ECE DEPARTMENT OF SQU INSTALLS SMART GRID LAB
MUSCAT: To accomplish ECE department’s mission and vision, one of the four objectives of the department is to promote regional and international cooperation with universities, research institutions and organisations. To formulate this sustained cooperation, several agreements have been previously established among companies or organisations and with the College of Engineering. Recent collaboration agreements were signed with Nafath Renewable Energy, Huawei, Al Buraimi Solar Energy Systems, National Survey Authority, Space Communications Technologies Company and Siemens.
As part of the recent collaborative agreement with Siemens, the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will upgrade the existing microgrid in the Smart Grid and Protection Laboratory by adding smart grid features. This project, which is partially sponsored by Siemens and financed by the Research Council (TRC), is in its third phase of development.
In phase I, sponsored by the TRC, the main components of smart grid system were connected such as a rooftop solar PV system, a wind turbine, a battery storage bank, a battery charge controller, two inverters, and a monitoring system.
In phase II, which was sponsored by British Petroleum, a wireless communication system was deployed to connect the smart grid lab, solar car parking system at the College of Engineering, the Eco house PV system, and the hybrid station at Sustainable Energy Research Centre to store all the information related to the generated electrical energy at each location into a database within a central server which presents a bigger microgrid at SQU.
The current phase (Phase III) of the project will include employing intelligent control algorithms that will enable optimizing power production, storage and consumption in realtime. Once Phase III is complete, students will be able to emulate different situations and monitor the grid behaviour through a control panel.
Modernising lab facilities is an important component in the continuous process of curriculum development in ECE department.