Pressure on reducing carbon emission from electricity generation and growing concern over depleting fossil fuel reserve have driven the development of power generation from renewable and low carbon sources. Wind and solar are the major contributors. Clearly Europe is taking the lead in this sector.
The electricity network all over the world has been planned, designed and operated with centralized generation comprising of several large power plants in each country. With the shift in generation technologies, the generation is getting less concentrated in nature throwing up technical challenges in network design, operation and control philosophy. There has also been development in the demand sector. Heat and transport sector energy demand is now poised to be met through electricity. This is challenging from demand side management and control perspective. The key question is whether the standard tools in network control such as state estimation, optimal power flow, dynamic security analysis are as effective. Research undertaken by Dr Pal focuses on modelling the characteristic of these new generation technologies, analysis of their dynamic interaction with the network and control strategy to make greater utilization of their capacity while leveraging intermittency.
The research has so far delivered: