Electrical Design for Ocean Wave and Tidal Energy Systems

Renewable energy is expected to play a major part in future energy supplies, both to reduce the impact on the world climate and also to make up for any shortfall in conventional energy sources. Ocean energy has the potential to make a significant contribution to future renewable energy supplies as identified in recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change and the International Energy Agency. Ocean energy is an emerging industry sector and there are a number of promising developments under way. Significant commercial deployments in the gigawatt range are envisaged over the next 10 to 20 years in Europe, USA, Asia and South America.

Electrical Design for Ocean Wave and Tidal Energy Systems gives an electrical engineer's perspective of this technology, addressing offshore wave and tidal power stations, grid integration and distribution. With contributions from a panel of leading international experts, this book is essential reading for electrical design engineers, researchers and students working in ocean energy development and renewable energy. Topics covered include generator selection and rating; electrical energy storage; grid integration; power quality; cabling, umbilicals and array layout; modelling and simulation techniques; control theory and realisation; power system issues; and economics of ocean energy electrical systems.

Dr Alcorn is Executive Director at the Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre at University College Cork, Ireland a centre which works exclusively on all aspects of applied research for wave tidal and offshore wind energy. He has been involved in ocean energy for the past 15 years starting as an undergraduate electrical engineer then post graduate with the Wave Power group at Queens University Belfast. He then moved on to positions in Industry working on design, development and deployment, and commissioning of full scale wave energy plants. Raymond was involved in the formation of the Irish Marine Renewables Industry Association (MRIA) of which he is currently its Secretary. Recently he has been an expert contributing to the International Energy Agency Ocean Energy Systems implementing agreement and the International Electro-technical Committee technical group developing standards for marine energy.

Dara O'Sullivan is a senior post-doctoral research fellow at the Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre at University College Cork leading a group working on electrical issues in ocean energy development, power conversion and control, motor control, and grid-integrated power electronics. He has also contributed to both the International Energy Agency Ocean Energy Systems implementing agreement and the International Electro-technical Committee technical group developing standards for marine energy with a strong focus on power systems and grid connectivity. He has also been instrumental in developing the first dynamic grid modelling tool for wave and tidal energy systems.