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Abstract:

Engineers at the FREEDM Systems Center at North Carolina State University are developing solid-state transformers that promise to make the electrical grid more reliable and facilitate renewable energy such as wind and solar. If you drive down a typical road and look up when you come to a utility pole, you’ll likely see a transformer or two at the top of it. If you pass an electrical substation, you might see transformers there too, only mounted on the ground. These ubiquitous metal boxes are seemingly everywhere, as they play an integral role in the nation’s electrical grid.

In this age of electronics becoming more powerful and smaller all the time, you would think transformers would get on the bandwagon, as they haven’t changed much over the years. Actually, they’re about to do that.

The Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems Center recently conducted a study using computer models to find that smart solid-state transformers (SSTs) could be used to create a stable, reliable smart electrical grid. This could go a long way in not only increasing the reliability of the grid but also enabling solar and wind energy to function smoothly on our grid.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Iqbal Husain joined the ECE department at North Carolina State University as a Distinguished Professor after serving as a faculty member at the University of Akron, Ohio for seventeen years. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, TX in 1993.

Dr. Husain’s research interests are in the areas of control and modeling of electrical drives, design of electric machines, development of power conditioning circuits, microinverters for distributed power generation, inverter controls for grid synchronization, and modeling of electric and hybrid vehicle systems. He has worked extensively on the development of SR and PM motor drives for various automotive and industrial applications. The research contributions on electric machines are in the areas of design optimizations, sensor-less and high-performance controls, acoustic noise prediction, and parameter identification methods. The primary application of Dr. Husain’s work is in the transportation, automotive, and aerospace industries. As a result of this exposure, Dr. Husain has developed courses for graduate and undergraduate education in electric and hybrid vehicles, and published the textbook Electric and Hybrid Vehicles: Design Fundamentals.