Concettina BUCCELLA
Department of Information Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics, University of L'Aquila, ITALY
Research interests:
modulation techniques for power converters, smart grids, renewable energy sources, analitical and numerical modeling, electromagnetic compatibility, controlled active shields
Keynote address:
Modulation Techniques for High Efficiency Power Converters
Abstract:
During the last two decades, power electronics has gained applications in many important areas: energy, transportation, industry, consumer electronics, just to cite the most important, becoming a key enabling technology. Whatever the power level, present and upcoming power electronic converters are complex systems that combine many distinct hardware and software subsystems, which are becoming more and more intelligent and interconnected to meet the announced Internet of Things world, which, without massive use of power electronics devices, only remains a paradigm. There are many demanding tasks to be fulfilled in power electronics converters, but all of them share three basic requirements: optimization of energy conversion, high flexibility and low costs. Multilevel Converters (MLC) early proposed for high power, high voltage applications, are gaining popularity at all power levels and in a significant number of applications, including Renewable Energy Systems, Distributed Generation, Electrical Drives for industry and for transportation and others. Their power level is growing up or going down due to specific application, demonstrating unusual flexibility even at low power. One key point in multilevel converters, is their capability to reduce harmonic content from currents and voltages. Their modulation patterns are often imposed by algorithms consisting of preliminary off-line computations and subsequent real-time application of patterns through look up tables. These approaches need large amount of memory space, can reduce precision of commutation angles and are not very flexible for closed loop operations. Analytical methods, instead, offer significant advances: exact problem formulation, easy and effective real-time implementation, selective harmonic elimination or mitigation, possibility to cascade modulator and outer control loops. During the speech, some analytical methods for modulation of MLC and their fundamental equations will be introduced and examples of practical implementation will be reported.
Concettina BUCCELLA was born in L'Aquila, Italy. She received the M.S. degree from the University of L’Aquila, Italy in 1988 and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rome "La Sapienza" in 1995. After graduation, she was a research engineer with Italtel SpA, L'Aquila factory plant, then she joined the University of LAquila in 1991; since 2001 she is an Associate Professor in Electrotechnics. She holds the italian habilitation as Full Professor in Power Converters, Drivers, Machines and Power Systems and in Electrotechnics. Her current research interests regard the application of power converters to smart grids, industry and e-transportation, with emphasis on modeling, control and modulation techniques. She has authored around 150 papers international journals and conference proceesdings. Concettina Buccella has been a co-recipient of the 2012 and 2013 Best Paper Awards of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics. Since many years she has been a Technical Committee Member of conferences organized by the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society and from 2015 she has been an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.
She is member of the Power Electronics Committee and of the Smart Grids Committee of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society; for many years she has been a member of the Electrostatic Process Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. During the term 2017-2018 she has been the Chair of the Renewable Energy Systems Technical Committee of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. She has been a Guest Editor of a number of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics Special Sections. She has been a plenary speaker at the International Conference of Energy and Water, September 25-27, 2013, Luanda, Angola, invitated by the Ministry of Energy and Water of Angola and of the 2018 International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications, (ICRERA-2018), October 14-17, 2018, Paris, France.
Concettina Buccella has been Co-Founder and C.E.O. of DigiPower Ltd., a University of L’ Aquila spin-off, an innovative SME specialised in power electronics for industrustial automation, robotics, smart grids and e-transportation.
She is member of the Power Electronics Committee and of the Smart Grids Committee of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society; for many years she has been a member of the Electrostatic Process Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. During the term 2017-2018 she has been the Chair of the Renewable Energy Systems Technical Committee of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. She has been a Guest Editor of a number of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics Special Sections. She has been a plenary speaker at the International Conference of Energy and Water, September 25-27, 2013, Luanda, Angola, invitated by the Ministry of Energy and Water of Angola and of the 2018 International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications, (ICRERA-2018), October 14-17, 2018, Paris, France.
Concettina Buccella has been Co-Founder and C.E.O. of DigiPower Ltd., a University of L’ Aquila spin-off, an innovative SME specialised in power electronics for industrustial automation, robotics, smart grids and e-transportation.
