We are excited to be back at this leading power electronics event for its latest edition, from the 6^th to 10^th of September for a week of exchanges, 100% online, with the key players in this field. Following our participation in last year’s EPE’20 ECCE Europe conference as the local organiser, this year our Institute will once again be highly involved in the conference, giving one keynote, presenting 6 scientific papers, organising 4 industrial forums and exhibiting a virtual stand. We are looking forward to catching-up with you and exchanging on the different topics discussed during this event!

Dr. Florent Morel, Research group leader on converters for HVDC applications at SuperGrid Institute was solicited by the conference organisers to give a keynote on “Functional needs and potential technologies, to enable the stepwise development of HVDC multi-terminal grids”. He will kick off the institute’s contributions to the conference on Tuesday, the 7^th of September, from 09:30 to 10:00. Tune in!

Abstract:

The introduction of modular multilevel converters (MMCs) created a new momentum in the field of high voltage direct current (HVDC). HVDC is not anymore used only in point-to-point links embedded in ac systems or between asynchronous areas. It is now also used to transport power from offshore wind farms (OWF) far from shore to land and multi-terminal direct current (MTDC) systems are becoming a reality. With the expected massive development of renewable energy sources and the limited rights-of-way to create new overhead lines in many countries, the power system must evolve and HVDC technologies will have a major role to play. This presentation will remind the motivations for dc and MTDC solutions and give a brief state-of-the-art of HVDC converters. Some examples of MTDC will be presented. An insight on the stepwise development of MTDC will highlight new functional needs which can be provided thanks to devices involving power electronics: DC current breakers, DC/DC converters, power flow controllers (or current flow controllers), integration of energy storage elements… For these needs, some technologies and their status of development will be reviewed.

More information here!

Our research engineers will present some of our latest scientific achievements in the fields of power electronics & HVDC control and operation via 6 new publications:

• Break-even distance for MVDC electricity networks according to power loss criteria, Pierre Le Métayer, Juan Paez, Sellé Touré, Cyril Buttay, Drazen Dujic, Eric Lamard, Piotr Dworakowski.
• Energy Requirements of Modular Multilevel Converter Submodules and High-level Control Design for Synthetic Inertia Function, Rayane Mourouvin, Jing Dai, Seddik Bacha, Didier Georges, Abdelkrim Benchaib.
• Experimental study of an EMI reduction gate-driver technique for turn-off transition of 1.7 kV SiC MOSFET, Hadiseh GERAMIRAD, Florent MOREL, Bruno LEFEBVRE, Christian VOLLAIRE, Arnaud BREARD.
• Methodology to obtain the specifications and perform the sizing of a power flow controller for meshed HVDC grids, Joan Sau-Bassols, Florent Morel, Touré Sellé, Serge Poullain, Frank Jacquier.
• Modelling and Control of an MMC-HVDC Submodule with Energy Storage for Fast Frequency Response, F. Errigo, L. Chédot, F. Morel, P. Venet, A. Sari
• Reliability analysis of the bus-bar systems in multiterminal HVDC systems, Miad Ahmadi, Alberto Bertinato, Ismail Boussaad.

More information about the technical programme here!

Last year’s industrial forums at EPE’20 ECCE Europe were a great success! We are very proud to count the co-organisers of this year’s industrial forums amongst our colleagues. Piotr Dworakowski, Power Converters Team Leader at SuperGrid Institute is this year’s Industrial Forum Chairman. He is working alongside Abdelkrim Benchaib, R&D Group Manager for real-time strategies for supergrid control and dispatch at SuperGrid Institute, and together they have gathered renowned speakers from industry and academia to participate in these forums. We would like to congratulate them on their hard work and encourage you to attend the forums which are sure to be rich with informative exchanges.

Industrial Forum Chairman:

Dr. Piotr DWORAKOWSKI
SuperGrid Institute
Research Group Leader

The industrial forum will be a whole day program with presentations (15 min each) and panel discussions on Friday, the 10^th of September.

Make sure to join our colleagues in Sessions 1 and 2 where they will be sharing their expertise on Power Electronics Reliability and Condition Monitoring and Power Electronics in Energy Transition respectively.

Find the full programme of industrial sessions here!

Dr. Abdelkrim Benchaib

Local ogranising committee member
SuperGrid Institute
R&D Group Manager

As a member of the EPE executive council, Abdelkrim Benchaib has joined the Local Organising Committee of the 2021 conference, drawing on his experience of organising EPE’20 ECCE EUROPE to make this year’s edition a guaranteed success!

Want to know more about SuperGrid Institute? Come and meet us during the conference through our virtual stand! Find out more about what we do and how our products and services can help you!

See you there!