State of the art power supply and solar testing facility

Canterbury acquires specialist state of the art power supply and solar testing facility

January 20, 2015

The University of Canterbury has acquired specialist state of the art power supply equipment for its power electronics research capability.

The new power source for photovoltaic solar inverter testing cost over $100,000 and will contribute to research and enhance teaching of students in the relatively new field of electric power engineering.

Students opting to study an electrical and electronic engineering degree at Canterbury will have superior equipment to work with in laboratories, says Dr Miller, director of the university’s Electric Power Engineering Centre.

“It’s a coup for us and it’s a fundamental piece of equipment for power electronics teaching and research. We have set up a laboratory for testing photovoltaic solar inverters and obtained a large range of inverters deployed in New Zealand.

“Using the power supply and inverter test set up, we are able to understand the behaviours of inverters in a range of operating conditions, including fault conditions. This information will help validate models for simulating photovoltaic solar, which are of interest to electricity distribution companies.

“This equipment has been used immediately by our multi-million dollar Government-funded GREEN Grid project to help improve New Zealand’s overall energy capability.

“Our GREEN Grid project has support from organisations such as Transpower and the Electricity Engineers’ Association to look at the integration of renewable energy into the electricity grid and how to deal with the variability of that renewable energy (such as solar and wind).

“It is also looking at new technologies and their integration, such as photovoltaic solar, electric vehicles, and home energy management. New Zealand will benefit from the research through greater information about the integration of these new technologies into the grid being available.

“We will have three academics, three postgraduate students and a number of undergrad students involved with the new solar testing facility which is sufficiently high in power and highly controllable.

“Photovoltaic solar energy has grown rapidly in New Zealand in the last three years despite the economic case for solar to the homeowner being unclear.

“New Zealand now has access to lower cost solar equipment and there is greater resource and expertise to install it,” Dr Miller says.

ENDS

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