Today, the generation in power systems is dominated by synchronous generators, of which the inherent synchronisation mechanism is the underlying principle that holds a power system together. This book considerably facilitates engineers in the integration of renewable energy sources, electric vehicles, energy storage systems etc., and the operation of power systems from the fundamental level. In this book, this mechanism is adopted to develop the framework and a technical route for the next generation smart grid: Completely Autonomous Power Systems (CAPS). After giving some general introduction, the basics of power systems, synchronous machines and power electronics will be presented to pave the way for the introduction of the architecture of the next-generation smart grid. The book will show how to make inverters into power systems, to mimic conventional synchronous generators to possess the same synchronisation mechanism. These inverters are called synchronverters and this technology, developed by the author and his collaborator, was awarded Highly Commended at 2009 IET Innovation Awards. It has attracted a lot of interest from academia and industry as now many leading research centres in renewable energy, power electronics and smart grid integration are doing research in this area. The book demonstrates how the majority of generators and loads in a power system can be governed by the same synchronisation mechanism and will be able to work together autonomously as equal partners to maintain system stability. It will also show how to remove the dedicated synchronisation unit in a synchronverter, without losing the vital synchronisation mechanism. The theoretical justification why the dedicated synchronisation unit that has been believed to be a must-have can be removed will then be provided, via showing that the widely-adopted phase-locked loops for grid connection of inverters are intrinsically the same as the droop control strategy. Brief TOC: Introduction; Part One Architecture;Basics of Power Systems; Basics of Synchronous Machines; Basics of Power Electronic Systems; Next-Generation Smart Grid; Part Two Technical Route; Synchronverter-based Generation; Synchronverter-based Rectifier; Synchronverter without a Dedicated Synchronisation Unit; Synchronverter-based Rectifier without a Dedicated Synchronisation Unit; Synchronverter-based STATCOM without a Dedicated Synchronisation Unit; Droop Control v.s. Phase-Locked Loops; Part Three Demonstration System; Demonstration System.
