Prof Xin Zhang leads the Sheffield Control and Power Systems Laboratory (CAPS). This unique CAPS Lab is part of his UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship and the Chair appointment. CAPS Lab has high-performance real-time grid simulators and a wide range of power systems experimental equipment.
In our CAPS Lab, we have 8 x Real-time digital simulators (Opal-RT eMEGAsim unit, Typhoon HIL). We are developing the advanced digital simulation platform for the cyber-physical system control, optimisation and cybersecurity of energy devices and networks, with applications in power systems, smart grid, micro-grid and power electronics converters.
We have a range of state-of-the-art facilities that enable us to run the real-time simulations of power systems with thousands of electrical nodes, hardware-in-the-loop simulations for the design and testing of power equipment, Analog and Digital Input and Outputs (I/O) to interact with multiple experimental setups, laboratory testbed for microgrid and a demonstration platform for power electronics converters and advanced energy technologies.
These $5M+ research lab facilities are currently funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, an EPSRC New Investigator Award, and an EPSRC-UKRI Innovation Fellowship. In the past 10 years, the CAPS lab attracted the support of Rolls-Royce, National Instruments, Texas Instruments, Siemens, ALSTOM, etc.
Our CAPS Lab‘s experimental facilities include:
1 x Opal-RT OP5608 with eMEGAsim.
5 x Opal-RT OP4500.
2 x Typhoon HIL simulators.
30kVA Chroma Regenerative Grid Simulator.
3 x 200kVA reconfigurable power converters to form a microgrid system.
YOKOGAWA Precision Power Analyser and DC Electronic Load.
Multiple power electronic converters (DC/AC and DC/DC).
The CAPS Lab has a large and whole laboratory room, as the hub of our Control and Power Systems Research Group. Our CAPS Lab is located in the Sir Frederick Mappin Building on Mappin Street. We are a part of the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering at the University of Sheffield.
