The Role of Renewable Energy System in Reshaping the Electrical Grid Scenario

Renewable Energy Systems have been in the spotlight of the academic and industrial research for more than two decades, thanks to the development of several fields related to the Electrical Engineering. More recently, with the increasing complexity of the individual renewable energy systems and the interconnection to the grid, the scientific panorama has been witnessing to a convergence of different topics, which span across several IEEE-IES thematic areas: power electronics, electrical machines, smart grids, energy storage, transportation electrification and aerospace. After a brief overview of the renewable energy technologies, this work deals with how the convergence of multiple technologies developed to provide marginal support to the grid has evolved into the foundation of the future utility grid and expanded to transportation sector. It will be shown how the design of a renewable energy system cannot prescind anymore from the electrical grid and from the ancillary services that are requested. Example of convergence are given for a smart transformer application and for a transportation application.