Brunel Institute of Power Systems (BIPS)

The group has a record of international excellence in research and development of advanced computational tools (software and hardware) for the analysis, control, operation, management and design of the electricity generation, transmission and distribution systems.

Latest Events

• 9/Dec/2010: Novel ICT Solutions for Smart Grids - Digital Communications and Energy Generation and Supply KTN supported 1 day event involving researchers engaged in energy and ICT solutions.
• Seminar: "Developments in Wind Turbine Technology"; Speaker: Prof Leon Freris BSc, MSc, PhD, DIC, Visiting Professor, Loughborough University; Date: 5/Dec/2008; Venue: LC261; Abstract & Biography.
• Seminar: "State Estimation and Contingency Analysis for Extreme Operational Issues"; Speaker: Prof Noel Schulz, TVA Endowed Professor in Power Systems Engineering Mississippi State University, Mississippi, USA; Date: 11/Nov/2008; Venue: LC106; Abstract & Biography.
• Seminar: "The Third Industrial Revolution: Tomorrow's Electricity Grids"; Speaker: John Scott, Director, Network Innovation, KEMA Ltd, UK; Date: 16/Oct/2008; Venue: LC115; Abstract & Biography.
• Seminar: "Functional Overview of Software Tools for Electrical Power Transmission and Distribution Analysis"; Speaker: Mick Barlow, Siemens, UK; Date: 21/Aug/2008; Venue: ML052; Abstract & Biography.
• Seminar: "Power Quality and Renewable Energy"; Speaker: Dr Ahmed Zobaa, University of Exeter, UK; Date: 8/Aug/2008; Venue: H313; Abstract & Biography.
• 19/Sept/2007: MIDERCON 2007 - IET and Industry supported 1 day conference on Microgrids & Distributed Energy Resources.

Latest News

• 1/Oct/2010: A three year EPSRC interdisciplinary collaborative award to University of Oxford and BIPS started October 2010. Project Title: Advanced Dynamic Energy Pricing and Tariffs (ADEPT). Principal Investigator: Dr Gary Taylor.
• 1/June/2010: Congratulations to Dr Gary Taylor on his recent promotion to Reader in Power Systems at BIPS.
• 1/June/2010: Dr Ahmed Zobaa joins BIPS from the University of Exeter as a Senior Lecturer in Power Systems.
• 1/Feb/2010: A three year FP7 Energy & ICT award started February 2010. Project Title: High Performance Computing for Smart Distribution Network Operation (HiPerDNO). Coordinator: Dr Gary Taylor.
• 24/Sept/2009: Dr Gary Taylor was an invited speaker at the IET event -Smart homes - efficient energy management through smart metering, 24 September 2009.
• 18/Sept/2009: A one year Leverhulme Trust Visiting Fellowship award started September 2009. Project Title: Development of Flexible Systems to Accommodate Large-Scale Deployment of Renewable Energy Systems in Electrical Power Distribution Networks. Principal Investigator: Dr Gary Taylor.
• 1-4/Sept/2009: ERA Sponsored UPEC 2009 best presentation awarded to Mr Dominic Banham-Hall, BIPS EngD student at Converteam Ltd.
• 19/Nov/2008: Dr Gary Taylor was an invited speaker at the London Technology Network event - Renewable Energy & Energy-efficient Technologies - Powering innovation, 19 November 2008.
• 16/Oct/2008: Prof Xi-Fan Wang, Prof Yong-Hua Song and Prof Malcolm Irving have recently written a new text book entitled "Modern Power System Analysis", Springer, 2008.
• 2/June/2008: Dr Hai-Bin Wan joins Brunel University from National Grid as a Senior Lecturer in Power Systems.
• 22/Oct/2007: Congratulations to Dr Mohamed Darwish on his recent promotion to Senior Lecturer in Power Electronics at BIPS.
• 4-6/Sept/2007: ERA Sponsored UPEC 2007 best paper awarded to Dr Sunetra Chowdhury, Royal Society India Fellowship at BIPS.
• 30/Mar/2007: A one year Royal Society India Fellowship award started November 2006. Project Title: Integration of Distributed Energy Resources: An Evolutionary Power Scenario. Principal Investigator: Dr Gary Taylor.
• 01/Jan/2007: Prof Yong-Hua Song has joined the University of Liverpool, UK as PVC and President of the new Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. BIPS wishes Prof Yong-Hua Song every success in this exciting new venture.
• 26/Sept/2006:A new master programme, MSc Sustainable Electrical Power, started with 20 students in September 2006.
• 18/Mar/2006: Prof Irving and Prof Song have recently guest-edited a special issue on "Optimization for the Deregulated Power Industry".

1. Power systems analysis for transmission and distribution networks
2. Novel ICT Solutions for Smart Grids
3. Congestion and condition monitoring in electrical power networks
4. Design and analysis of power electronics for sustainable electrical power systems
5. Analysis of new energy markets

Research Aims and Strategies:

The commercial and industrial research clients of the group, particularly the electricity supply industry, will continue to undergo dynamic change in the coming years. This is a consequence of de-regulation, changing priorities on energy sources and the emission of pollutants, and the world-wide introduction of new market regimes. The group aims to continue to provide technological solutions at the forefront of research in these areas. Current research funding has been obtained approximately one third from UK government sources (EPSRC) and two thirds from UK and international industry.

Research themes and description of activities:

Power systems analysis for transmission and distribution networks, including steady-state and dynamic analysis, linear and non-linear operation. Investigation of algorithms for congestion monitoring in transmission networks. Simulation and analysis of new energy markets. Portfolio and strategy optimisation taking into account risk and uncertainty. Optimisation of the design and operation of electrical networks. Modelling and optimal control of FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission Systems). Condition monitoring of power station and power system plant. Development of advanced mathematical models of underground electric cables.

Research Data:

• Total Grant Income: more than £3M over last 10 years
• Number of Projects: over 15
• Number of Refereed Journal Papers: over 100
• Number of Refereed Conference Papers (and Book Chapters): over 80
• Number of Research Students:
  Current: PhD 11,  EngD 1, MPhil 2, PhD awarded 19 (2003-2007),  EngD awardeded 1 (2006), MPhil awarded 25 (2003-2007)
• RAs and RFs: 9
• National and International Collaborations:
  Tsing Hua University, China; University of Plzen, Czech Republic; Polytechnica University Bucharest, Romania; University of Santa Caterina, Brazil
• Key Industrial Collaborators: National Grid UK, EDF Energy, British Energy, ALSTOM, BNFL

Research Impact:

Computer models and optimisation algorithms produced by the group have been implemented in over 35 utility companies, in 7 countries.  New algorithms resulting from the research, and described in publications, have taken up and further developed by many researchers, internationally.

Inter- Multi- and Cross-disciplinary Aspects:

The research of the group draws on the disciplines of electrical power engineering, control engineering, optimisation theory, computational algorithms and methods and information technology.  Much of the research is multi-disciplinary, with individual research projects requiring skills in two or more disciplines.

Future Plans and Developments:

The group plans to maintain and extend its international collaborations.  It is intended to foster partnerships within the group and collaboration with other groups.  In particular, research on novel heuristic optimisation techniques should have benefits for many of the technological applications areas of interest to the group.  Energy utilities continue to undergo rapid technological change as a consequence of international de-regulation and the increasing importance of alternative and renewable sources.  The research group intends to respond to evolving research requirements in these fields and also (where possible) to anticipate future needs, for example producing novel algorithms for the operation of power systems as energy markets, incorporating risk management under technical and financial uncertainties.

Research Area

Power Systems Analysis and Control

Research activity is centred upon extensive computer facilities for simulating the dynamic behaviour, control and monitoring of power systems, within a control room environment which can be configured to reflect either current or future planned operational procedures. Considerable use is made of artificial intelligence techniques for condition monitoring, network planning and optimised operation.

Research topics include continuing studies on state estimation/bad data analysis, load flow analysis, load-frequency control, economic allocation of generation, unit scheduling arid integrating these and other studies within an overall strategy for control and energy management. Aspects of pricing and tariffs are also being investigated. Particular attention has been paid to the man-machine interfacing requirements for operating large modern interconnected power systems via computer terminals, and systems are under development for new and efficient ways of displaying topological and dynamic network data.

Power Market and Power System Economics

World-wide unprecedented reform and restructuring of the electric power industry has imposed tremendous challenges on the operation of power systems under this new environment. The group has a record of international excellence in research and development of advanced computational tools for efficiently operating market-oriented power systems. Recent research covers all the major operational issues, such as scheduling and dispatch, congestion management, available transfer capability calculation, price forecasting and optimal bidding strategies. Advanced optimization techniques including genetic algorithms, ant colony search and particle swarm methods have been successfully applied.

Power Electronics

The main field of investigation is the efficient regulation and control of power and energy flow in systems incorporating electric circuits, machines and systems using power semiconductor. switching devices. A major investigation over the past decade has been in the area of active filters for improving power quality and reactive control in electrical networks. With the tremendous growth in the use of computers on industrial sites and commercial buildings, there is growing concern about their impact on power quality.

A major initiative funded by industry and government agencies is under way to build active filters for controlling current harmonics based on the switched-capacitor technique pioneered at Brunel. The application of this technique to flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) for reactive power and stability control in power distribution and transmission systems is under investigation.

Other important areas of study include switched-mode and resonant power supplies, and application of DSPs, neural networks and fuzzy logic in power electronics systems.

On-going Projects:

• GRIDCC, EU-STREP, 2005, £240k, Real-time grid-computing application.
• High Performance Computing for Network Applications, HEFCE, SRIF award, 2003, £345k.

Completed Projects:

• Integrated Algorithmic and Heuristic Techniques for Transition-Optimised Voltage and Reactive Power Control, EPSRC, 2001-2004, £128k.
• Post-Doctoral Fellowship, NGC, 2000-2003, £148k, dynamic scheduling of reactive power and network voltages.
• Object Oriented Power System Analysis, EPSRC, 1995-1999, £142k, introduction of object-oriented techniques into power system database and analysis systems.
• NETMAT (Network Modelling Assistant) - An Expert System for Grid Modelling, Nuclear Electric, 1993-96, £108k.
• Multi-Processor Implementation of State Estimation Algorithms for Power Systems, SERC, 1991-1994, £143k, parallel processing algorithms for network state estimation.
• Electrical Power System Dynamic Analysis Using a High Performance Parallel Computation and Graphics System, SERC, 1990, £225k, provision of parallel processing hardware.
• ESAP (Electrical Sales Analysis Program), MANWEB, 1991-1994, £136k, computer aided analysis of purchases and sales of electricity, taking into account electrical energy losses and weather effects.
• INSIGHT (Interactive Network Simulation Incorporating Graphical and Heuristic Techniques), Northern Electric / NORWEB / Yorkshire Electricity, 1991-2001, £887k, dynamic analysis and optimisation of electrical distribution networks.
• Combined Active and Reactive Despatch, NGC, 1990-92, £130k, constrained optimisation of generator outputs for operational control and planning purposes.

Directors

• Prof. Malcolm R. Irving - Professor of Power Systems and Co-director of BIPS
• Dr. Gareth A. Taylor - Reader in Power Systems and Networks and Co-director of BIPS

Research Leaders

• Dr. Mohamed Darwish - Senior Lecturer in Power Electronics
• Dr. Ahmed F. Zobaa - Senior Lecturer in Power Systems
• Dr Michael Theodoridis - Lecturer in Power Systems

Research Staff

• Mrs. D. Thomas - PT Project Manager (HiPerDNO Project)
• Mr. C. Axon - Senior Research Fellow (HiPerDNO Project)
• Dr. R. Liao - Research Fellow (HiPerDNO Project)
• Mrs. N. Nusrat - Research Assistant (HiPerDNO Project)
• Mr. S. Panchadcharam - PT Research Assistant (HiPerDNO Project)

Visiting Pofessors

• Prof. A. Ekwue (SKM Consulting, UK)
• Prof. M. Bradley (National Grid, UK)

Visiting Lecturers

• Dr. P. Zheng (National Grid, UK)
• Mr. N. Hiscock (Fundamentals Ltd, UK)

Computing Manager

• Dr. Jeremy Daniel

Research Students

EngD Students

• Phillip Ashton - National Grid
• Dominic Banham-Hall - Converteam Ltd
• Peter Macfie - National Grid (Awarded December 2010)
• Ross Pearmine - National Grid (Awarded November 2006)

Brunel Industrial Doctorate Scheme (BIDS) Students

• Nigel Hargreaves - National Grid

PhD Students

• Saharuddin Othman
• Maciej Fila - EDF Energy (Awarded December 2010)
• PengCheng Zhu (Awarded December 2008)
• Linlin Hu (Awarded June 2010)
• Ehab Elwakil
• Victoria Olatoko
• Luther Kassem (Awarded June 2007)
• Gholamali Shahryari
• Fei Song (Awarded March 2008)
• Pichet Sriyanyong (Awarded March 2007)
• Suhaini Sarwan
• Sumim Thanathip (Awarded April 2009)
• Mahbube Zeraat Zade (Awarded August 2010)
• Rui He (Awarded June 2006)
• Na Zhao (Awarded August 2006)

MPhil Students

• Chen Wang (Awarded March 2007)
• Lin-lin Hu (Awarded November 2006)
• Lei Chen (Awarded November 2005)
• Shuo Chen (Awarded June 2006)
• Hailong Li (Awarded September 2006)
• Chi Ma (Awarded April 2006)
• Yunchao Xu (Awarded September 2006)
• Fang Zhang (Awarded May 2006)  

Directors of Brunel Institute of Power Systems:

• Prof. Malcolm R. Irving
• Dr. Gareth A. Taylor

Postal Address

Brunel Institute of Power Systems
Electronic and Computer Engineering
School of Engineering and Design,
Brunel University,
Uxbridge, Middlesex,
UB8 3PH, United Kingdom
Tel. +44 (0) 1895 266 610
Fax. +44 (0) 1895 269 749

Location in University

Brunel Institute of Power Systems,

H306, Howell building