Head of Group: Prof. Jon Clare
The Power Electronics, Machines and Control (PEMC) Group is a world-leading research centre in the field of power electronics and motor drives. As of January 2010 the Group has 9 academics, with 4 Full Professors and a research grant portfolio > £16M earned from EPSRC, TSB, EU, STFC, national and international industry, and UK and US defence bodies. Our research team comprises approximately 30 Postdoctoral Research Fellows, 40 PhD students and dedicated technical staff. Research funding includes two prestigious EPSRC Platform Grant awards and the GE Aviation/EPSRC “Strategic Partnership in Advanced Electrical Power and Actuation” – SMARTPACT. The Group also leads Nottingham University’s involvement as an “Associate Member” in the EU FP7 “Clean Sky” Joint Technology Initiative (JTI). Our highly successful record in industry-academe collaboration has been recognised through the award of several Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs). 2010 will see new investment totalling £2.5M for infrastructure developments and equipment from both internal and external sources to support the Group’s continuing expansion and success.
Core technology expertise of the Group covers 4 main areas:
• Power Electronic Energy Conversion, Conditioning and Control
• Power Electronics Integration, Packaging and Thermal Management
• Motor Drives and Motor Control
• Electrical Machines.
Power electronics is a vital technology to underpin the Low Carbon Economy and is essential in all future sustainable energy scenarios since it is the only technology that can deliver efficient and flexible conversion and conditioning of electrical energy. It will be responsible for ensuring the reliability and stability of the whole power supply infrastructure ranging from electricity generation, transmission and distribution, through a huge variety of applications in industry and transportation systems to home and office appliances. To meet future aspirations in power conversion demands research delivering radical improvements in functional and physical integration, necessitating a holistic research approach covering control, system topology, packaging and devices. The Group mission is therefore to sustain an internationally renowned research portfolio spanning all key power electronic disciplines from power device and component technology to complete power conversion systems. The PEMC Group collaborates closely with the George Green Institute for Electromagnetic Research and with the Heat Transfer Group. Research activities cover basic technology (e.g. physics of failure research) to applied research (e.g. professionally engineered advanced technology demonstrator hardware for aerospace industries).
The PEMC Group has very strong links with industry, both nationally and internationally, ranging from component suppliers to OEMs, where it applies its core technology expertise to application oriented research. Whilst the portfolio of application areas is not fixed and continually evolves to reflect to new opportunities, it is currently orientated towards Aerospace and Renewable/Sustainable Energy. Other significant industrial collaborations exist in Marine Systems, Industrial Drive Systems and Pulsed Power Converters. The Group plays key roles at University level within the Energy Technologies Research Institute (ETRI) and the newly formed Aerospace Research Institute.
The Group is justifiably proud of its experimental facilities and is renowned for its ability to conduct pure and applied research at realistic power levels (up to 1MW continuous). Specialist facilities exist for power device packaging research and for reliability studies. Dedicated electronic supplies provide emulation of aircraft generation systems up to 180kW. The facilities have been recognised as an EU Marie Curie Training Centre and will be significantly upgraded during 2010.