This paper provides a study of the smart grid projects realised in Europe and presents their technological solutions with a focus on smart metering Low Voltage (LV) applications. Special attention is given to the telecommunications technologies used. For this purpose, we present the telecommunication technologies chosen by several European utilities for the accomplishment of their smart meter national roll-outs. Further on, a study is performed based on the European Smart Grid Projects, highlighting their technological options. The range of the projects analysed covers the ones including smart metering implementation as well as those in which smart metering applications play a significant role in the overall project success. The survey reveals that various topics are directly or indirectly linked to smart metering applications, like smart home/building, energy management, grid monitoring and integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES). Therefore, the technological options that lie be... [more]

With the rapid development of microgrids (MGs) in recent years, it is anticipated that combinations of multiple microgrids—multi-microgrids (MMGs)—will gradually become a new form of power grid. A safe and efficient black start strategy for MMGs is in urgent demand because of their complicated structure and control systems. In this paper, first, we analyze the topology and control system of residential-type MMGs with three-phase/single-phase (TP/SP) architecture. Second, a black start strategy based on a hierarchical control scheme is presented, including the selection strategy for the main power supply and master microgrid, the stand-alone operation strategy, and the grid-connected operation strategy. After the selection of the main power supplies, the master MG is determined. Hereby, all sub-microgrids (SMGs) execute the stand-alone algorithm. When the synchronous connection condition is satisfied, the slave SMGs connect to the master MG who provides the voltage and frequency support... [more]

Coordinated dispatch of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) with renewable energies has been proposed in recent years. However, it is difficult to achieve effective PEV dispatch with a win-win result, which not only optimizes power system operation, but also satisfies the requirements of PEV owners. In this paper, a multi-period PEV dispatch framework, combining day-ahead dispatch with real-time dispatch, is proposed. On the one hand, the day-ahead dispatch is used to make full use of wind power and minimize the fluctuation of total power in the distribution system, and schedule the charging/discharging power of PEV stations for each period. On the other hand, the real-time dispatch arranges individual PEVs to meet the charging/discharging power demands of PEV stations given by the day-ahead dispatch. To reduce the dimensions of the resulting large-scale, non-convex problem, PEVs are clustered according to their travel information. An interval optimization model is introduced to obtain th... [more]

Passive solar elements for both direct and indirect gains, are systems used to maintain a comfortable living environment while saving energy, especially in the building energy retrofit and adaptation process. Sunspaces, thermal mass and glazing area and orientation have been often used in the past to guarantee adequate indoor conditions when mechanical devices were not available. After a period of neglect, nowadays they are again considered as appropriate systems to help face environmental issues in the building sector, and both international and national legislation takes into consideration the possibility of including them in the building planning tools, also providing economic incentives. Their proper design needs dynamic simulation, often difficult to perform and time consuming. Moreover, results generally suffer from several uncertainties, so quasi steady-state procedures are often used in everyday practice with good results, but some corrections are still needed. In this paper, a... [more]

The Korean government is fostering a renewable energy industry as a means of handling the energy crisis. Among the renewable energy systems available, geothermal energy has been highlighted as highly efficient, safely operable and relatively unaffected by outdoors air conditions. Despite the increasing use of renewable energy, the devices using renewables may not be operating appropriately. This study examined current problems in the operation of a geothermal heat pump (GHP) system. The efficiency of a geothermal heat pump system to studied to maximize the operation plan. Our study modelled the target building and analyzed the energy using TRNSYS, which is a dynamic energy simulation tool, to apply the coefficient of performance (COP) and evaluate the operation method. As a result, the GHP total energy consumption from the COP control method was reduced by 46% compared to the current operation. The proposed control method was evaluated after applying the system to a building. The resul... [more]

In the actual era of smart homes and smart grids, advanced technological systems that allow the automation of domestic tasks are developing rapidly. There are numerous technologies and applications that can be installed in smart homes today. They enable communication between home appliances and users, and enhance home appliances’ automation, monitoring and remote control capabilities. This review article, by introducing the concept of the smart home and the advent of the smart grid, investigates technologies for smart homes. The technical descriptions of the systems are presented and point out advantages and disadvantages of each technology and product today available on the market. Barriers, challenges, benefits and future trends regarding the technologies and the role of users have also been discussed.

Since driving cycle greatly affects load power demand, driving cycle identification (DCI) is proposed to predict power demand that can be expected to prepare for the power distribution between battery and supercapacitor. The DCI is developed based on a learning vector quantization (LVQ) neural network method, which is assessed in both training and validation based on the statistical data obtained from six standard driving cycles. In order to ensure network accuracy, characteristic parameter and slide time window, which are two important factors ensuring the network accuracy for onboard hybrid energy storage system (HESS) applications in electric vehicles, are discussed and designed. Based on the identification results, Multi-level Haar wavelet transform (Haar-WT) is proposed for allocating the high frequency components of power demand into the supercapacitor which could damage battery lifetime and the corresponding low frequency components into the battery system. The proposed energy m... [more]

To deal with the problem of generation rate constraint (GRC) during load frequency control (LFC) design for a multi-area interconnected power system, this paper proposes an anti-windup controller design method. Firstly, an H ∞ dynamic controller is designed to obtain robust performance of the closed-loop control system in the absence of the GRC. Then, an anti-windup compensator (AWC) is formulated to restrict the magnitude and rate of the control input (namely power increment) in the prescribed ranges so that the operation of generation unit does not exceed the physical constraints. Finally, the anti-windup LFC is tested on the multi-area interconnected power systems, and the simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed LFC design method with GRC.

This paper presents and compares the possible energy savings in various approaches to outdoor lighting modernization. Several solutions implementable using currently-available systems are presented and discussed. An innovative approach using real-time sensor data is also presented in detail, along with its formal background, based on Artificial Intelligence methods (rule-based systems) and graph transformations. The efficiency of all approaches has been estimated and compared using real-life data recorded at an urban setting. The article also presents other aspects which influence the efficiency and feasibility of intelligent lighting projects, including design quality, design workload and conformance to standards.