PUBLIC LECTURE: Change of paradigm of power system operation and control

The Melbourne Energy Institute invites you to a public lecture by Professor Janusz Bialek of Imperial College London, who will present on Change of paradigm of power system operation and control.

Since their inception at the end of the 19th Century, technical characteristics of power systems have been determined by the physics of synchronous machines (SMs) that convert the primary energy produced by thermal/hydro/nuclear power stations into electricity. However, the traditional power plants are increasingly being replaced by wind/PV plants and batteries which are connected to the grid asynchronously by means of power electronics (controllable inverters). This means that the power system technical characteristics are increasingly being determined by the control algorithms of inverters rather than the physics of SMs, and this has profound consequences for power system operation and control. The presentation will discuss those changes and especially the question to what extent inverters can replace synchronous machines.

SPEAKER:

Professor Janusz Bialek

Principal Research Fellow at Control and Power Group, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Imperial College London

Professor Janusz Bialek (FIEEE) is Principal Research Fellow at Imperial College London. Previously, he held Chair positions at the University of Edinburgh, Durham University, Newcastle University and Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech). Janusz has been PI and CoI of multi-million research grants funded by EPSRC and the industry, and a consultant to the UK government, European Commission, and International Energy Agency. He has published widely on integration of renewable generation in power systems, smart grids, power system dynamics, preventing electricity blackouts and power markets. His current main research interests are in addressing the techno-economic challenges posed by increasing penetration of wind/PV/batteries and other devices that are connected to the grid by means of power electronics (programmable inverters), rather than synchronous machines, therefore changing fundamental technical characteristics of the power system.

MODERATOR:

Professor Pierluigi Mancarella

Chair Professor of Electrical Power Systems
University of Melbourne

Pierluigi Mancarella obtained his PhD degree in Power Systems from the Politecnico di Torino, Italy, did his post-doc at Imperial College London, UK, and has held visiting research positions at Sintef/NTNU in Norway and NREL in Colorado, as well as visiting professorships at Ecole Centrale de Lille in France, the Universidad de Chile, and Tsinghua University in China.

Pierluigi has been involved in/led, in the last 15 years, some 50 research projects and consultancy and professional activities in the UK, Australia, and internationally, in the area of grid integration of renewables and distributed energy resources, techno-economic modelling of low-carbon power systems, business cases for smart grid technologies, reliability and resilience assessment of future networks, multi-energy systems and sector coupling, and energy infrastructure investment under uncertainty. Pierluigi is author of several books and book chapters, and of over 200 research papers. He is an Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, IEEE Systems Journal, and the brand-new Oxford Open Energy journal. Pierluigi is also an IEEE Power and Energy Society Distinguished Lecturer, the first Chair of the Energy Working Group of the IEEE European Public Policy Initiative, and the Convenor of the Cigre Working Group C6/C2.34 "Flexibility provision from DER". He led the power system security assessment studies commissioned by the "Finkel Review" panel and actively collaborates as a researcher and consultant for industry and government bodies, including AEMO, AEMC and AER.