Before I Built Grid-Forming Inverters, I Burned This One…

2 minute read

How many power electronics boards have you burned so far? I’ve lost count! Even yesterday I burned one #inverter. Here’s my first funny story:

Back in 2015, as a 3rd-year undergraduate at BUET. I wanted to get my hands dirty, learn, and make something real. One day, I spotted an opportunity on the department wall – an #IEEE #PES funded project for a 1kW pure sine wave inverter. Excitedly, I signed up, ready for my first adventure in power electronics.

The project involved converting 24V to 220V AC through two stages: 24V to 400V DC and then 400V to 220V AC. After a few days of hard work, the boost converter was working fine. With growing confidence, we moved on to testing the DC to AC inverter part. Our full-bridge driver was designed using the IR2111 IC.

Here is the video of the project.

One afternoon our PI, Prof. Khan, suggested, “Let’s test it with high current.” With a mix of excitement and fear, we connected the board. In a blink, our carefully crafted circuit turned into a miniature fireworks display. It was like the 4th of July, but in our lab!!

As the smoke cleared, Prof. Khan asked calmly, “Did it burn?” “Yes, sir,” we replied, our hearts sinking. To our astonishment, he smiled. “Good job, then it’s going to work.” Confused, we asked why. His response changed my perspective forever: “The board burned means it is conducting and things are going right direction but current is not. Let’s keep going.”

From that experience, I learned an invaluable lesson: failure is part of the journey. Every time I burn a board, I discover a new way not to burn one. This mindset has driven me to keep experimenting, learning, and improving without fear of burning boards.

About Me

Hi, I’m Shuvangkar Das, a power systems researcher with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Clarkson University. I work at the intersection of power electronics, DER, IBR, and AI — building greener, smarter, and more stable grids. Currently, I’m a Research Scientist at EPRI (though everything I share here reflects my personal experience, not my employer’s views).

Over the years, I’ve worked on real-world projects involving large scale EMT simulation and firmware development for grid-forming and grid following inverter, and reinforcement learning (RL). I also publish technical content and share hands-on insights with the goal of making complex ideas accessible to engineers and researchers.

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