Speakers

Distinguished professors from both academia and industry will be invited to give speeches.

Keynote Speakers

 

Professor Tobias Geyer


Stellenbosch University, South Africa
IEEE Fellow

Controlling Megawatts with Power Electronics

Abstract: High power converters in the Megawatt range link large wind turbines with the grid, help transfer electrical power over long distances and drive large motors. To operate these converters reliably and efficiently, intelligent control algorithms are required. Particularly model predictive control is promising, because it maximizes the performance potential of such converters. This talk provides an introduction to high power electronics reviews its control challenges and proposes model predictive control methods to address them. For large electric machines, as used in wind turbines, these control methods increase the converter power and their availability. For HVDC-connected offshore windfarms, intelligent control is required to ensure reliable operation of the converter-based power grid..

Bio: Tobias Geyer recently joined ABB Medium-Voltage Drives in Switzerland as the R&D platform manager of the ACS6080. He is also an extraordinary Professor at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Dr. Geyer received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering, the Ph.D. in control engineering and the Habilitation degree in power electronics from ETH Zurich in the years 2000, 2005 and 2017, respectively. After his Ph.D., he spent three years at GE Global Research, Munich, Germany, three years at the University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, and eight years at ABB’s Corporate Research Centre, Baden-Dättwil, Switzerland, where his last position was that of a Senior Principal Scientist for power conversion control. He is the author of 35 patent families and the book “Model predictive control of high power converters and industrial drives” (Wiley, 2016). He teaches a regular course on model predictive control at ETH Zurich. His research interests include medium-voltage and low-voltage drives, utility-scale power converters, optimized pulse patterns and model predictive control. Dr. Geyer received the Semikron Innovation Award and the Nagamori Award, both in 2021. He is also the recipient of the 2017 First Place Prize Paper Award in the Transactions on Power Electronics, the 2014 Third Place Prize Paper Award in the Transactions on Industry Applications, and of two Prize Paper Awards at conferences. He is a former Associate Editor for the Transactions on Industry Applications (from 2011 until 2014) and the Transactions on Power Electronics (from 2013 until 2019). He was an international program committee vice chair of the IFAC conference on Nonlinear Model Predictive Control in Madison, WI, USA, in 2018. Dr. Geyer is a Distinguished Lecturer of the Power Electronics Society from the year 2020 until 2023 and a Fellow of the IEEE..