Published: May 23, 2021 by Daning Huang
Nonlinear dynamical systems are universal in the world of engineering. Such systems have distinct features, such as bifurcations and strange attractors, that are non-existent in linear systems. A famous example of bifurcation in aerospace engineering is the flutter of aircraft – when it happens, the aircraft may be close to crash.
But bifurcation phenomena are apparently not limited to aircraft. Another interesting, emerging system is the smart power grid with renewable energy, or more specifically, networked microgrids (NMs) with distributed energy resources. The NMs can potentially provide major support to the electric ground and aerial vehicles charging stations as well as the main power grids, the dynamic interactions between microgrids could lead to severe stability issues that may cause the collapse of the entire power system.
Together with Dr. Yan Li from the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, recently we applied the techniques of bifurcation analysis to a typical NM system and revealed the existence of bifurcation-induced instability that is critical to the operation of NMs. Our paper, “Identifying Hopf Bifurcations of Networked Microgrids Induced by the Integration of EV Charging Stations”, will be presented at the IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo (ITEC).
