Energy Systems

The energy systems that are currently used are facing several challenges such as aging components, increase load, non-linear loads, natural and man-made disasters and cyber threats.

NWI had invested and developed energy research to improve the performance of current energy systems and investigate new technologies such as micro and smart grids to enhance future energy systems. NWI is leading research in several areas such as Phasor Measurement deployment, renewable energy, grid integration, microgrid design, simulation and development and distribution generation modeling and design.

NWI is also conducting research in energy storage system for grid and micro grid deployment. Another area that NWI is focusing on is understanding energy systems in rural areas. Because most rural communities are located far from a substation, the grids are weak. Weak grids can lead to voltage instability, brown-outs and black outs. NWI is investigating the role renewable energy and storage to improve the grid in rural communities. To solve the problems stated above, NWI has invested in advanced software and hardware tools that can model and evaluate multi-disciplinary aspects of energy systems. NWI is approaching this problem with a collaborative and diverse approach. Faculty from different disciplines such as engineering, business, communications and social science work together as a team to solve the energy problems.

Specialties

• Microgrid System Modeling and Simulations.
• Grid Analysis under Solar energy, Wind energy, Fuel Cell Power System and Supercapacitor integration
• Power quality analysis of renewable energy under grid studies for strong/weak grid scenarios
• Economic analysis e.g. Microgrid, Battery energy storage system
• Energy Generation and Energy Demand Forecasting Studies
• Machine Learning and Big Data Analysis
• Grid integration of renewable energy
• Non-Linear load analysis

Facilities

• OPAL-RT Real-Time Digital Simulator
• West Texas grid Monitoring Synchrophasor Setup
• SMART Simulation and Research Center
• 1MW Grid-Tied Microgrid
• Power System Design and Simulation Tools e.g. PowerWorld, PSS/E, ePHORSIM

Example Projects

• Micro-grid System Modeling Efforts using PQ-Control for Single-phase and Three-phase Inverter
• Fuel Cell Power System Integration with Grid using Finite Set Model Predictive Control Technique
• A Comparative Forecasting Analysis of ARIMA Model vs Random Forest Algorithm for A Case Study of Small-Scale Industrial Load
• Operation and maintenance cost optimization in the grid connected mode of microgrid
• Power Quality Analysis of a Wind Turbine Using Optimal Iteration Process
• Reliability and economic study of a micro grid system
• Electrical and economic study of a grid connected battery system with a high level of wind penetration
• Optimizations study of fuel cells connected in parallel in a micro grid
• Cyber security analysis of power grid faults