Plenary Lecture


Professor Haifeng Wang
The Queen's University of Belfast
UK

Abstract: This lecture talks about a novel concept of decentralise collaborative control for power system contingent operation to cope with uncertainties caused such as by the high penetration of renewable generation, the failure of power system emergency control and so on. In the proposed framework to implement the decentralised collaborative control, a local controller still takes local feedback signal and controls only its connected local device. However, the on-line action of the local controller and the real-time synthesis of feedback signal are guided by a mechanism of information synthesis attached to the local controller. Communication between different local controllers (not necessarily all the local controllers) for information exchange of status and needs of individual local devices is based on a pre-defined protocol of collaboration. Furthermore, the mechanism of information synthesis and the pre-defined protocol of information exchange can be adapted in real-time to accommodate the slow evolution of power system’s operation. Hence in the proposed framework, the flow of feedback and control signal only occurs locally. This guarantees fast and accurate control actions. The long-distance transportation for power system control is the flow of information, which does not have a direct impact on local controllers.
In the lecture, several examples of initial exploration of the concept are presented.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Dr. Haifeng Wang, SMIEEE MIEE CEng., Chair Professor in Electrical Engineering and Research Director, Electric Power and Energy Research Cluster, School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computing Engineering, The Queens University of Belfast, Belfast, UK.
Dr. Haifeng Wang obtained his BSc., MSc. and Ph.D in 1982, 1984 and 1988 respectively from the Southeast University, China. He obtained the 4th-grade State Award of Natural Science in 1991 and the 1st-grade Research Award of Education Ministry in 1985 respectively in China. He came to U.K. in 1989 after he was awarded one of two Visiting Fellowships by the Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, UK. Subsequently he worked as a Research Fellow in the same University until 1993. Then he took a post of Research Fellow (Senior Research Fellow 1996) in Manchester Metropolitan University. He joined the Power and Energy Systems Group at University of Bath on the 1st May 1997 and was appointed in the Queen’s University of Belfast in Sept. 2007.
Since 1994, Dr. Wang’s major research interest has been the power system modeling analysis and control, especially the Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS), aiming at the application of advanced control techniques and power electronics in power systems. In this research area, he has established a nationally leading and internationally recognizable position. More recently he has joined EPSRC Supergen project (Supergen1 and Supergen3), working on the modeling, analysis and control of power systems considering renewable generation and energy storage systems. He has had close research collaboration with UK power industry, such as the National Grid Transco.(NGT), UK, the Schneider Group, UK and Toshiba International Plc. He was awarded the IEE Power Division 2000 Crompton Premium, 2004 Leverhulme Trust Study Abroad Fellowship, 2004 Royal Society Senior Research Fellowship and 2006 Global Research Award (from the Royal Academy of Engineering).
Dr. Haifeng Wang has had over 200 papers published. He contributed one chapter in the book, “Flexible AC Transmission Systems”, published by IEE in 1999 and one chapter in the book, “Autonomous Systems and Intelligent Agents in Power System control and Operation”, published by Springer in 2003. He chaired sessions in various international conferences. He is a member of steering committee of annual University Power Engineering Conference (UPFC), UK, and member of organization committee of various international conferences.
Dr. Wang has had close and long-time academic links with top institutions in China due to his Chinese background. He is a specially appointed professor at the Southeast University, Wuhan University and Hehai University, China. He obtained the Award of Outstanding Overseas Chinese Young Scientists in 2002. More recently, Dr. Wang has been awarded a grant by the EPSRC to set up and operate a “UK-China Network of Clean Energy” to link leading UK SUPERGEN and Chinese institutions in energy research to facilitate international collaboration and to connect the UK and China energy industry.