Rob Cuzner, professor, electrical engineering, explained the kind of work that goes on in the college’s research group Grid-Connected Advanced Power Electronic Systems, or GRAPES in a recent article. GRAPES is a consortium of UWM and the University of Arkansas, along with roughly 20 utility companies, equipment manufacturers and component suppliers.
This is the second of three stories the paper is running about UWM’s partnerships in industry-university collaborative research centers, or I-UCRCs. With startup funding from the National Science Foundation and membership funds from industry, these centers collaborate on research with the results available for development by all consortium members.
GRAPES focuses on advanced power electronics to improve the electrical grid.
Access to on-demand electricity is about far more than generating it at the power plant. Equipment and smart techniques are needed to control, move and secure our power grid. The direct current (DC) generated by solar panels, for example, must be switched to alternating current (AC) in order to move over power lines.
That’s where the development of advanced power electronics comes in – and the college’s students play a role.
Of the more than 80 IUCRCs operating in the U.S., the college is leading – or a member of – three.