Effect of New Energy Conversion Technologies on Electrical power engineering Education

Course contents of B.Sc. and even M.Sc. or Ph.D. programs in electrical power engineering in our country is mainly based on conventional; technologies employed in different sectors of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. Electricity industry in Iran has been successful in localization and transfer of technology from foreign countries and research centers and universities have played an important role in this process. Nowadays, with progress of employing renewable and dispersed energy sources in electricity market, the role of power electronic as an interface for electrical energy conversion is vital. Unfortunately, the technology level in this field is so high so that, universities could not gain an important share in transfer of technology or localization of these high-tech converters. At the other hand educational sources are not well adapted to follow these fast changing technologies and also the research axis are not in an acceptable level. This is mainly due to lack of research funds in the field of power electronics. In this paper the existing problems in power electronics education is analyzed and several solutions are provided to overcome these limitations and activate the universities.