Me (Urban) and Mikael participated this year in the conference EPE 2023 (EPE = European Power Electronics) which took place in Aarhus in Denmark from the 4th to the 8th of September.
We started with a full-day course on the topic ”Grid-Forming Converters: Principles and Practices”. The course gave an insight into this new, grid-friendly way of controlling line side converters. Many articles presented at the conference were also related to ”Grid-forming”. It was particularly interesting to note that there were research results that showed that a combination of grid inverters that use the control principle ”Grid-forming” and other grid inverters that use the now prevailing principle ”Grid-following” seemed to be the most optimal for the network as a whole. So – in the future it will perhaps be the case that grid inverters receive orders from above (from the grid owner) to run in ”Grid-forming” or ”Grid-following” mode?
Another subject area that has become ”hot” since the last EPE conference we attended in 2021 was the ”hydrogen society”. Due to the low efficiency in the chain electric energy (from renewable sources) => stored hydrogen => electric energy, I thought before the conference that this was just a passing fad sponsored by hydrogen lobbyists in Germany. Maybe it’s still like that, but maybe not. It seems that the research community has largely agreed that hydrogen is, after all, ”the best option” for storing energy from renewable sources and is therefore investing full force in this. Interesting!
All in all, a very pleasant, educational and interesting conference. //Urban
