Physical Electronics Dept.

You are invited to attend a lecture

By

Yoash Levron

(Ph.D. student under supervision of Dr. Doron Shmilovitz, dept. of physical electronics, faculty of engineering)

On the subject:

Power flow optimization methods in modern power systems

The deterioration of fossil fuels presents new challenges in the field of energy and power processing. Modern renewable and clean energy sources are now increasingly developed and deployed, improving our ecosystem and economy.  Photovoltaic and wind-turbine systems are already installed around the globe in large numbers, while fuel-cells and micro-turbines are now at the focus of research. All these new technologies operate quite differently from traditional generators, so they cannot be simply integrated into the existing infrastructure. This need for smart management and processing of energy gave rise to the “smart-grid”, an international project that aspires to upgrade the energy infrastructure by an inclusion of sensor networks and information technologies.

Research in power systems is responding slowly to these fast changes. Traditional research in power electronics is to some extent focused on the optimization of hardware, at the component level. I believe that this approach fails to notice the bigger picture. Modern power systems are very large and complex, raising the need for new models and design methods.

The aim of my research is to combine power processing concepts with optimization techniques that are inspired by the “data” world. The flow of power within sub-systems can be optimized just as well as data that flows within a network of computers. With this new approach, energy transitions can be optimized at the system level, instead of the hardware-component level. This enable designers a better understanding of the power system as a whole. During the lecture I intend to demonstrate how these principles can be applied to several types of power systems.