Electrical & Electronic Engineering

Presentation Title: A Hydrogen-focused Microgrid for Regional and Remote Community 

A/Prof GM Shafiullah

Discipline of Engineering and Energy, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia,

Abstract:

Due to high initial investment and maintenance costs, governments are becoming more reluctant to provide capital funding for grid extensions to deliver electricity to remote locations or rural areas. Thus, ensuring reliable and cost-efficient energy supply and decarbonizing the energy supply by utilising locally generated, clean and sustainable renewables is essential for future energy security and economic development. However, the main challenge in transitioning towards 100% renewable energy (RE) is the variable and intermittent nature of these resources which requires technical adaptation, particularly relating to balancing variable supply and demand for energy. The innovative idea of storing RE in an energy carrier such as hydrogen, which is storable, transportable and utilizable, has recently encouraged interest worldwide. Renewable hydrogen not only opens up the opportunity to supply remote communities and transport routes with secure and reliable electricity and fuel supply but also to support international decarbonization efforts and the Paris Agreement. Recently, microgrids have been presented as a viable and effective solution to proliferate the application and RE integrated power systems by minimizing the problems associated with variability and intermittency of the renewables.

Considering the above, this talk gives an overview of our current research on 100% RE integrated microgrid system for remote/rural areas considering the operational, technical, social, economic, and environmental benefits that such a system can bring forward. Outcomes of this research will be a valuable tool for power utilities, regional indigenous service providers, industries and government bodies in their planning for the deployment of microgrids for regional and rural communities to supply power to the community.

This talk will also focus on the outline of our Master of Engineering Practices program; Smart and Renewable Electrical Power Engineering, Intelligent Industrial Control and Autonomous Systems Engineering; Environmental and Sustainable Systems Engineering and Master of Renewable and Sustainable Energy at Murdoch University which may be useful for current student who are planning to develop their career overseas.

Biography

Dr GM Shafiullah is an Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering at Murdoch University, Australia. After completing Master of Engineering and PhD from Central Queensland University, Australia, GM joined as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Electrical and Renewable Energy Engineering, Deakin University, Australia. GM completed his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology, Bangladesh (formerly, BIT Chittagong).

GM’s research interests include power systems stability, renewable energy and its enabling technologies, microgrid, smart grid, green hydrogen, clean energy, climate change mitigation and adaptation and sustainability in the energy sector. He has co-authored more than 150 refereed book chapters, journal articles, and conference papers, including IEEE Transactions, Elsevier, IET, Wiley, MDPI and AIP Journals. He has an h-index of 33 and over 4300+ citations. Due to his research and scholarly performance, he was listed as the top 2% of scientists worldwide in 2020 and 2021, as announced by Stanford University.

In addition to nine HDR completion, GM is currently supervising seven HDR students and is extensively involved in a number of projects that include high penetration of distributed energy resources into the grid and off-grid networks; innovative control strategies development for microgrid; 100% renewable energy-based microgrid with hybrid PV- Battery-Hydrogen system; reactive and active power management with large-scale electric vehicle integration; translating Sustainable Development Goals into national energy supply and demand. GM has also been involved in industrial/consultancy projects on a microgrid, and renewable energy integration in the grid-connected and off-grid systems and attracted about $6.5M in research funding.

GM is a senior member of IEEE and IEEE PES. He is also the Associate Editor for IET Renewable Power Generation, Smart Grid - Frontiers in Energy Research and Energies and Infrastructure, MDPI.