Self-Synchronization in Power Networks with Periodic Dynamics

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Johannes Schiffer
• Subject Area: Electrical Energy Systems, Power Management, Power Electronics, Electrical Machines and Drives ; Automation, Mechatronics, Control Systems, Intelligent Technical Systems, Robotics
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 446182476

Driven by political as well as environmental goals and facilitated by technological advances, the use of renewable energies has steadily increased over the past years. The French government aims at up to 113 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by 2028 - more than double compared to 2017. Also, the German government has set out in its current coalition agreement a target share of at least 65% of electric renewable generation by 2030. Though the transition to a low-carbon future is highly desirable, it has tremendous implications for the operation of future power systems. In particular, in alternating current (AC) systems the replacement of synchronous generators with inverter-interfaced devices results in a significant reduction of the available system inertia and can lead to much faster frequency dynamics in the grid. Such inverter-dominated power systems are called low-inertia systems. In order to secure an affordable, efficient and sustainable operation in such systems, novel methodical, robust and flexible control solutions are needed. Motivated by this, the project SyNPiD is devoted to the development of a methodical framework for global analysis and control design in nonlinear dynamical systems, which are periodic in a part of the state coordinates. The latter is an intrinsic property of AC power systems and, due to the periodicity, also leads to the existence of multiple equilibria. By building upon extensive previous joint work of both partners, a unique feature of the proposed research methodology is that it explicitly exploits the inherent periodicity of the power system dynamics in order to relax the usual requirements of standard stability analysis and control design methods, such as definiteness of Lyapunov functions, which typically hamper the establishment of global properties for AC power systems. Special emphasis will be given to the stability analysis and controller design for self-synchronizing mechanisms. For an interconnected system self-synchronization means that synchronization occurs without any artificially introduced external signal nor action. The obtained results will form a bridge between innovative theoretical concepts for control synthesis and an important application domain dealing with sustainable and green future energy systems, which are at the core of many European and national scientific initiatives. The consortium is composed by the Chair of Control Systems and Network Control Technology at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU), Germany, and Valse team of Inria, France, which have a clear complementarity demonstrated by a long-standing, successful collaboration on the project’s subjects. The outcomes of the project exhibit high transfer potential, whose realization, together with the scientific excellence of the obtained results, are the main goals of SyNPiD.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France
• Partner Organisation: Agence Nationale de la Recherche / The French National Research Agency
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Denis Efimov