Object Oriented Representation of Smart Electrical Networks [Plan A or B]
Context
Electrical networks are becoming more
complex with the introduction of distributed generators; power
electronics based control devices and various types of loads. The
electrical networks are no longer passive meshed systems, as they were
a couple decades ago. Rather the generation, transmission and
consumption co-exist almost at all levels of the electrical networks.
With the ever increasing number of control parameters, the management,
protection and control of these electrical networks have become a real
challenge for power engineers. Furthermore, several loads and/or
distributed generators may connect/disconnect from/to the network at
any time. Therefore, the shape of the network is not fixed but
variable. Power flow, power quality calculations as well as protection
parameters such as relay settings, fault current settings and etc.
require that the exact structure of an electrical network should be
monitored. This can be achieved by making use of communication lines in
a central management system.
Goal & Research Activities
The goal of this research project is to
study the representation and modelling of electrical nodes such as
relays, generators and loads using Object Oriented (OO) data structures
and to model
microgrids with graph theory. The representation follows the
international communication standard for substations – IEC 61850 and
its recent extension for distributed generators – IEC 61850-7-420. Once
the network is represented with OO data structures, Dijkstra’s
algorithm can be implemented to monitor the changes in the network and
recognize new deployments. In this manner, the exact structure of the
network can be monitored without central management and necessary
adjustments can be made on the fly. This will be a solid step towards
plug-and-play in electrical networks. The simulation of the proposed
model will be incorporated to show the viability of such model and its
effectiveness.
This research will be carried out
under the research team of Mobile, Cloud and Internet
of Things (MCI). The student will be required to participate in the team's research activities and present progress
at the team's research presentations.
Pre-requisites
This research project requires the student to have (or develop) good
object-oriented programming and data structures & algorithms
skills. Knowledge of electrical networks, mobile ad hoc networks and
distributed systems is a plus.
References
- Smart Grids
- Modeling Electrical Networks with Object Oriented Data Structures for Smart Control
Supervisor(s)
Prof. Taha Selim Ustun, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University - USA <ustun AT cmu dot edu>
Prof. Engineer
Bainomugisha, Department of Computer Science, Makerere University < baino at cis dot mak dot ac dot ug >