Ph.D. student Zheng An has been recognized with a Technical Session Best Presentation Award at the 2022 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC).
His paper, “Farm-Level Interactions Study of a Novel Tri-Port Soft-Switching Medium-Voltage String Inverter (MVSI) Based Large-Scale PV-Plus-Storage Farms,” presents improved energy dispatchability and grid-support services of the grid-connected MVSI to proliferate dispatchable and low-cost solar energy. The research presented could enable a clean, cheaper, and more flexible energy future even if household energy consumption increases.
At the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), An has been advised by Professor Deepak Divan since Fall 2017 and is expected to graduate this summer. He has interned in R&D with Mercedes AG in Germany, as well as the ABB U.S. Research Center (Raleigh, N.C.) in power electronics.
From July 2020 to July 2021, he served as the President of IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) Student Chapter at Georgia Tech and led the chapter to be awarded as the Best Student Chapter across IEEE North America Region in 2020-2021. His research interests include grid integration of renewable energy, application of wide-bandgap devices, and solid-state transformers.
An is part of the Center for Distributed Energy (CDE) research group directed by Divan. The CDE was established to develop technologies and holistic solutions that can transform electricity delivery and utilization. In addition to doing traditional forward-looking cutting-edge academic research, the CDE is uniquely focused on accelerating and de-risking technologies so that they can see faster adoption and higher impact.
This year’s APEC was held in Houston, Texas from March 20-24, 2022. The technical program included peer-reviewed papers that cover all areas of technical interest for the practicing power electronics professional. The rigorous review process highlights the most innovative technical solutions, and provides the highest quality possible. For more than 35 years, APEC has grown to be the leading conference in North America for power electronic professionals and is now considered to be a leading conference for practicing power electronics professionals.