TITLE: Software tools and methods for the integration and computational analysis of inverter-based marine renewable energy sources (tentative)

ABSTRACT: Integrating inverter based renewable energy sources such as marine renewables is a key objective in building sustainable power grids. The integration of these alternative sources presents specific challenges such as power quality and variability, creating the need for computationally scalable integration tools to conduct integration feasibility and fault analysis. In this work, we propose software methods and tools for integrating marine renewable energy models onto both industry and open-source power system models spanning the steady-state and dynamic domain while validating the computational scalability and modular design to aid the integration of marine energy sources onto power grid modelers. Our software methods enable validation, comparison, and benchmarking inverter-based models such as wave energy converters, tidal generators, and current energy converters. Preliminary results using our software tools (WEC-Grid and MarinePowerDynamics.jl) and methods show the successful integration of these marine renewable energy models into both commercial and open-source solves with linear computational scaling. Completing this work will provide accessible tools and methods for the investigation of marine renewable energy models onto power system grids.

MAJOR ADVISOR: Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez
COMMITTEE: Yue Cao
COMMITTEE: Bryson Robertson
COMMITTEE: Renato Figueiredo
GCR: Megan Ward