This summer, UWM student Eric Schmitt (Electrical Engineering, MS program) traveled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to expand his work on renewable energy systems through a collaboration with a Brazilian university lab. Supported in part by CLACS’s Ruggiero-Handelman Field Research Award, Eric gained invaluable hands-on experience with specialized equipment and studied processes that advanced his thesis research. He concluded his summer by planning a continuation of this work which he is submitting for Fulbright research funding.
Eric previously studied Portuguese in São Paulo through a FLAS Fellowship in the summer of 2025. Read more about the value of returning to Brazil in Eric’s own words!
Eric Schmitt: With the Ruggiero-Handelman Field Research Award I went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to work with the Laboratório de Fontes Alternativas de Energia (LAFAE) [Alternative Energy Sources Lab] at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). I first became interested in collaborating with LAFAE after reading an article they published about their decarbonization efforts for Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessels, which act as offshore microgrids. My current research involves a similar type of microgrid for the US Navy, which relies mainly on generators for power. Through collaborating with LAFAE, my plan was to use my background in survivable naval systems to improve their model and to fill my renewable energy knowledge gap.
However, when I arrived, I found that the FPSO project required security clearance and that I wouldn’t be able to work on it directly. Pivoting, I worked with two separate teams to better understand how renewable and battery energy systems are implemented into microgrids, like the FPSO. The first team was working on a simulation that used both a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and a Solar Array to maintain power for critical infrastructure during a grid outage. This was my first ever experience looking at the control strategies used for these components and will undoubtedly be useful for my thesis, since many naval ships have begun to rely more heavily on battery systems for increased survivability and versatility.
The second team was investigating a problem they noticed in the original FPSO article. They found that with a larger percentage of renewables, the frequency began to fluctuate outside allowable regions. To mitigate this, they implemented a BESS to inject real power into the system–reducing the frequency deviations–and validated it using both Controller Hardware-In-The-Loop (CHIL) and Power Hardware-In-The-Loop (PHIL) simulations. While my lab at UWM has a CHIL set-up, we do not have PHIL capability, since it is incredibly rare at a university level due to its upfront cost. Learning how to set up and perform PHIL tests from the LAFAE researchers showed me how virtual simulations could be used with real-life power electronic equipment to mimic a real microgrid and provide realistic results. This was the most irreplaceable experience of the whole project.
I was also able to meet with the lab coordinator, Dr. Robson Dias, and discuss potential Fulbright projects that would use my expertise and would benefit LAFAE. During our conversation, we came up with a plan to extend my current research to create a self-healing power system that could be used to make microgrids like the FPSO more survivable. If I receive the Fulbright, I will be able to return to LAFAE for a 9-month fully funded position after I graduate, using the knowledge I’ve gained from this experience and my time at UWM.