CDIO - The steam engine powering the electric grid

This paper describes in detail the steam engine system with associated electronics that serves as basis for the Design-build project The steam engine combined with 3-phase electric power generation was selected for several reasons being in part: 1) historical 2) efficiency with respect to energy conversion 3) dimension of playing into the learning process 4) highly illustrative with respect to the real world 5) potentially several tasks suited for large groups In this energy system a lot of engineering issues are highlighted and touch upon such as the: energy, electric power, converters, storage, automation, measurement, visualisation etc. These issues become increasingly important when reflected in present day discussion on sustainable energy versus fossil fuel, electric vehicle versus internal combustion engines, smart grid and distributed generation versus conventional centralized power plants.