Dr.-Ing. Sönke Rogalla

Head of Department Power Electronics and Grid Integration, Division Power Solutions

Research Focus

  • Efficient power electronics for renewable energies and storagesystems
  • Innovative concepts for hybrid power plants
  • Dynamic grid interactions of converters
  • Grid forming converter control
  • Test and characterization of power electronics

Short Biography

Sönke Rogalla graduated from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany in 2006 with the degree of Diplom-Ingenieur in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology with a specialization on Renewable Energies. In 2015, he spent time as a visiting scientist at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York, researching the topic of grid stability with converters. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Braunschweig - Institute of Technology, Germany, in 2020 on "Grid Interaction of Converters and Impedance Spectroscopy of Inverters".

Since 2006, he is with Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Freiburg Germany. He was responsible for different research groups in the fields of PV inverter development, high power electronics, inverter testing, PV system concepts, grid interaction of converts and grid-forming converts. Soenke Rogalla was in charge of planning and setting up Fraunhofer ISE's Multi-Megawatt Laboratory. Since 2022 he is the co-head of the department "Power Electronics and Grid Integration".

Awards & Outstanding Achievements

2006 Umweltpreis der Sparkassenstiftung at the University of Karlsruhe
2012 Best Poster Award – 27. Symposium Photovoltaische Solarenergie
2017 Best Poster Award – 32. Symposium Photovoltaische Solarenergie
2019 Best Poster Award – 34. PV-Symposium
2020 IEEE 11th International Symposium on Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems (PEDG 2020)

Major Projects

ImaStabil Impedance Analysis of PV Power Plants to Ensure Stable and Reliable Operation on the Grid
VerbundnetzStabil Stable Power System Behavior with Converter-Based Generation
OVRTuere Over Voltage Ride Through –Temporary Overvoltages and Derived Rules for Efficient and Safe Grid Operation

Lectures

"Power Electronics for Photovoltaics and Wind Energy", University of Freiburg
“Energy Efficient Power Electronics”, University of Freiburg

Committees

Technical Programm Chair of the the ECCE Europe 2024 Conference
Conference advisory board of the PV Symposium
Member of the advisory board for the "Roadmap System Stability" of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection BMWK
German Committee CIRED (DK CIRED)