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PhD Project Proposals (Power Engineering)

Staff Name: Abhisek Ukil
Email: aukil@ntu.edu.sg
Proposed Research Project (1):
Design of Robust LV DC Distribution System and Retrofit of
AC Cables
Description:
Todays electric grid is mostly based on alternating current
(AC), as well as the loads. However, recently there has been
significant increase in direct current (DC) loads in the medium
voltage (MV: <35kV) and low voltage (LV: <1kV). For
example, the data centers, devices like laptop, PC, smart
phone/TV, etc. These require AC-DC converters, causing
great amount of power loss, due to the AC reactive power
losses, and the converter losses. As there is no active DC
distribution grid currently, future protection systems and
standards would be needed to be researched and developed.
One of the key areas in LV DC distribution is the building.
Unlike the standardized AC system, currently there is no
existing standard for designing a DC distribution in building.
Therefore, designing an effective DC distribution system is of
significant interest. The PhD thesis should focus on robust
design of DC distribution system for building, covering also
the protection aspects and the techno-economic feasibility.
Utilization of the existing AC LV cables in the building for DC
distribution should be investigated with experimental and
physical analysis of fault tolerant safe operation.


Staff Name: Abhisek Ukil
Email: aukil@ntu.edu.sg
Proposed Research Project (2):
Bulk Power Transmission and Distribution by Improving
Ampacity of Overhead Lines and Underground Cables
Description:
One of the major focus areas of smart grid is increasing
energy efficiency in the power transmission and the
distribution systems. Possible methods include increasing
transmission voltage levels, employing HVDC, as well as
improving the current (Amp) carrying capacity (termed as
Ampacity) of existing infrastructure. This includes the
overhead transmission lines as well as the underground
power cables. Singapore has a particularly interesting
situation, with 100% underground power transmission and
distribution. Nevertheless, many factors limit the Ampacity.
Some of the major reasons are temperature profiling related
to load level, ambient condition, type of material, operational
load limit, etc. This phd thesis would investigate in details the
various technologies about improving the power transmission
capability of the overhead and underground power
transmission and distribution systems. The study will
incorporate modeling, simulation and practical experimental
results. It will also look into the retrofit possibilities of the most
promising technologies particularly in Singapore.
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PhD Project Proposals (Power Engineering)

Staff Name: Abhisek Ukil
Email: aukil@ntu.edu.sg
Proposed Research Project (3): Medium- and Low-voltage Fault Management System
Description:
Analysis of disturbance and fault is very important for reliable
operation of power systems. Furthermore, automated
analysis of fault and disturbances is a focus area in smart grid,
making the whole process faster. It is also very important in
the medium voltage (MV: <35kV) and low voltage (LV: <1kV),
which are relatively less automated compared to the HV side.
The PhD thesis should focus on robust identification of faults
and disturbances in the MV and LV grid in particular
application domain. Localization of faults with appropriate
accuracy is of particular interest. Besides, novel deterministic
methods, application of advanced signal processing and
machine learning based methods should be applied.

PhD Project Proposals (Power Engineering)

Staff Name: Gooi Hoay Beng
Email: ehbgooi@ntu.edu.sg
Proposed Research Project (1):
Optimization Algorithm to Determine Demand Response
Management (DRM) and Generation Schedule
Description:
When microgrids operate in interconnected mode, they can
work as demand response (DR) aggregators to entice
customers to participate in DRM. Many small loads, which
have the capability and intention for participating in DRM, are
not qualified otherwise due to their small capacity. The role of
a DR aggregator is to gather all DR participation requests and
represent them in the wholesale electricity market as a flexible
entity. Loads in microgrids can be combined together as an
equivalent elastic large load for DRM participation. The
desirable consumption and duration time of the loads, outputs
of distributed energy sources and energy storage, electric
vehicles (EVs), and energy exchange between the microgrid
and upstream grid will be determined by maximizing the profit
of the microgrid while considering the volatile market prices of
the electricity. The objective function is to maximize the total
profit of the microgrids.
When microgrids operate in islanded mode, the desirable
consumption and duration time of the loads, outputs of
distributed sources and storage, and EVs will be determined
by minimizing the total operating cost of the microgrids. In
islanded mode, the uncertainties introduced by loads, EVs
and renewable generation resources will aggravate the power
unbalance between supply and demand. The controllable
generation resources will need to work harder and may need
to maintain a relatively larger spinning reserve since they
cannot fall back on upstream supply should one or more
generators fail. DRM can play an important role in reliable
operation of the microgrid. It can contribute to frequency
regulation which can alleviate the burden of these controllable
generators. Like in interconnected mode, DRM can be used
to minimize the total operating cost of the microgrid by
reducing the outputs of expensive generating units. This work
will examine how DRM can be optimized for the distribution
grid.
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PhD Project Proposals (Power Engineering)

Staff Name: Gooi Hoay Beng
Email: ehbgooi@ntu.edu.sg
Proposed Research Project (2): Improvement of Power Quality in Microgrids
Description:
The nonlinear unbalanced loads and converter-based
sources make the power quality issues more challenging
when microgrids operate in either interconnected or isolated
mode. To optimize the utilization of the microgrid and to
improve its operational flexibility, controllability and stability, it
is important to compensate the micorgrid with proper reactive
power and to filter off load current harmonics resulted from
non-linear loads and voltage distortions resulting from
sources and/or converter nonlinearities. Hence, an
implementation of flexible AC transmission system (FACTS)
controllers in the microgrid to improve the power quality has
gained greater attention. As the most representative member
of the Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) family,
Unified Power Quality Conditioner(UPQC) has more control
variables compared with those of FACTS devices. It can
change a variety of system parameters during operation. This
makes the running of the microgrid more flexible.
UPQC is the integration of series and shunt active filters,
connected back-to-back on the DC side, and they share a
common DC capacitor. The series component of the UPQC is
responsible for mitigation of the supply side disturbances in
microgrids: voltage sags/swells, flicker, voltage unbalance
and harmonics. It inserts voltages so as to maintain the load
voltages at a desired level, balanced and distortion free. The
shunt component is responsible for mitigating the current
quality problems caused by the consumer: poor power factor,
load harmonic currents, load unbalance, etc. It injects currents
in the AC system such that the source currents become
balanced sinusoids and in phase with the source voltages.
With the modification of the control strategy of series and
shunt active converters, UPQC can simultaneously control
power flow and improve voltage regulation via compensation
schemes in microgrids. This can be achieved without
modifying the system/hardware topology. Control
requirements for reactive power compensation/voltage
regulation will be investigated for various operating modes,
interconnected and isolated modes of microgrids.
This work is to examine the design architecture of UPQC and
its control schemes.
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PhD Project Proposals (Power Engineering)

Staff Name: Gooi Hoay Beng
Email: ehbgooi@ntu.edu.sg
Proposed Research Project (3):
Optimization Algorithm to Incorporate Demand Response
Management(DRM) in Generation Control of Microgrids
Description:
When a microgrid operates in interconnected mode, it can
work as a demand response (DR) aggregator to entice
customers to participate in DRM. The role of a DR aggregator
is to gather all DR participation requests and represent them
in the wholesale electricity market as a flexible entity. Loads
in microgrids can be combined together as an equivalent
elastic large load for DRM participation. On one hand,
microgrids have their own generators and they are more
flexible than traditional DR aggregators. On the other hand,
the bid price and amount of DR provided by microgrids are
more difficult to determine. The reason is because the DR
provided by the microgrid is affected by the configuration and
operation mode of the microgrid, the load conditions and
output power of renewable power generation, and the
electricity market price, etc. Microgrids can get extra profit by
providing DR to large traditional power systems. Both
microgrids and neighboring connected power systems can
benefit from the implementation of DRM. DRM should be
coordinated with the proper operation of energy storage
systems, electric vehicles (EVs) and distributed resources in
microgrids.

In islanded mode, the uncertainties introduced by loads, EVs
and renewable generation resources will aggravate the power
unbalance between supply and demand. The controllable
generation resources will need to work harder and may need
to maintain a relatively larger spinning reserve since they
cannot fall back on upstream supply should one or more
generators fail. DRM can play an important role in reliable
operation of the microgrid. It can contribute to frequency
regulation which can alleviate the burden of these controllable
generators. Like in interconnected mode, DRM can be used
to minimize the total operating cost of the microgrid by
reducing the outputs of expensive generating units.
1

PhD Project Proposals (Power Engineering)

Staff Name: Wang Peng
Email: epwang@ntu.edu.sg
Proposed Research Project: Hybrid AC/DC grids
Description:
The research team in EEE School of NTU has set up a hybrid
AC/DC grid to test and develop various control and integration
techniques for renewable sources and energy storages.

Staff Name: Zhao J iyun

Email: jyzhao@ntu.edu.sg
Proposed Research Project (1): High power density power electronics packaging
Description:
With the increase in power dissipation and reduction in the
size for power electronic devices, thermal management is
becoming a critical yet challenging role for the technology
advances further, especially for the high power density and
high temperature power electronic devices. The purpose of
this project is to develop the advanced thermal management
systems for high power density power electronic devices in
order to improve the performances while save the energy.

Staff Name: Zhao J iyun
Email: jyzhao@ntu.edu.sg
Proposed Research Project (2):
Investigation on the Vanadium Redox Flow Battery Energy
Storage System
Description:
The energy storage is essential in the development of smart
grids and the utilization of the renewable energy resources.
The large-scale energy storage have the potential to
contribute to (1) improve energy efficiency and flexibility of
national electricity grids, through load leveling / peak shaving,
and (2) grid stabilization of power derived from renewable
energy based sources. The all-vanadium redox flow battery
energy storage system (VRB-ESS) has to date shown the
greatest potential for large-scale energy storage applications
with long cycle life and high energy efficiencies of over 80%
in large installations. Using the same element in both half-
cells, it prevents cross contamination and has a theoretically
indefinite electrolyte life. It also exhibits a low cost for large
storage capacities. The proposed project evaluates the
feasibility of VRB-ESS on the building applications through
extensive experimental tests and thorough numerical
simulations. Both the experimental results and the
mathematical modelling and simulations will make significant
contributions to the VRB-ESS implementation in the
development of green buildings. This project will focus on the
VRB applications for buildings by combining with renewable
energy sources.