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EEE School and ERI@NNanyang Technological University, Singapore |
Peng Wang received his B.Sc. degree from Xian Jiaotong University, China, in 1978, M. Sc. degree from Taiyuan University of Technology, China, in 1987, and M. Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1995 and 1998, respectively. He was a lecturer and a senior lecturer in Electrical Engineering Department at Taiyuan University of Technology from 1978 to 1991. He worked as a visiting scholar in Electrical Engineering Department at British Clombia University, Canada, in 1992. He joined as an assistant professor in the School of EEE at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, in 1999 where he is currently an associate professor.
His research areas include: Power system analysis, planning and operation; Power system reliability analysis; Power restructuring and power market; Intellegent metering system and load managment;Smart grids; Micro Grids; Renewable energy planning; Renewable energy conversion systems.
He has been involved in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses and conducting workshops for industry in China, Canada and Singapore since 1978. The courses include Power system analysis, Power system planning and operation; Power system reliability analysis; High Voltage Engineering and System Protection; Power Apparatus and System Protection; Analogue electronics; Digital electronics, Electric Circuit.
His consulting work includes the projects with companies such as Vestas and Panasonics in Singapore.
Future Power Grids A Hybrid AC/DC Grid Solution
It has been over 100 years since Thomas Edison built the first DC electricity supply system on September 4, 1882, at Pearl Street in New York City of the United States. Many prominent events have occurred in the electricity supply industry after that. The first one, “The War of Currents” started in 1888. Thomas Edison and his direct current (DC) distribution system were on one side and George Westinghouse and Nikolai Tesla with alternating current (AC) system were on other side. The War “ended” in about 1891 when AC won as the dominant power supply medium. The key behind the AC win was the invention of the transformer which can easily step up medium voltage to high and extra high voltage for long distance power transfer from a remote AC generation station to load centers hundreds of kilometers away with lower transmission losses. Transformers can also step down high voltage back to low voltage at load stations to supply the low voltage equipment. Since the end of the war, AC power systems have been developed and expanded at a tremendous speed from the initial small isolated networks each supplying only lighting and motor loads with a few hundreds of customers, to its current scale of super interconnected networks each supplying billions of customers over large geographic areas in one or several countries. The voltage levels and capacities of transmission networks have increased from the first commercialized three phase AC system with only 2.4 kV, 250 kW in the town of Redlands, USA to the first commercial long-distance, ultra-high-voltage, AC transmission line in China with 1000 kV, 2000MW. Transmission distance has been increased from several miles to over thousands of kilometers/miles. With all such major achievements, small wonder that the AC power system became the Top Engineering Achievement of the 20th Century. Does this mean that DC is gone? The answer is an unambiguous no. What has happened in the past 50 years such as applications of advanced power electronics and control technologies, evolution of power system loads, and integration of renewable generation in power grid, really calls for a rethink about DC and AC in electricity supply systems. In this talk, the changes occurred in power systems over last 20 years will be summarized. A novel power network architecture hybrid AC/DC and its advantages will be presented. The new challenges and issues for control, operation and protection of the hybrid grid will be discussed.