Thesis - Inverter Control Strategies for Power Quality Enhancement

Company Description

We have been electrifying industries, powering homes and transforming life through innovation and collaboration for more than 100 years. Empowered by our goal, we are determined to enable fossil free living. To succeed we, as one of Europe's leading energy companies, must be fossil-free ourselves.

But that’s not enough. That’s why we are looking beyond our own industry, to see where we can really make a difference.

Join us in our journey towards a fossil freedom.

Power Climate Smarter living - that’s our purpose. We are looking for the brightest students to make this happen. Together you will contribute to a fossil free future. You will have a unique position to contribute to our purpose. All we ask from you is to use your Superpowers and share your energy to help us achieve our goal.

Job Description

Are you eager to drive innovation to integrate more renewable energy in the electrical grid? If yes, join us to shape the future of power quality!

Intermittent power generation, mainly from wind and solar power, constitutes an increasing share of Swedish electricity production. However, distributed generation, such as PV (Photovoltaics) installed in low-voltage networks, introduces new challenges for maintaining good power quality. A larger share of PV together with EV (Electric Vehicle) charging increases the range of situations where the voltage quality is challenged, from scenarios of high producing costumers (prosumers) to high consuming costumers. If we cannot solve this challenge, this means we cannot connect more DERs to the grid.

Controlling PV inverters presents a promising opportunity to address these challenges. By implementing control strategies for these inverters, it is possible to improve the voltage quality. To explore this potential, inverters and control strategies are to be evaluated using a hardware-in-the-loop testbed. Modeling of networks and control systems are done in MATLAB Simulink or a similar environment.

The purpose of the thesis is to investigate inverters’ response to control strategies, how they can improve the power quality of the low-voltage network, evaluating the potential using software and hardware.

The thesis will be conducted at Vattenfall R&D in the Distribution portfolio as a part of the “Local Grid Control” program. The program aims to build expertise in new solutions for the local grid and how these can provide the greatest benefit.

• This assignment is for 1 student

Qualifications

We are looking for a student to join our journey towards a fossil free future. You are soon to be graduated from your academic studies. You also identify yourself with our principles: active, open, positive and safe.

• Education - The candidate should be currently pursuing a master's degree in Electric Power Engineering and should have knowledge of control theory.
• Meritorious qualifications for this position include experience in MATLAB Simulink or a similar environment, as well as an interest in hands-on electronics. It is important to note that experience in Hardware-in-the-loop is not required.
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• The required language skills include proficiency in English. Additionally, knowledge of Swedish is beneficial, or there should be a willingness to learn some Swedish.
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• Scope - 30hp

Additional Information

• Start of assignment: 2025-02-01 or by agreement
• Location: Arenastaden, Solna
• Application – a combined document with your CV and cover letter, and grades are to be submitted in the application.
• Deadline for application is 2024-12-08.
• Contact persons and supervisors at Vattenfall is:

Lisa Thor, lisafredrika.thor@vattenfall.com

Vincent Gliniewicz, vincent.gliniewicz@vattenfall.com

Diversity & inclusion - in everything we do

At Vattenfall we build on the fact that diverse teams can outperform homogeneous teams. But we can only unleash and leverage the power of diversity, if we make everybody feel included. Read more about our important work on diversity & inclusion https://careers.vattenfall.com/about-us/diversity-and-inclusion/

Since Vattenfall is a part of the Swedish critical infrastructure, many of our services are security classed. If this position is security classed the final candidates might be subjected to a security vetting process, according to the Swedish legislation