This talk shall focus on three important areas that are relevant to energy efficiency and sustainability. The focus of the first part is to understand the different forms of alternate energy/ distributed energy resources. Emphasis is laid on power generation from fuel cells and understanding how it fares against other distributed energy resources. Challenges and opportunities here shall be explored in detail with focus on integrating alternate energy resources into the distribution grid. Higher penetration of alternate distributed energy resources is an enabler for design and deployment of Microgrids of different capacities and features. The second part of the talk discusses the various technologies that are adopted and the current state-of-the-art in Microgrids. Implementation of microgrids is an evolving field and involves innovation and cooperation of various stakeholders for successful deployment and operation. The focus of the last part of the talk is regarding the hydrogen economy and its importance in utility scale energy storage. Discussions on the variations in the types of hydrogen produced from electrolyzer is presented. Market opportunities and challenges ahead in this market shall be discussed to conclude the talk.

 

A G Vishal Anand (M’16, SM’20) received a B.E degree from Bharathiar University, Coimbatore in 2001 and M.S. degree from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in 2005. He worked as a Manager at Tata Motors Pvt Ltd, Pune, from June 2005 to Nov 2005. From Dec 2005 to August 2006, he worked at American Power Conversion as a Design Engineer. From Sep 2006 to the present day, he has been with Bloom Energy (I) Pvt Ltd, currently working as Director of Engineering. He is working towards his Ph. D at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His

primary areas of interest are modeling, controlling, and designing grid-connected/standalone Inverters, topology, analysis, and control of resonant converters. He’s the current Chair of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Bangalore chapter, and Treasurer of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, Bangalore Chapter. He currently holds 4 US patents.