Overview

Indicative content includes:

Power engineering

• Understand the operation of large electrical power systems, and their main constituent components.
• Understand the operating principles of several different types of electrical machine.
• Be able to perform basic calculations on electrical power systems and machines, while appreciating the limitations of such calculations.
• Have an appreciation of safe practice in the design and construction of electrical power circuits.

Power conversion

• Understand the fundamental power electronic building blocks and modulation techniques
• Carry out load flow and fault calculations on electrical power systems
• Carry out a techno-economic design of a power system
• Understand the construction and operation of induction machines
• Understand the operation of standard rectifier and inverter circuits, and be able to draw their key voltage and current waveforms
• Be able to connect and operate power electronic equipment and electrical machines in a safe manner in the laboratory

Power distribution

• Understand the operation of electricity distribution systems and the associated challenges.
• Appreciate the resource characteristics, operation, control requirements, challenges and overall impact of highly distributed, renewable energy generators.
• Understand the characteristics of modern electrical loads as well as energy storage technologies and the impact of increased usage of these technologies in power distribution systems.
• Understand power, data management and telecommunications aspects of smart and micro-grids.
• Understand the functionalities and the operational flexibility brought to the power system by the introduction of smart meters.

Digital signal processing

• Understand the basic theoretical concepts of digital signal processing
• Understand the basic principles of signal transmission and digital communication systems, and different forms it can take; including signal conversion (I/P P/I, AD/DA etc.).
• Understand the principal analysis techniques that can be applied to signal processing.
• Interpret the result of an analysis of a process in view of the limitations of the applied analysis
• Understand common communication methods including radio, satellite, wireless, Ethernet etc. and transmission protocols.

Learning Outcomes

• Apply concepts of Digital Signal Processing and interpret the results of analyses.

• Appreciate theory of power engineering and conversion, and apply it to calculate flow and other tasks.

• Explain and differentiate charactistics, requirements and challenges in wide-scale power distribution.