Energy plays a critical role in our everyday lives. Electrical energy (or electricity) is both a basic part of nature and one of the most widely used forms of energy. Electricity is a secondary energy source. It is produced through the conversion of primary energy sources such as coal, hydro, natural gas, nuclear, solar, and wind into electrical energy. Electricity is also a critical energy carrier, facilitating both the transfer of energy and conversion to other forms, such as mechanical, chemical, etc.
For long, energy and electricity have been linked to economic growth and increase of energy consumption is linked to increase in GDP. In fact, a 1% increase in electricity consumption leads to approximately 1.5% increase in economic growth. A substantial portion (≈50%) of electricity globally is consumed in applications involving electric machines and motors. This increases to over 80% in industrial applications and will further increase primarily driven by electrification of transportation.
However, the landscape is currently changing. As economies move towards greener generation and more efficient electricity consumption, the challenge ahead lies in the decoupling between rates of economic growth and energy demand and fundamentally shifting the way we think about energy. Our goal in this course is to explore all aspects of electrical energy, from generation to consumption and introduce some of the most common and key components of the electrical network!
The course content includes Electrical energy supply systems; Transmission and Distribution systems; Energy Conversion; Generation of electrical energy; Utilisation of electrical energy; Thermal energy; Renewable Energy; Wind Energy; Solar Energy; Energy efficiency; Environmental aspects of Energy; Phasors; leading/lagging; Power; Power factor; Active Power; Reactive Power; Transformers; Equivalent circuits; single-phase transformers; Three-phase transformers; Delta connections; Star connections; Harmonics; DC machines; Induction machines; Synchronous machines.
