The imbalance between the supply and demand of electricity is becoming expansive due to the increase in renewable energy penetration. Consequently, the time-varying electricity price is proposed as a tool to manage the mismatch. To cope with the electricity price difference across time and to extract the benefit to the limit, an energy storage system (ESS) can be a good tool to smooth out electricity usage. Nevertheless, ESS can be expensive due to the high installation cost and centrally managed system. In this paper, we propose a distributed ESS installed in each home appliance. Separately installed batteries can avoid sizeable initial investment costs. We calculated the benefit of the system that mainly stemmed from the electricity price difference and compared the benefits across various sizes of the battery system. In addition, the charging/discharging schedule depends on the power consumption profile and electricity price distribution. Decreasing battery prices and rising electri... [more]

This study focuses on the empirical verification of the influence of rural specificity on energy poverty across European Union countries, in the period 2010−2020. The research aimed at specifying the role of the agricultural character of a country, as well as economic disparities between rural and urban areas, in inducing problems of energy affordability. Based on the literature consensus about the most important determinants of energy poverty, namely income, energy prices, energy productivity, quality of dwellings, and climate conditions, a standard model was constructed concerning the role of the rural character of an economy, with its traditional features such as agricultural employment, and indices of rural−urban divide, in terms of median income and material poverty. Models for panel data with fixed effects were estimated. The results indicate agricultural employment as a factor increasing the subjective energy poverty of households. However, the scale of rural settlement cannot b... [more]

Photovoltaic (PV) plants can be built rapidly when compared with other conventional electrical plants; hence, they are a competent candidate for supplying the electricity grid. The output power of the PV modules can be used in plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) DC charging stations to reduce the burden on the electricity grid, particularly during peak load hours. To integrate PV modules and electric vehicles (EVs) with the electricity grid, the modular multilevel converters (MMCs) topologies producing staircase voltage waveforms are preferred as they are able to deliver less total harmonic distortion (THD) and higher efficiency in addition to lower voltage stress on semiconductor switches. In conventional centralized MMC topologies, a direct connection to a high-DC-link input voltage is required which is not appropriate for PV plants. A new MMC topology for PV/EV/grid integration is proposed in this paper, where the individual PV arrays are directly connected to each phase of the AC grid... [more]

Energy transformation in the European Union countries is progressing. Its scope is defined by formal and legal regulations and its effectiveness by the position of decision-makers, legitimised by public support for a particular type of challenge. Both issues are the focus of this article. The promotion of environmental protection measures is currently strongly promoted globally. Hence the widespread acceptance in principle of the changes associated with the implementing of the Green New Deal in the energy sector is not surprising. However, to what extent is knowledge of the solutions constituting the mainstream transition (renewable energy sources) ingrained among communities? Does the level of public awareness influence individual consumer choices, modelling the market? The threads outlined above inspired deliberations focused on analysing the assumptions behind energy transition in the EU, with particular reference to the countries directly bordering the line of the ongoing conflict... [more]

Metal-Organic Frameworks have attracted profound attention the latest years for use in environmental applications. They can offer a broad variety of functions due to their tunable porosity, high surface area and metal activity centers. Not more than ten years ago, they have been applied experimentally for the first time in energy storage devices, such as batteries. Specifically, MOFs have been investigated thoroughly as potential materials hosting the oxidizing agent in the cathode electrode of several battery systems such as Lithium Batteries, Metal-Ion Batteries and Metal-Air Batteries. The aim of this review is to provide researchers with a summary of the electrochemical properties and performance of MOFs recently implemented in battery cathodes in order to provide fertile ground for further exploration of performance-oriented materials. In the following sections, the basic working principles of each battery system are briefly defined, and special emphasis is dedicated to MOF-based... [more]

As an innovative technology, the impedance-based technique has been extensively studied for the structural health monitoring (SHM) of various civil structures. The technique’s advantages include cost-effectiveness, ease of implementation on a complex structure, robustness to early-stage failures, and real-time damage assessment capabilities. Nonetheless, very few studies have taken those advantages for monitoring the health status and the structural condition of wind turbine structures. Thus, this paper is motivated to give the reader a general outlook of how the impedance-based SHM technology has been implemented to secure the safety and serviceability of the wind turbine structures. Firstly, possible structural failures in wind turbine systems are reviewed. Next, physical principles, hardware systems, damage quantification, and environmental compensation algorithms are outlined for the impedance-based technique. Afterwards, the current status of the application of this advanced techn... [more]

The increasing use of communication in power-system operation and control is a double-edged sword [...]

This paper presents a comprehensive overview of nonlinear thermal effects in bipolar transistors under static conditions. The influence of these effects on the thermal resistance is theoretically explained and analytically modeled using the single-semiconductor assumption. A detailed review of experimental techniques to extract the thermal resistance as a function of backside temperature and/or dissipated power from DC measurements is provided; advantages, underlying approximations, and limitations of all methods are clarified, and guidelines for their correct application are given. Accurate FEM thermal simulations of an InGaP/GaAs and a Si/SiGe HBT are performed to verify the accuracy of the single-semiconductor theory. The thermal resistance formulations employed in the most popular compact bipolar transistor models for circuit simulators are investigated, and it is found that they do not properly describe nonlinear thermal effects. Alternative implementations of the more accurate si... [more]

This study aims to examine the environmental dynamics in the Union for Mediterranean (UFM) countries by considering education, urbanization, green innovation, and other key factors for the period 2001−2016. The data are divided based on the income level of UFM countries and analyzed with panel quantile regression, panel unit root tests, panel co-integration test, ordinary least squares method, and fixed effects model to evaluate the nexus between variables. A generalized method of moments (GMM) is employed to deal with the endogeneity issue in the panel data. The results of the study confirm that the urban population has an inverted U-shaped association with environmental degradation in the lower-middle and high-middle income countries. It further comes out that increased education levels decrease environmental degradation in the high-income countries. Hence, green innovation reduces environmental degradation in the upper-middle-income and high-middle-income countries. The study valida... [more]

The rapid development of digital finance has delivered significant benefits, such as sustainable development and economic growth. We explore the relationship between digital finance and green total factor energy efficiency (GTFEE) for the first time, filling a gap in the existing literature. This paper uses dynamic panel models to explore digital finance’s impact on GTFEE at the Chinese city-level panel data from 2011 to 2018. The results show that digital finance can significantly improve urban GTFEE, and the findings remain robust with various tests. Second, the mechanism analysis indicates that digital finance can improve GTFEE by promoting urban green technology innovation and industrial structure upgrading. Further study shows that digital finance has a better effect on the improvement of GTFEE in central and western cities, small cities and non-resource-based cities, but has no significant or small impact on GTFEE in eastern cities, large cities and resource-based cities, reflect... [more]

The inherent non-linear behavior of switch-mode power supplies complicates the task of computing their linear models, which are essential for a model-oriented control design of DC−DC converters. In a model-oriented control design approach, the accuracy of the plant model directly influences the performance of the control system as the plant parameters tend to be linked to the controllers’ gains. Moreover, the extractions of linear dynamic models of high-order non-linear plants such as DC−DC converters are laborious and mathematically intractable. Therefore, in this paper, a generalized expression that represents either the audio-susceptibility or the control-to-output voltage transfer function for voltage-mode control is proposed. The proposed generalization reduces the task of computing the small-signal model of a given converter to simple calculations of coefficients of generalized transfer function/expression. It is shown that the coefficients of the generalized model can be deduced... [more]

The loss of distribution networks caused by various electrical motors including transformers and generators can significantly affect the efficiency and economical operation of the power grid, especially for new power systems with high penetration of renewable energies. In this paper, the potential of using an energy storage system (ESS) for loss reduction is investigated, where a novel two-stage method for key-bus selection and ESS scheduling is proposed. At the first stage, the most sensitive key buses to the variation of load are selected by using the loss sensitive factors (LSF) method. At the second stage, ESS scheduling is conducted by solving an optimization problem with uncertainties caused by high penetration of renewable energies, where the uncertainties are characterized by confidence levels. The optimal scheduling of ESS including locations, capacities, and working modes are obtained at the second stage. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated via numerical... [more]

During the process of steam thermal recovery of heavy oil, steam channeling seriously affects the production and ultimate recovery. In this study, fly ash was used as the plugging agent, and then a series of plugging experiments based on the results of two-dimensional (2D) experiments were conducted to study the effect of plugging the steam breakthrough channels. The experimental results show that the inorganic particle plugging agent made from the fly ash had a good suspension stability, consolidation strength, and injection performance. Because of these characteristics, it was migrated farther in the formation with a high permeability than in the formation with a low permeability, and the plugging rate was greater than 99%. After steam injection, it had a good anti-flush ability and stable plugging performance in the formation. In terms of the oil displacement effect, oil recovery in the formation with a low permeability was effectively improved because of plugging. The results show... [more]

In recent decades, global electricity consumption has rapidly increased, and worldwide electricity demand is expected to follow the same trend [...]

High-temperature electrolysis using solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) is an innovative technology to temporarily store unused electrical energy from renewable energy sources. However, they show continuous performance loss during long-term operation, which is the main issue preventing their widespread use. In this work, we have performed the long-term stability tests up to 1000 h under steam and co-electrolysis conditions using commercial NiO-YSZ/YSZ/GDC/LSC single cells in order to understand the degradation process. The electrolysis tests were carried out at different temperatures and fuel gas compositions. Intermittent AC- and DC- measurements were performed to characterize the single cells and to determine the responsible electrode processes for the degradation during long-term operation. An increased degradation rate is observed at 800 °C compared to 750 °C under steam electrolysis conditions. Moreover, a lower degradation rate is noticed under co-electrolysis operation in com... [more]

The oil and gas (O&G) industry is now as focused on minimizing costs and maximizing efficiency just as much as maximizing production. Operators are looking for new and cost-effective ways to add profitable assets to their portfolio. One such way is to re-fracture existing wells. There is evidence that these wells can be very productive in the Bakken. However, because of factors such as depletion and aging wellbore material, re-fracturing wells can be a difficult process to implement successfully and often have binding constraints on surface treating pressure (STP). This study attempts to quantify the effects that completion parameters have on re-fracturing treatment implementation by constructing dynamic fixed effects (FE) multivariate regression models. These models are not generally used in O&G and are more commonly used in economics and policy analysis. However, given that both economics and O&G deal with large amounts of uncertainty for each individual person and well, respectively... [more]

In this paper, the author intends to show the interaction between the living standards of the population and the financial situation of Polish local government units at the commune level. The first (theoretical) part of the paper provides a synthetic description of topics related to defining the economic terms and to the local government’s ability to impact the standards of living of the local population. In view of the multifaceted nature of terms covered by this analysis, the second part uses a canonical analysis (which means multiple linear regressions are generalized for two sets of variables) in order to identify the relationships between them. The analysis resulted in identifying a number of indicators, including canonical correlations, total redundancy and variances extracted, as well as six statistically significant canonical variates, which enabled the identification of multidimensional relationships between the categories considered. The greatest and the most statistically si... [more]

This study elaborates on the quasi-sliding mode control design for discrete time dynamical systems subject to matched external disturbances and modeling uncertainties. In order to provide finite time convergence to the sliding surface and at the same time restrict the control effort, we propose a novel power-rate reaching law utilizing a hyperbolic tangent function. The construction of the reaching law ensures that when the distance between the representative point of the system and the sliding surface is significant then the convergence pace is limited, which results in a reduced control effort. However, as the representative point of the system approaches the sliding surface, the convergence pace increases. Moreover, the study adopts a non-switching-type definition of the sliding motion, which eliminates undesirable chattering effects in the sliding phase. In order to reduce the impact of external disturbances on the system, the model following approach is taken, which allows for the... [more]

Studies related to oil and gas wells have attracted worldwide interest due to the increasing energy shortfall and the requirement of sustainable development and environmental protection. However, the state of oil and gas wells in terms of research characteristics, technological megatrends, article-produced patterns, leading study items, hot topics, and frontiers is unclear. This work is aimed at filling the research gaps by performing a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 6197 articles related to oil and gas wells published between 1900 and 2021. VOSviewer and CiteSpace software were used as the main data analysis and visualization tools. The analysis shows that the annual variation of article numbers, interdisciplinary numbers, and cumulative citations followed exponential growth. Oil and gas well research has promoted the expansion of research fields such as engineering, energy and fuels, geology, environmental sciences and ecology, materials science, and chemistry. The top 10 inf... [more]

The axial-flux permanent magnet (AFPM) machines with yokeless and segmented armature (YASA) topology are suitable for in-wheel traction systems due to the high power density and efficiency. To guarantee the reliable operation of the YASA machines, an accurate thermal analysis should be undertaken in detail during the electrical machine design phase. The technical contribution of this paper is to establish a detailed thermal analysis model of the YASA machine by the lumped parameter thermal network (LPTN) method. Compared with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method and the finite element (FE) method, the LPTN method can obtain an accurate temperature distribution with low time consumption. Firstly, the LPTN model of each component of the YASA machine is constructed with technical details. Secondly, the losses of the YASA machine are obtained by the electromagnetic FE analysis. Then, the temperature distribution of the machine can be calculated by the LPTN model and loss informati... [more]

There has been a large amount of experience in recent decades in the use of magnetic fields on reservoir fluids. This paper discusses the effect of a magnetic field on wax precipitation. An analytical model is developed to quantify the wax deposition rate on the tubing surface during the magnetic treatment of reservoir oil. It has been established that the passage of the oil flow through a non-uniform magnetic field causes a high-intensity electric field for a sufficiently long period of time, the effect of which decreases the solubility of wax in oil, increases the intensity of wax precipitation in oil, and reduces the wax deposition on the tubing surface. The model accounts for the fact that the wax deposits present on the tubing surface are a highly efficient heat insulator that changes the temperature regime of the flow and the temperature of the tubing wall. This circumstance changes the rate of deposits but does not make these deposits less harmful to wells’ operation. A method f... [more]

Lost circulation is considered a time-consuming, costly problem during the construction of oil and gas wells. There are several preventive techniques to mitigate this problem. Stress cage technology is a mechanical lost circulation method, in which the formation at the wellbore wall is strengthened to stop the creation of induced fractures as one of the main causes of lost circulation. In this research, a two-dimensional numerical model, considering the elastic, poro-elastic, and thermo-poro-elastic behavior of the rock, is built to investigate the effectiveness of the stress cage method. Results show that better performance of the technology is achieved if the fractures are bridged close to their apertures. Additionally, it was found that the difference between the elastic, poro-elastic, and thermo-poro-elastic models is slightly visible. The conclusion states that the application of the stress cage methods leads to an increase in hoop stress and subsequent formation fracture gradient... [more]

The annual operation data of an F-class gas turbine generator set revealed that the duration of the startup process accounts for about 8.5% of the whole operation process. The three combustion models of a DLN2.0+ combustor demonstrated higher NOx emissions than the premixed mode under normal load during the startup process. In order to evaluate the scale of NOx emissions at this stage, numerical simulation was carried out for the startup process to discern the NOx emission pattern. Typical simulation conditions for each season were established to calculate the total annual NOx emissions at the initial stage based on operating data. On this basis, the characteristics of NOx emissions influenced by changes in the atmospheric environment were studied in depth. The results of this study provide referential data for evaluating the pollution characteristics and combustion adjustment of a ground gas turbine during startup.

Interest in the development of electro-fluid-dynamic devices (EFDs) based on corona discharge is growing due to their advantages and applicability across different industrial sectors. On the one hand, their performance as forced convection motors, in terms of weight, volume, and absence of noise and moving parts, make them competitive against traditional systems such as fans. On the other hand, the actions of the corona discharge, in terms of elimination of viruses and bacteria, are already known. This paper studies the characteristics of corona discharge in terms of air flow for a new proposed configuration and geometry of electrodes. A systematic study is performed through a parametric study of the distances, power consumption, and size of the corona electrode. The characteristic voltage−current (CVCCs) and flow−pressure curves obtained provide design rules to use the generated corona discharge and the device itself, as a silent air propeller, which may also sterilize the surrounding... [more]

Since permanent magnet linear synchronous motors are widely used in fatigue testing, in this paper, the thrust of a permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (PMLSM) is amplified more than 10 times by the method of resonance. Firstly, the air gap magnetic field is analyzed by the equivalent magnetization current method (EMC), the electromagnetic thrust is calculated, and the expression is given by the Maxwell tensor method. The vibration analysis of the whole machine is used to obtain the conditions under which the motor resonates. The dynamic and static characteristics of the motor are analyzed through finite element simulation, the results of the motor design are judged to be reasonable, and the theoretical calculation results are compared with the simulation results to verify the accuracy of the theoretical calculation. The accuracy of the simulation results is verified by static force experiments. Finally, the rated thrust of the motor was enlarged more than 10 times by resonance e... [more]