Controllable power components for a flexible power system swegrids-logo

SweGRIDS research area Controllable Power Components
SweGRIDS project code CPC1
Project type PhD
Status completed
Researcher Sara Anttila   (webpage)
University UU
Project period 2018-08-20 to 2022-08-20   
Project supervisor Cecilia Boström   (webpage)
Industrial sponsors Vattenfall


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Project abstract

Today, power electronics play a key role for integrating renewable energy in the power system and have a direct impact on the power generation and the power quality to the electric grid.

Traditional inverter controllers are grid-following and rely on the assumption that system voltage and frequency are regulated by inertial sources. A higher penetration of decentralized renewable energy sources with low inertia and high intermittency calls for stabilizing controllers for decentralized inverter networks that actively regulate voltage and frequency.

Smart inverters can assist in ancillary services, such as:
- Reactive power and voltage control
- Load following
- System protection
- Energy imbalance (when connected to an energy storage)

The project will be carried out together with Vattenfall AB and will be connected to a planned DER power system project including inverters with different functions and approx. 50 households. Different scientific parts connected to the project will be identified and evaluated. The project will include analytical calculations, simulations and experiments.

The purpose of the project is to:
- Analyze the limitations of traditional grid-following controllers in low-inertia systems
- Study the correlation between rating of capacitors and virtual inertia capabilities of a RES.
- Analyze the grid properties, identify dimensioning properties.
- Investigate gridsupport functions in weak grids, such as small distribution grids with bidirectional flows
- Assess compatibility of grid-stabilizing controller on commercial inverters


Summary of work

2018. Hardware-In-the-Loop simulations were performed. A microgrid connected to a wave power plant with various power factors in the inverter was emulated.

2020. A review paper of grid forming inverters has been written and submitted. “Grid Forming inverters: A review of the state of the art of key elements for microgrid operation”. A licentiate degree was reached by the end of the year.


Event log

2018. Poster presentation, INORE conference, 22-27 October.

2019 a conference paper was presented at EWTEC2019, Napoli, Italy.

2020 Sara presented her licentiate thesis “Power control strategies for renewable energy systems: The inverter's role in future power systems” the 13th of November 2020.


Project reference-group

Nicholas Etherden,  Vattenfall AB
Fredrik Carlsson,  Vattenfall AB
Janaína G. Oliveira,  Department of Electrical Energy, Federal University of Juiz de Flora, Brazil
Cecilia Boström,  UU
Sandra Eriksson,  UU


Publications by this researcher

See alternatively the researcher's full DiVA list of publications, with options for sorting.
Publications in journals and conferences usually will not show until a while after they are published.

Grid Forming inverters : A review of the state of the art of key elements for microgrid operation
Sara Anttila,   Jéssica Döhler,   Janaína Goncalves de Oliveira,   Cecilia Boström.
2022,   Energies, vol. 15(15)

Grid Impact and Power quality Assessment in wave Energy Parks : Different layouts and Power Penetrations using Energy Storage
Arvind Parwal,   Johannes Hjalmarsson,   Tatiana Potapenko,   Sara Anttila,   Jennifer Leijon,   James Kelly,   Irina Temiz,   Janaína Goncalves de Oliveira,   Cecilia Boström,   Mats Leijon.
2021,   The Journal of Engineering, vol. 2021(8)

Power control strategies for renewable energy systems : The inverter's role in future power systems
Sara Anttila.
2020,   Thesis (Licentiate), Department of Electrical Engineering,

Freshwater and Lithium from Desalination Powered by Marine Energy Sources
Jennifer Leijon,   Sara Anttila,   Anna E. Frost,   Sofia Kontos,   Olof Lindahl,   Jens Engström,   Mats Leijon,   Cecilia Boström.
2020,   International Journal of Offshore and Polar Engineering, vol. 30(3)

Marine Renewable Energy Sources for Desalination, Generating Freshwater and Lithium
Jennifer Leijon,   Sara Anttila,   Anna E. Frost,   Sofia Kontos,   Jens Engström,   Mats Leijon,   Cecilia Boström.
2019,   29th International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference ISOPE, 16-21 June, 2019, Honolulu, USA

Power Hardware in the Loop Real Time Modelling Using Hydrodynamic Model of a Wave Energy Converter with Linear Generator Power Take Off
Tatiana Potapenko,   Arvind Parwal,   James Kelly,   Jennifer Leijon,   Johannes Hjalmarsson,   Sara Anttila,   Cecilia Boström,   Irina Temiz.
2019,   Proceedings of 29th International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference (ISOPE), 16-21 June, 2019, Honolulu, USA

Power Hardware-in-the-loop simulations of Grid-Integration of a Wave Power Park
Irina Temiz,   Arvind Parwal,   James Kelly,   Tatiana Potapenko,   Jennifer Leijon,   Sara Anttila,   Johannes Hjalmarsson,   Hebert Laure,   Cecilia Boström.
2019,   13th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC), Napoli, Italy, September 1-6, 2019

Power Hardware in-the-Loop Real Time Modelling using Hydrodynamic Model of a Wave Energy Converter with Linear generator Power Take-Off
Tatiana Potapenko,   Arvind Parwal,   James Kelly,   Johannes Hjalmarsson,   Sara Anttila,   Cecilia Boström,   Irina Temiz.
2019,   The 29th International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference (ISOPE), Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, June 16-21, 2019

Publication list last updated from DiVA on 2024-01-10 15:21.


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