ECE Departmental Seminar

Large-Scale Integration of Grid-Forming Inverters through Scalable Secondary Control in Dynamic Microgrids

Prof. Xiaonan Lu
Purdue University

Thursday, 11/17/22, 3:00pm
Online
To obtain access the Zoom link for this seminar, please click here to register.

Abstract: Grid modernization raises increasing interest in power system resiliency enhancement. As the penetration level of distributed energy resources (DERs) increases rapidly, a distribution system, as the most significant ‘grid-edge’ for DER integration, plays a crucial role to bridge the grid backbone (i.e., transmission system) to the end-users. A resilient and stable distribution system is urgently needed to modernize electric grids and ensure operational continuity. As a localized entity for integrating DERs and distributed loads, microgrids with grid-forming (GFM) inverters have been widely deployed and nested in modern distribution feeders. In addition to single and individual microgrids, networked and dynamic microgrids with controllable and effective interconnections have been deployed and studied to advance resiliency enhancement, especially for critical infrastructures. Further, given the information exchange to ensure stable control and physical interactions between neighboring microgrids, networked and dynamic microgrids can be regarded as coupled cyber and physical systems with interdependencies across layers. In this presentation, a cross-layer and scalable secondary control in GFM inverter intensive networked and dynamic microgrids with stability guarantees will be discussed. Particular examples and use cases will also be introduced to verify the proposed framework.

Bio: Xiaonan Lu received his B.E. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2008 and 2013, respectively. From September 2010 to August 2011, he was a guest Ph.D. student at the Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark. From October 2013 to December 2014, he was a Postdoc Research Associate at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. From January 2015 to July 2018, he was with Argonne National Laboratory, first as a Postdoc Appointee and then as an Energy Systems Scientist. From July 2018 to July 2022, he was with the College of Engineering at Temple University as an Assistant Professor. In August 2022, he joined the School of Engineering Technology at Purdue University as an Associate Professor. His research interests include modeling, control, and design of power electronic inverters, hybrid AC and DC microgrids, and real-time hardware-in-the-loop simulation of inverter intensive power systems. Dr. Lu is the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, and the Editor of IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid. He serves as the Chair of the Industrial Power Converters Committee (IPCC) in the IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS). Dr. Lu is named the Loretta C. Duckworth Faculty Fellow and also received the Innovative Teaching Award at Temple University in 2022. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Young Engineer of the Year Award in the IEEE Philadelphia Section.