab really helped to understand the concepts discussed in class Like the lab experiments, really made topics more clear UTSA Bluebook Data on student evaluation (bluebook.utsa.edu)
Power Electronics Course Introduction in first day of class The first day of class is used to motivate students in this subject area Overview of global, national and local trends on energy use, renewable energy share. UTSA research projects with local utility company CPSEnergy emphasized Examples of applications of power electronics in emerging field of renewable energy conversion and smart grid Tour of PV facility to be arranged in mid-semester. Source: Energy Information Administration (EIA): Annual Energy Outlook 2011 PHEV block diagram Source: Vehicle Technologies Program, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy
UTSA Sustainable Energy Research Two PV test-beds in UTSA, 152kW in main campus and 140kW in downtown campus with sensors monitoring PV performance, funding from Texas State Energy Conservation Office. UTSA Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute established with 10 year $50M from local utility company CPSEnergy Research projects in collaboration with CPSEnergy include high penetration PV impact studies in partnership with NREL, building energy modeling studies, solar forecasting, demography, electric vehicle charging, cybersecurity and smart grid. City of San Antonio has recently announced addition of 400MW of PV in the next few years 17MW PV plant San Antonio
Power Electronics Course Objectives The unique aspect is the length and breadth of the topics covered Learn to analyze dc-dc converters in steady-state Learn to design feedback controllers in switched mode power supplies Learn to analyze diode rectifiers, understand power quality issues and learn to correct power factor using power electronics Learn to analyze transformer isolated power supplies Learn to design high-frequency transformers and inductors in power electronics Learn to synthesize dc and low frequency ac for motor drives using power electronics Learn to analyze power electronic circuits for applications such as induction heating, compact fluorescent lamps and photo-voltaic inverters Learn to test and interpret the results of different converters using simulations
Unique building block approach Switching Power-Pole used as the building block to describe different power converters V d + qa a N q b b q c c V d + q a N n i da a + v an V d Bi-Positional Switch i a N 1: da 1: db ( a ) ( b) + 1: dc a b c
Power Electronics Lab Objectives The unique aspect is the use of both hardware and simulation experiments to cover all theory topics and how the results are related to theory Learn to test and interpret the results of the three basic dc-dc converters in steadystate and dynamic operation using a laboratory prototype and simulation software Learn to design feedback controllers in switched mode power supplies and verify in simulation and laboratory prototype Learn to simulate diode rectifiers, understand power quality issues and learn to design power factor correctors using power electronics Learn to test and interpret the results of the isolated dc-dc converters in steady-state using a laboratory prototype and simulation software Learn to simulate single-phase and three-phase inverters for motor drives using power electronics Learn about the different applications of power electronics in renewable energy conversion using simulations
Summary Power electronics course has several unique aspects such as: building-block approach, length and breadth of topics, laboratory Simulation and hardware laboratory that goes hand-in-hand with theory Prepares students for a career in power engineering and graduate studies Topics are current and relevant with new additions such as photovoltaic systems, wind energy systems, electric vehicles etc.. Students understand the global, national and local trends on energy use and renewable energy penetration