Analysis of high capacity power electronic technologies for integration of green energy management

The rate of growth in US electrical demand necessitates the development of new generation resources and the expansion of electrical infrastructure. With respect to this growing demand and the current trends of energy policy development, policy makers, corporations, and private investors continue to push the development and integration of green and renewable generation, including nuclear, wind, and solar power. The integration of novel and existing generation sources within the US electric grid presents new requirements and challenges for large scale resource management and interconnection. The sheer magnitude of new generation being added to the grid, as well as the diversity of generation sources, will drive expansion and investment within the transmission & distribution (T&D) infrastructure sector and in enabling technology developments. In this paper, descriptions and solutions are presented for many of the foreseeable scenarios that will emerge from the T&D perspective regarding integrated generation management (IGM). By analyzing several primary classes of transmission technology - conventional AC transmission, high voltage DC transmission (HVDC), and FACTS compensation techniques as applied to both AC and DC transmission - this work presents future applications, advantages, and development requirements for power electronics and control technologies in a diversified generation environment and with respect to power system dynamic performance.