September 28, 2015
Conference to power solutions for renewable energy
Solving critical challenges with integrating large-scale renewable energy generation into the power grid will be addressed at a major international power conference hosted by the 51²è¹Ý (UOW).
The 25th Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference 2015 (AUPEC 2015) will run from 27 to 30 September and brings together 120 experts in electricity generation, storage and distribution from around 20 countries.
The conference theme for AUPEC 2015 is ‘Challenges for Future Grids’ and will cover topics including renewable energy, power distribution, energy storage, electric vehicles as well as power system protection and control.
The conference began with a tutorial session on solar power technology for commercial buildings and concludes on Wednesday (30 September) with an expert panel session with industry representation on energy storage.
Conference Chair Professor Danny Sutanto from UOW’s Australian Power Quality and Reliability Centre (APQRC) said a key topic for the conference would be looking at the latest developments in energy storage and integrating renewable power into the grid.
“The conference will provide an opportunity to not only explore the challenges facing the power grid of the future, but also to share a vision for solutions to those challenges,” he said.
“There is a lot of discussion at the moment about the role of renewable energy in supplying the electricity needs for Australia. But one of the major technical challenges to overcome is intermittency.
“Solar power is generated only during daylight and for wind turbines we all know that winds are variable. This means the grid either has a large amount of power or none and this creates problems for distribution networks in balancing supply and demand.
“One of the solutions is energy storage, such as large, efficient and cost effective battery packs to be able to maintain reliable energy supply as well as computer technology that can forecast demand to ensure there is enough capacity in the grid to meet looming demand at peak times.”
UOW is already investigating replacing lithium-ion batteries with sodium-ion alternatives, which are cheaper to produce and have other benefits such as constant storage during temperature fluctuations.
Professor , from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, will deliver a keynote address about the Californian experience of large-scale energy storage integration into the grid based on the state’s mandate that its utilities have 1,325 megawatts of energy storage operating by 2024 to help meet its renewable energy generation targets.
The conference also features a large number of research students who represent the future thought leaders and innovators in energy technologies.
AUPEC is an annual conference for researchers and practising power engineers, from both academia and industry throughout the Australasian region to share research and ideas for the advancement of power engineering for the benefit of the power industry and consumers.