Sustainable Solutions Lab (SSL)

The Sustainability Solutions Lab (SSL) aims to provide students with an experience of professional development while working on sustainability-oriented research projects, especially related to Pakistan electrical power infrastructure. In SSL students are working with faculty, staff, and field experts to define and solve some of our greatest challenges faces by the current electrical power infrastructure of Pakistan.

Ongoing funded research projects

Designing of a reliable and resilient framework: A roadmap to next generation sustainable solutions for Pakistan electrical power infrastructure (0.9 million PKR)

Main theme of the funded research project

Due to Pakistan fragile electrical power infrastructure, any unexpected event, i.e., technical fault causes severe damage to power grids that can lead to a complete blackout. Therefore, designing a resilient and reliable power system network is an inevitable requirement for Pakistan electrical power infrastructure. This research project investigates the effect of these unexpected events on the power system network based on the recent blackout in Pakistan electrical power infrastructure. For example: A recent technical fault that occurred at the Guddu power plant triggered a sudden drop in the frequency of power systems that leads a chain reaction in the form of cascading failures and subsequently shut down various power plants in Pakistan electrical power infrastructure, choking about 10,320 megawatts of electricity. Considering this scenario, the major contribution of this research project will be designing a reliable and resilient power system that integrates phasor measurement units (PMUs) and distributed unified power flow controller to provide stability to the electrical power infrastructure of Pakistan in case of these unexpected events.

          A Novel Artificial Neural Network Based Multilevel Invertor Design for Hybrid PV Energy Systems (1.2 million PKR)

Main theme of the funded research project

Electrical energy needs have risen dramatically in recent decades, owing to an expansion of the number of consumers and the introduction of high-power industries. Subsequently, this traditional energy generation has resulted in a considerable increase in environmental pollution. As a result, there has been a tremendous rise in deploying small-scale and large-scale green energy resources into the electricity system. The integration of renewable energy (RE) resources leads to the increased level of total harmonic distortion (THD) in the current power system. Therefore, many research efforts are conducted in the literature to reduce the THD levels by proposing multi-level inverters (MLIs) with specific voltage ratios of input DC sources by using different number of switches. However, the issue of high THD levels of multi-level inverters at industrial and inductive loads still needs to be addressed. Therefore, this proposal is focused on further reducing the THD levels of the multi-level inverter at industrial loads by using a novel topology with reduced switch count consisting of three DC voltage sources with 1:2:4. The optimal switching angles of the individual switches will be calculated by using an artificial neural network (ANN). The proposed MLI will have fifteen output voltages levels and will support the integration of Solar PV arrays. The simulations will be performed in MATLAB/Simulink environment and results will be validated by designing a hardware. We are targeting above 90% efficiency on inductive loads and less than 5% THDs in both current and voltage waveforms. The results obtained by the proposed technique will be compared with the existing state-of-the-art techniques and validation will be done through the designed hardware.

From Smart Grids to Super Smart Grids: A Roadmap for Optimal Demand Response Management and CO2 Emissions Control in Futuristic SAARC Super Smart Grids (1.5 million PKR)

Main theme of the funded research project

The major problems in the power system network of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region include the utilization of substantial fossil fuels, which leads to significant emission of CO2. Moreover, due to the depletion of fossil fuels, it is very difficult to manage the demand requirement of SAARC regions, which leads to significant power shortage issues. These problems would be resolved through the integration of the substantial amount of renewable energy resources (RERs) that are available in excess in SAARC regions into the power system networks. This will provide a futuristic roadmap to sustainable and green energy environment in SAARC region.

Optimal Control Strategies for Energy Management in Futuristic Renewable Integrated Power Grids: A Road Map to Sustainable and Smart European Power Infrastructure (1.5 million PKR)

Main theme of the funded research project

Policies aim to increase the penetration of renewable energy resources (RERs) to minimize the dependence on fossil fuels, has compelled different countries to devise their diverse blueprints by transforming smart grids infrastructure into futuristic grids or super smart grids (SSGs). Europe is taking the lead by developing SSGs by 2050, based on two exclusive alternatives in the form of a large network region and employing several RERs for distributed power generation. Critically assessing tensions in balancing load flow associated with RERs is a complicated task in SSGs. To solve this concern, the advanced probabilistic model will be adopted in this research work to observe the variations in demand and response profiles and mitigate it through transmission network planning using a super smart node transmission network topology (SSN). Finally, this project will also provide a comprehensive overview of technical challenges in SSGs in terms of power flow control and load flow balancing, their possible solutions, and future prospects.

Engr. Sajid Iqbal

Engr. Muhammad Sajid Iqbal received his BS degree in Telecommunication Engineering from NUCES-FAST Karachi Pakistan in 2011 and MS degree in Electrical Engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia. He is currently working as a Lecturer in Electrical Engineering department of NUCES-FAST Chiniot-Faisalabad campus. His research interests include, Power Electronic Devices, Fault-Tolerant Control for industrial application, Antenna Array design and Machine Learning. 

Engr. Mariam Liaqat

Engr. Mariam Liaqat received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from The NFC Institute of Engineering and Fertilizer Research, which is affiliated with University of Engineering & Technology Lahore, in 2018. She is currently pursuing the M.S. electrical engineering at National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (FAST), Chiniot-Faisalabad Campus, Pakistan. Her research interests include power system modeling, renewable energy in power systems, and super smart grid.

Engr. Ijaz Ahmed

Engr. Ijaz Ahmed received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the COMSATS Institute of Information and Technology, Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2017, and the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan, in 2021. Currently, he is working as an Research Associate (R.A) in the Department of Electrical Engineering in FAST NUCES, CFD Campus. His research interests include energy management systems, load flow balancing, load forecasting, power systems dynamic analysis, protection, stability, and intelligent control in renewable energy resources using a fuzzy controller and unified power flow controller.