Finalist EPFL doctorate Award 2017 – Reza Razzaghi
© 2017 Reza Razzaghi
Special distinction from the selection committee to Reza Razzaghi for his thesis “Fast Simulation of Electromagnetic Transients in Power Systems: Numerical Solvers and their Coupling with the Electromagnetic Time Reversal Process".
Thesis n° 6903 (2016).
Thesis directors: Prof. M. Paolone, Prof. F. Rachidi-Haeri
The development of future power systems is associated with the definition of new approaches for their simulation, control, and protection. In particular, future operation/protection practices of power networks might rely on the availability of chip-scale real-time simulators (RTS) that will enable the implementation of efficient protection/fault location processes.
Within this context, the work presented in the thesis contributes to the integration of new concepts of the fault location in AC/DC systems that can be deployed in chip-scale real-time simulation hardware represented by Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). The development of the proposed fault location platform is done in three steps.
First, an original fault location method based on the Electromagnetic Time Reversal (EMTR) theory is proposed.
Next, a new automated FPGA-based solver for RTS is proposed which enables coupling of the simulation platform with an offline simulation environment (EMTR-RV) and is able to simulate both power electronics converters and power system grids.
Finally, the proposed EMTR-based fault location method is integrated with the FPGA-RTS to develop an efficient fault location platform. It is shown that the developed system exhibit remarkable fault location accuracy as well as robustness against uncertainties such as fault type/ impedance, and presence of measurement noise.
