Development Plan for 2002–2006

The development plan of the Department serves as a basis for working and for setting definite development targets for the following years. The development plan is a yearly-renewed document the realisation of which will be regularly discussed and analysed.

Fundamentals

The Department is directed in its academic activities by legislation of the Republic of Estonia, Statutes of the Department and Tallinn Technical University, and current trends in economic, cultural, educational and environmental policy of Estonia. The Department Development Plan originates from development Plan of Tallinn Technical University for years 2001-2005.

Present-day situation

The structure and essential scientific directions of the Department were fixed at the beginning of nineties accordingly to disintegration former research and design institutions in the field of electrical engineering in Estonia. Unfortunately, the rather inconsistent re-organising process of higher education and national policy in field of science, research and development had a negative influence on the electrical engineering in the Tallinn Technical University.

According to the Estonian Research and Development Strategy “Knowledge-based Estonia”, which was approved by the Riigikogu (parliament) on December 6, 2001, the key areas for Estonian RD&I (Research, Development and Innovation) are the following: user-friendly information technologies and development of the information society, biomedicine and materials’ technology. At present the priority of electrical engineering in Estonian science strategy is low, which reflects also from state funding of this science field. In fact the electrical engineering is a basic part of information technology. Also the Tallinn Technical University has no faculty of electrical engineering.

In consideration of the above mentioned facts, the Department has to do more co-operation with other departments, universities and companies dealing with electrical engineering. The co-operative RD&I projects for economically developed countries could be a good help for improvement of financial situation. It is necessary to adjust and develop the research and development abilities and activities to the actual needs of electrical engineering industry and use other possibilities of RD&I funding besides state funding. It could be considered to employ a research marketing manager to accomplish Departments mission.

Mission

The main mission of the Department of Electrical Drives and Power Electronics is to be an Estonian leading, internationally recognized study, research and development centre in electrical engineering, especially in fields of electrical drives and power electronics, electricity supply, electric lighting, industry automation and robotics.

The mission of the Department in field of research activities is

• to perform high-level research for generating, developing and implementing innovative ideas and solving problems of electrical engineering of industry and economy on mutually beneficial basis;
• to help in technological re-arrangement of the Estonian Republic with standardisation, legislation and as well the policy of electrical engineering within the process of joining with the European Union and later;
• continually develop technology and products of enterprises of electrical engineering;
• to be prepared for expertises, tests and scientific co-operation projects in field of electrical engineering.

Vision

The Department co-operates with Estonian State institutions and universities, companies of electrical engineering, research and development institutions and public sector. The activity of the Department is aimed at finding new, more effective co-operation possibilities. Of special importance will be good co-operation with Estonian companies of electrical engineering, as AS Estel Pluss, Elektrimasinaehituse AS, AS Harju Elekter, AS Glamox, etc. (see annex 3).

The main output of the Department research is the introduction of results in publications of wide international distribution and recognised international scientific conferences.

The Department considers extremely important the practical application of the research results, especially product development to improve the competitiveness and economical strength of Estonian electrical engineering industry and electrical transport companies.

The Department considers extremely important active participation of its researchers in different government projects and commissions.

The Department considers important the modernisation and accreditation of the laboratories.

The Department considers important to prepare young scientific personnel and to favour the research work of students by looking interesting projects for them with financial support.

The Department considers essential the construction of the new building with up-to-date laboratories at TTU campus in Mustamäe in 2002-2004.

Development trends considering the structure, personnel and resources

Realisation of the aims of the Department will be possible due to the modernisation of scientific equipment, hard- and software as well as improvement of working conditions according to completing new building until 2004.

The main research areas during the coming years will be the same, but more attention will be paid to electrical transport, especially to electrical drive and power converter networks.

Research staff will actively participate in the teaching process, especially on MSc and PhD levels.

It is planned to open a Chair of Electrical Traction at the Department. This is necessary to extend the research of electric traction, vehicles and their supply networks. The reason is that the students are interested to have more knowledge and experiences of electric traction and vehicles, which will replace the internal combustion vehicles more and more in the next decades.

The Departments financial resources must increase, especially the state fundings from Estonian Science Foundation, Ministry of Education and Estonian Technology Agency

Research and development

The main research activity fields of the Department are active developing of:

• Power converters and electrical drives
• Electricity supply, electrical lighting, energy saving and  energy storage
• Industry automation and robotics 

Our main research program during next 5 years will be Research of energy conversion and exchange processes in electrical drive and power converter networks. The program is based on the general technology development trends as follows: distribution of energy production; application of energy storage devices for reduction of losses; rapid development of power semiconductor, microprocessor and software technology.

General aims

1. Analyse of development strategies of power networks of electrical drives and power electronic converters.
2. Research of energy conversion and exchange processes in electrical transport and industrial systems, according to new integration possibilities of power and information networks with consideration of electromagnetic compatibility problems;
3. Study of energy properties and application of new power storage units and introduction of relevant know-how in Estonia. Modelling the application of energy storage devices for reduction of energy losses in electrical drives and power networks.
4. Optimisation of energy exchanges and movements of machines.

Expected research results

The models of industrial electrical drive networks, including DC supply and energy storage will be created, which allow the alternative solutions for reactive power compensation and uninterrupted power supply problems. Energy saving power converters with flexibly controlled energy exchange and storage will be developed for the electric transport vehicles with application of integrated power and information networks The optimisation algorithms of energy exchange and movement of electric transport vehicles and industrial machines, including industrial robots will be created.

The main results of the research will be published in proceedings of acknowledged international scientific conferences and reviewed scientific journals. The results are applicable and directed to advance the competitiveness of Estonian economy