ZAMIRA BINTI JAMIL (MKE191020)

HOMEWORK 1: POWER ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS

Contributions of Power Electronic in Solving the Problems Related to Global Warming

According to Dr Bimal K.Bose in his article, “Energy, Environment and Important of Power
Electronics” and “Energy, Environment, and Advances in Power Electronics”, burning of fossil
fuels generates gases such as CO₂, SO₂, CH₄ and other gases-called green house gases (GHG)
which trap solar heat in atmosphere and create environmental pollution problems such as global
warming, acid rain and urban pollution. The most serious effect of global warming is melting of
polar ice cap and corresponding inundation of low-lying areas of the world.

Environment pollution is truly a global problem and the Kyoto conference in 1997 tended to
address this problem by limit emission of different countries within a certain quota. In order to
implement the emission control methods, as a first step, all our energy consumption can be
promoted in electric form and then advanced emission control standards can be applied in central
fossil fuel plants. Power Electronic deals with conversion and control of electrical power with the
help of switching mode power semiconductor devices, and the efficiency of power electronics-
based equipment can be very high (98%-99%).

Besides, urban pollution can be prevented by widespread use of electric vehicles and subway
transportation. Note that wind power, photovoltaics, electric car and subway system heavily
depend on power electronic. As we know, electric (EV) and hybrid vehicle (HEV) have been
commercially introduced by a few companies around the world. The range in EV is limited by
battery capacity but in HEV, there is no such problems because the battery is assisted by power
device (usually gasoline ICE).

Some example of applications power electronic in order to solving the problems of global warming
are HVDC System for Wind Park Interconnection, 400 MW hydro/Pumped Storage, 10 MVA
Battery Storage and Fuzzy Control of Wind Generation System. These applications show that the
power electronics are very important to maximize the power line efficiency and power capability
and acts as converter and/or inverter to regulate the system voltage and stabilize the power system.

As a conclusion, power electronics has now established as a major discipline in electrical

engineering and is now merging as a high-tech frontier of power engineering. It appears that the
power electronic give a big impact in order to reduce the environmental pollution and solving the
problem related to global warming.