Scientific Area:  Engineering & Technology.

EXPR: Electrical Technology.

Name of the service: Electrical drivelines and Electrical power system.

Main responsible: Boel Ekergård – Assoc. Professo.

Category of the service: Research group.

Target group: Industry.

Background:

The ongoing electrification of society, which is part of the industry reaction on the climate change, has led to a strong demand for advanced level competence in electrical engineering. The electrification of society includes, among other things, large consumers of energy such as the vehicle fleet and energy-intensive industry, which leads to these sectors needing more and more competence in electrical engineering for the technological transition. With increased consumption of electricity, increased production from new types of producers is also required. This, together with changed power flows in the grid, places new demands on the power system of the future, and increased competence is needed in all parts of the power system in order to maintain a stable and robust power system in the future as well.

Electric machines and energy-storage are today considered elemental in the green transition and driven by the proliferation of rechargeable EVs. To accelerate the energy transition and achieve the energy policy goals, it is critical to analyze the extraction, production, and handling of materials in EVs. While EVs offer clear benefits in reducing emissions during their operational life, their production phase presents significant environmental, social, and economic challenges. Addressing these challenges requires a holistic approach to manufacturing processes, including technical innovations, cleaner energy sources, improved battery and motor technologies, recycling programs, and a consideration of social and economic factors. 

Scientific refence:

At University West, electrical engineering is a prioritized area, with research within the electrical power system and all subsystems of the electrical driveline. The foundation of the research within the electrical power system is the demand of a stable electrical grid. A stable electrical grid is a prerequisite for today´s society and University West has a great focus on research regarding voltage- and transient- stability. 

The foundation of the research within electrical driveline is to only utilize national materials with the requirement that the technical subsystem must be designed for recycling and reuse. With an electric machine utilizing ferrite as the magnetic material and research regarding replacing cobolt and lithium with iron phosphate in the battery-system the research in electrical engineering at the University of the West is at the absolute forefront and has great opportunities to achieve a technical solution that meets all three global sustainability goals. Through collaboration with relevant industry, see for example, Högskolan Väst deltar i ny satsning på elektrifiering | Högskolan Väst (mynewsdesk.com), the research group spreads the possibility of the technical solutions including the ability to reuse/recycle with an electric driveline to relevant industry. Högskolan Väst is thus to the highest degree involved in and drives development within technical solutions that meet all three global sustainability goals.

Offer description:

Research within electrical engineering at University West is divided in number of steps. Analytical and numerical calculations give the foundation to the modelling and laboratory verifying tests, leading to fullscale experiments. Within the experimental environment, full scale electrical drivelines with ferrite based electrical motors are designed, assembled and experimental verified. The experimental environment offers power sources, measuring technics including EMC-, and NVH-chambers, inhouse developed power electronics, research regarding automated assembling and disassembling for recycle and reuse.