DC Microgrid for Offshore Applications
Professor Evan Gray, Griffith University, heads up the current project underway within Research Program 3 – DC Microgrids for Offshore Applications. The project brings together expertise from partners including Griffith University, Optimal Group Australia Pty Ltd, Pitt & Sherry (Operations) Pty. Ltd and the University of Tasmania.
Photovoltaics, batteries, supercapacitors, electrolysers and fuel cells are all natively DC. DC power is common in marine settings. Networking these components into a microgrid using high-efficiency DC–DC converters is logical, but problematic in practice, and few suitable DC–DC converters are available commercially.
Most microgrids are presently AC coupled with grid connection, therefore, involving multiple AC-DC conversions and issues of frequency synchronisation and voltage stabilisation. This project will examine the barriers to setting up pure-DC microgrids and create a bench-scale pure-DC hydrogen microgrid for experiments aiming to understand and resolve issues including transient response and control of the DC bus voltage.
To find out more about this Project visit the DC Microgrids for Offshore Applications project page. Find out more about Research Program #3: Offshore Renewable Energy Systems and sign up to their monthly newsletter.
