Professors Leopoldo Garcia Franquelo

Professor Department of Electronics Engineering University of Seville, Spain

Biography

Prof. Leopoldo Garcia Franquelo was born in Malaga, Spain. He received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain in 1977 and 1980 respectively. In 1978 he joined the Universidad de Sevilla as Research Assistant, becoming Associated Professor in 1982 and Professor since 1986. From 1998 to 2005 was Director of the Electronics Engineering Department.

 

His technical interests started in 1978 with Microprocessor Industrial Electronics Applications, evolving to Electronics Power Applications and in the 90s to Application Specific ICs design for the control of Power Converters. His current research interest lies on modulation techniques for multilevel inverters and its application to power electronic systems for renewable energy systems.

 

He is leading a large research and teaching team in Spain that has been awarded with the Excellence Status by the Andalusian Government. His activity can be summarized as: 65 Publications in prestigious International Journals, including the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics and the Proceedings of the IEEE, 180 publications in Conferences, 12 Patents, and 78 R&D projects. He is coauthor of the papers. The age of Multilevel Converters arrives, awarded with the 2008 IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine Best paper award. He is also the recipient of the 2009 Andalusian R&D Award.

 

He is IEEE member since 1984, Senior Member since 1996 and Fellow since 2005. He has been Vice-president of the Industrial Electronics Society Spanish Chapter (2002-2003), Member at large of the Industrial Electronics Society AdCom (2002-2003), Vice-president for Conferences of the Industrial Electronics Society (2004-2007), President Elect of the Industrial Electronics Society (2008-2009) and he is currently serving in the same society as Distinguished Lecturer (2006-), Associated Editor of the Transactions on Industrial Electronics (2007-), Senior AdCom Member (2008-) and President (2010-2011).

Power electronics to face current and future energy challenges

Abstract

 

In the last decades the energy scenario has changed drastically because of the unstoppable increasing power demand due to the large human dependence on energy. In addition, the energy sector has evolved from centralized large power stations to a new distributed energy grid with diverse power sources based on renewable energies.

 

Hand by hand with this evolution, the power electronics is helping to this energy revolution offering efficient power converters for different applications and power range. Power electronics researchers and industry are focusing their efforts on increasing the reliability, robustness, efficiency, volume, weight, power capability, availability, fault tolerant operation, and economical cost. In this way, several new power converter topologies recently introduced in the industry, particularly for medium-voltage converters. Nowadays, power electronics is an enabling technology for the integration of new energy sources, transportation or in house appliances.

 

In the next future, the energy sector will mutate and the academia and the industry will offer new solutions to face the required challenges. New power converter topologies, new power semiconductors based on wide band-gap devices and new control methods will be developed. Vast integration of renewable energy sources, huge reduction (even elimination) of nuclear energy, inclusion of energy storage systems for grid ancillary services (or even for residential or domestic applications), large integration of the electric vehicles and optimal power flow control in smart grids are some of the challenges to face for the upcoming years.