Scheduled Publication Time:October 2018

• The Theme: Potential exhaustion of conventional fossil fuel based energies (e.g., coal, oil, and natural gas) and increasing environmental concerns have brought considerable worldwide attention to sustainable development. Consequently, global efforts have been directed towards utilizing more renewable energy resources, among which solar energy via photovoltaic (PV) is one of the most promising ones. Solar power generation has now reached price parity with conventional generation in many jurisdictions, and utility-scale PV power plants of more than 10 MW in capacity have become a reality. Future PV power plants will have even higher power capacity, with some of them exceeding hundreds of megawatts. More than 90% of the installed PV systems are grid- connected. Since megawatt PV power plants require large areas of land, they are usually installed in remote areas. A medium voltage network is commonly used to transfer power to load centers. Hence compact, reliable, and efficient power conversion, system stability and control, and PV power planning have become increasingly important. Consequently extensive research is being devoted into new converter/inverter topologies, PV power plant planning and operation, dynamic control, grid support, system stability, and grid reliability. This Special Issue is thus to collect recent advancements in power converter topologies, control techniques, stability and reliability, grid integration and grid support pertinent to PV power plants. This Special Issue will bring together researchers and practitioners from industry, research laboratories, academia, and government to present challenges and opportunities related to next- generation of PV energy conversion systems. Prospective authors are invited to submit original contributions. Potential topics of interest include, but not limited to, the following:

• ● Advanced and/or medium-voltage power converters for integration of PV systems

• ● Advanced grid integration for PV power plants, hybrid PV systems,PV power plants with energy storage

• ● PV energy conversion in ac,dc,and hybrid distribution networks

• ● Modeling, design,analysis and control of converters for PV energy conversion and their interconnections

• ● Grid support functions and ancillary services from PV plant systems,centralized, decentralized,and distributed algorithms

• ● Stability analysis ofconverter-based systems with PV generation

• ● Prognostic and condition monitoring of PV power plants,fault detection,smart metering and instrumentation techniques

• ● PV power plant sitting, planning, design,control and optimal operation

Manuscript Preparation and Submission

Prior to preparing a full paper, an extended abstract of 500-1000 words should be emailed in PDF form to the Guest Editors-in-Chief, Prof. Liuchen Chang (lchang@unb.ca) and Prof. Brian Johnson (brian.johnson@nrel.gov). The abstract should concisely describe the main idea of the paper, and make a clear case regarding the novelty and technical contribution of the work. The submitted abstract must include the list of all co-authors, and identify the corresponding author and his affiliation for the purpose of future communications. The team of Guest Editors will evaluate the submitted abstracts for appropriateness and timeliness. Based on scope and suitability for this special issue, the authors will be invited to submit full papers, which will then undergo a peer review process. The full manuscripts will be submitted in electronic format through the Manuscript Central web site: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tec-pes. On the submitting page #1, in the drop-down list for Manuscript Type, select: Power Conversion & Control in Photovoltaic Power Plants.

Timetable

Deadline for submission of abstracts    January 5, 2018

Announcement of selected abstracts    January 15, 2018

Deadline for submission of full manuscripts    March 15, 2018

Completion of first round of review    June 15, 2018

Deadline for submission of revised papers    August 15, 2018

Manuscript final decision     September 15, 2018

Estimated publication date    October 15 (online) December (print), 2018

Guest Editors:

Prof. Liuchen Chang, Guest Co-Editor-in-Chief

University of New Brunswick, Canada, Email:lchang@unb.ca

Prof. Brian Johnson, Guest Co-Editor-in-Chief

National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA, Email:brian.johnson@nrel.gov

Guest Associate Editors:

WeiXu, Huazhong U of Science and Tech,China

Md.Rabiul Islam, Rajshahi University of Engg and Tech,BGD

Huai Wang, Aalborg University, Denmark

YunweiLi, Universityof Alberta,Canada

PaoloMattavelli, University of Padova,Italy

KoutroulisEftychios, Technical University of Crete,Greece

XiaonanLu, Argonne National Laboratory,USA

TeuvoSuntio, Tampere University of Tech.,Finland

JanvonAppen, Fraunhofer IWES, Germany

PedroRodriguez, University of Catalonia,Spain

JohanH.Enslin, Clemson University,USA

Yaow-MingChen, National Taiwan University,Taiwan

TengLong, Cambridge University,UK

Mohd HasanAli, University of Memphis, USA

JianguoZhu, University of Tech.Sydney, Australia

JackFlicker, Sandia National Laboratories,USA

DehongXu, Zhejiang University,China

XinboRuan, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics,China

Marco Liserre, Kiel University, Germany

SairajDhople, University of Minnesota,USA

AliDavoudi, University of Texas at Arlington,USA

Amirnaser Yazdani, Ryerson University,Canada

HatemZeineldin, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology,UAE

Khurram Afridi University of Colorado, Boulder,USA

KatherineA.Kim Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology(UNIST),Korea