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Seminar 8

November 13, 2007

1:00 to 2:00 PM

Power Electronics for Power Engineers: Why and How Much?

Ned Mohan - University of Minnesota

"Why should Power Engineers know Power Electronics? The answer is obvious when one looks at the role that power electronics has to play in all aspects of power systems: Generation, Delivery and End-Use. Some of these applications can be summarized as follows:

  1. Generation by Renewable Energy Sources and Storage:
    • Use of Renewable Energy Sources such as from wind energy at variable frequency, and from Photovoltaics at dc.
    • Storage in the form of Batteries such as NaS, Flywheels and SMES (Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage)
  2. Reliable Delivery
    • HVDC Transmission Systems
    • FACTS Devices such as SVC, STATCOM, TCSC etc for Voltage Stability
  3. Efficient End-Use
    • Variable-speed drives to improve system efficiency like in Heat Pumps
    • Compact Fluorescent Lighting and LED-based lighting
    • Power Quality concerns due to Power Electronics based Loads

How much do Power Engineers need to know about Power Electronics? This 50-minutes topdown presentation will quickly review the applications listed above, look at the voltage and current handling capabilities of the present-day semiconductor devices, and at the converter topologies and their control that make the use of power electronics efficient, reliable and economical."

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Biography

Ned Mohan is Oscar A. Schott Professor of Power Electronics in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, where he has been teaching for 31 years. He has written five textbooks; one of them is translated into several languages. He is a Fellow of the IEEE. He received the Distinguished Teaching Award of the Institute of Technology, and the H.T. Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award conferred by the University of Minnesota.