The energy sector is perceived as one of the most exposed sectors to the consequences of weather risk both directly (damages of its infrastructure) and indirectly (frictions to the energy supply−demand balance). The main aim of this paper is to provide an insight into the impact of weather risk on economic activity of companies operating in the energy sector in Poland. The empirical objective is to examine whether energy companies: (i) identify their relevant weather risk exposures; (ii) evaluate the impact of weather risk in the cost-revenues dimension; and (iii) implement weather risk management tools, in this case—weather derivatives. In a methodical context, this study relies on a unique research approach and derives from works that examine companies’ risk disclosures in annual reports, by applying textual content analysis. The results indicate that Polish energy companies recognize the impact of weather risk on their performance, also in the cost-revenues dimension. However, altho... [more]

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of greenhouse gas emission reduction potentials for 2030 based on the assessment of detailed sectoral studies. The overview updates a previous assessment that dates back more than ten years. We find a total emission reduction potential of 30−36 GtCO2e compared to a current-policies baseline of 61 GtCO2e. The energy production and conversion sector is responsible for about one third of this potential and the agriculture, buildings, forestry, industry, and transport sectors all contribute substantially to the total potential. The potential for 2030 is enough to bridge the gap towards emissions pathways that are compatible with a maximum global temperature rise of 1.5−2 °C compared to preindustrial levels.

The incorporation of phase change materials (PCM) in construction components has become an alternative to reduce the effect of thermal loads in buildings with low thermal inertia. This study put together the effective heat storage capacity of an organic phase change material (O-PCM, octadecane) with the construction and production potential of Pinus radiata in Chile. The wood is impregnated with octadecane by using the Bethell method, showing that it has good retention of the impregnator, and that its size was not modified. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis (DSC) showed that the composite material could achieve fusion enthalpy values from 36 (20.8 MJ/m3) to 122 J/g (108.9 MJ/m3). The transient line heat source method used, indicated that impregnation of Pinus radiata with octadecane increases its specific heat at temperatures from 15 to 20 °C, while its thermal conductivity decreases in the radial and the tangent directions, and increases in the longitudinal direction, showing... [more]

The electricity market is undergoing significant change with the increasing deployment of Variable Renewable Energy Sources (VRES) and the adoption of policies to electrify transport, heating and industry, which will continue to increase demands on all conventional power plants including nuclear. The increase in VRES also puts additional emphasis on services such as inertia and frequency response that only conventional plants, including nuclear, are readily able to meet. This study discusses what factors limit the ability of nuclear power plants to provide flexible response and how the UK nuclear power plants might be affected by the changes in future demand profiles. The study focuses on what impact there will be on current Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) plants, though it also considers Small Modular Pressurised Water Reactor plants which might offer benefits with respect to improved power manoeuvrability. The main finding is that the most important attribute is the minimum power lev... [more]

Solar power is the fastest-growing energy source in the world. New technologies can help to generate more power from solar energy. The present paper aims to encourage people and the government to develop solar energy-based power projects to achieve sustainable energy infrastructures, especially in developing countries. In addition, this paper presents a solar energy road map to attract investors to invest in clean energy technology to help reduce the effect of global warming and enhance sustainable technological development. Therefore, the first objective of the paper is to analyze and compare the monthly global solar radiation for five different locations in Northern Cyprus using the measured data collected from the Meteorological Department and estimated values collected from the satellite imagery database. In addition, the mean hourly meteorological parameters including global solar radiation, air temperature, sunshine, and relative humidity are analyzed statistically and the type o... [more]

In this paper, a model-based tuning method for a PID controller of excitation systems based on a simplified model that considers measurement delay is proposed. The conventional model-based tuning method, which has been studied previously, uses a simplified excitation system model that ignores all the delay components. However, since the rms voltage measurement can take hundreds of milliseconds to calculate depending on the system settings, this delay cannot be ignored when the required response needs to be as fast as the measurement delay. Furthermore, the linearity of the measurement method is not taken into account because the measurement delay has already been ignored. Therefore, in this paper, a simplified model that considers measurement delay and its linearity is proposed, and a model-based tuning method of PID controllers for two kinds of excitation systems is proposed and compared with the conventional method by analysis. To verify the analysis and proposed tuning method, exper... [more]

Hydropower is an important renewable energy, and Construction Diversion Risk (CDR) should be highlighted and assessed during hydropower development. Since sediment-rich rivers are widely existing around the world and have great hydro-energy potential, assessing CDR for hydropower development on sediment-rich rivers in terms of engineering feasibility is of significance. This paper proposes a CDR assessment method for the sediment-rich hydropower development environment. The method is concise and practical, reflects diversion uncertainties and correlation, and mainly adopts the Gumbel−Hougaard Copula and the Monte Carlo Simulation. Through simulating flood evolution and sediment impact during diversion, the method can assess CDR basing on the cofferdam overtopping probability. Case results show that the proposed method can achieve CDR assessment on a sediment-rich river and highlights sediment impact on the diversion risk. Through results discussion, the risk feature of construction div... [more]

The main objective of the Portuguese project “CONVERTE-Biomass Potential for Energy” is to support the transition to a low-carbon economy, identifying biomass typologies in mainland Portugal, namely agri-forest waste, energy crops and microalgae. Therefore, the aim was to design and construct a georeferenced (mapping) database for mainland Portugal, to identify land availability for the implementation of energy crops and microalgae cultures, and to locate agricultural and forestry production areas (including their residues) with potential for sustainable exploitation for energy. The ArcGIS software was used as a Geographic Information System (GIS) tool, introducing the data corresponding to the type of soil, water needs and edaphoclimatic conditions in shapefile and raster data type, to assess the areas for the implantation of the biomass of interest. After analysing the data of interest in each map in ArcGIS, the intersection of all maps is presented, suggesting adequate areas and pre... [more]

While filtration, chlorination, and UV drinking water treatments are commonplace, globally an estimated 1.2 billion people continue to boil their drinking water over inefficient biomass fires instead because it allows them to use available resources paired with a time-tested and trusted method. Although boiling water is culturally well-established, there is vast potential to improve human health, environmental impact, and efficiency by leveraging the fact that a significant reduction in pathogenic microorganisms occurs at temperatures well below boiling through a process known as pasteurization. This paper presents the evaluation of a community-scale, biomass-powered, flow-through water pasteurization system that was designed to heat water to the temperature required for pasteurization to occur before recuperating heat while cooling treated water down to a safe-to-handle temperature. The system is then compared to other common thermal treatment methods including batch-boiling over open... [more]

Accurate detection of ripple components of the direct-current (DC) signals is essential for evaluating DC power quality. In this study, the combination algorithm based on variational mode decomposition (VMD) and Hilbert transform (HT) is applied to detect and analyze the characteristics of the ripple components of the DC disturbance signals. Firstly, the optimal modal number of VMD algorithms is comprehensively determined by observing the center frequencies of the mode components and the Index of Orthogonality (IO) of mode components. Through utilizing the VMD algorithm, the DC disturbance signal is accurately decomposed into a series of amplitude modulation-frequency modulation (AM-FM) functions. Then, the HT algorithm is applied to each AM-FM function to obtain the corresponding instantaneous amplitude and frequency, and the characteristics of DC disturbance signal are determined. Some case studies are implemented to analyze the ripple components of the DC disturbance signal with the... [more]

Due to the working condition of low-voltage cabling from the mining flameproof movable substation to the loads of the mining face being poor, it is easy to cause various external mechanical damages to the cable sheaths. Furthermore, a single-phase earth leakage fault or short-circuit fault can occur when the low-voltage cable sheaths are damaged, and electric sparks caused by these faults can lead to a gas explosion. As the gas detonation time caused by the above faults is usually more than 5 ms, the high-speed interruption solid-state switch which controls the cables must cut off the current within 3 ms. This requires the action time of the solid-state switch to be less than 1 ms, and at the same time, the sampling and calculation time of the relay protection must be less than 2 ms. Based on these problems, this paper proposes the use of a high-speed solid-state circuit breaker (SSCB) topology at the neutral point of transformer, and analyzes the conduction mechanism and shut-off mech... [more]

In an anaerobic digestion (AD) process, the hydrolysis phase is often limited when substrates with high concentrations of solids are used. We hypothesized that applying micro-aeration in the hydrolysis phase and the application of granular activated carbon (GAC) in the methanogenesis phase could make the AD process more efficient. A packed bed reactor (PBR) coupled with an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) was conducted, and its effects on methane generation were evaluated. The micro-aeration rate applied in PBR was 254 L-air/kg-Total solids (TS)-d was compared with a control reactor. Micro-aeration showed that it reduced the hydrolysis time and increased the organic matter solubilization as chemical oxygen demand (COD) increasing 200%, with a volatile fatty acids (VFAs) increment higher than 300%, compared to the control reactor (without aeration). Our findings revealed that the implementations of microaeration and GAC in the two-phase AD system could enhance methane production... [more]

Parametric identification of the single diode model of a photovoltaic generator is a key element in simulation and diagnosis. Parameters’ values are often determined by using experimental data the modules manufacturers provide in the data sheets. In outdoor applications, the parametric identification is instead performed by starting from the current vs. voltage curve acquired in non-standard operating conditions. This paper refers to this latter case and introduces an approach based on the use of interval arithmetic. Photovoltaic generators based on crystalline silicon cells are considered: they are modeled by using the single diode model, and a divide-and-conquer algorithm is used to contract the initial search space up to a small hyper-rectangle including the identified set of parameters. The proposed approach is validated by using experimental data measured in outdoor conditions. The information provided by the approach, in terms of parametric sensitivity and of correlation between... [more]

This paper concerns the optimal design and comparative analysis of resonant and non-resonant high-frequency GaN-based rotating transformers. A multi-physical design approach is employed, in which magnetic, electrical, and thermal models are coupled. The results are verified by experiments. Two different optimization objectives are considered; firstly, the efficiency of two standard core geometries is maximized for a required output power level. Secondly, a geometrical optimization is performed, such that the core inertia is minimized for the desired output power level. The results of both design optimizations have shown large improvements in terms of output power and core inertia as a result of applying series−series resonant compensation.

Electrochemical energy storage (EES) is a promising kind of energy storage and has developed rapidly in recent years in many countries. EES planning is an important topic that can impact the earnings of EES investors and sustainable industrial development. Current studies only consider the profit or cost of the EES planning program, without considering other economic criteria such as payback period and return on investment (ROI), which are also important for determining an optimal EES planning program. In this paper, a new hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method integrating the Bayesian best-worst method (BBWM), the entropy weighting approach, and grey cumulative prospect theory is proposed for the optimal EES planning program selection with the consideration of multiple economic criteria. The BBWM and entropy weighting approach are jointly employed for determining the weightings of criteria, and the grey cumulative prospect theory was utilized for the performance rankings... [more]

Since the demonstration of the first modern silicon solar cells at Bell Labs in 1954, it took 58 years until the cumulative installed photovoltaic electricity generation capacity had reached 100 GW by the end of 2012. Then, it took another five years to reach an annual installation capacity of over 100 GW in 2017 and close to 120 GW in 2019. As a consequence, the total world-wide installed photovoltaic electricity generation capacity exceeded 635 GW at the end of 2019. Although it witnessed a 20% and 25% decrease in annual installations in 2018 and 2019, respectively, China was again the largest market with 30 GW of annual installations. The number of countries in the club with more than 1 GW annually has increased to 18 countries in 2019. The use of local battery storage systems in solar farms as well as decentralized photovoltaic electricity generation systems combined has again increased, due to the falling storage system costs.

Although improving the hydrodynamic performance is a key objective in the design of ocean-powered devices, there are some factors that affect the efficiency of the device during its operation. In this study, the impacts of a wide range of surface roughness as a tribological parameter on stream flow around a hydro turbine and its power loss are studied. A comprehensive program of 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling, as well as an expansive range of experiments were carried out on a Darrieus Hydro (DH) turbine in order to measure reduction in hydrodynamic performance due to surface roughness. The results show that surface roughness of turbine blades plays an important role in the hydrodynamics of the flow around the turbine. The surface roughness increases turbulence and decreases the active fluid energy that is required for rotating the turbine, thereby reducing the performance of the turbine. The extent of the negative impact of surface roughness on the drag coefficient, pre... [more]

A modified computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model has been developed to obtain oil removal efficiency for oily wastewater treatment in large-scale flotation tanks. According to the investigation of oil droplet/bubble interactions in a flotation tank, a modified Bloom−Heindel model is used to calculate the collision and attachment efficiencies between oil droplets and bubbles. Effects of the gas flow rate, oil diameter and oil concentration on oil removal efficiency of flotation tank were analyzed experimentally. The application scope of this modified CFD model is evaluated using experimental results. In addition, the comparison between the existing model and the modified model demonstrates that this modified CFD model can make a good prediction for the separation performance of the flotation tank.

Currently, thanks to the rapid development of wireless sensor networks and network traffic monitoring, the data stream is gradually becoming one of the most popular data generating processes. The data stream is different from traditional static data. Cluster analysis is an important technology for data mining, which is why many researchers pay attention to grouping streaming data. In the literature, there are many data stream clustering techniques, unfortunately, very few of them try to solve the problem of clustering data streams coming from multiple sources. In this article, we present an algorithm with a tree structure for grouping data streams (in the form of a time series) that have similar properties and behaviors. We have evaluated our algorithm over real multivariate data streams generated by smart meter sensors—the Irish Commission for Energy Regulation data set. There were several measures used to analyze the various characteristics of a tree-like clustering structure (comput... [more]

The hydrodynamic information of liquid oxygen in the conveying pipeline of cryogenic launch vehicles directly determines the reliability of the operation of the turbopump. A 0.09 MPa anomalous pressure fall phenomenon in the feeding system has been observed during the flight and run test of a cryogenic rocket with four parallel engines. In previous work, we set up a full-scale experimental system with liquid oxygen as media. The anomalous pressure fall was successfully reproduced. Experimental studies of this phenomenon suggest that the problem might be associated with vortices into the five-way spherical cavity structure. The objective of this study was to determine the three-dimensional instability flow by computational methods to identify and better understand the anomalous pressure fall phenomenon. A numerical model developed by the turbulent conservation equations was validated by experimental data. The generation and evolution of vortices into the five-way spherical cavity of fee... [more]

Motion states of bottom hole assembly (BHA) have a great effect on the trajectory control and drilling efficiency while rotary drilling. In order to study the motion states of BHA in horizontal wells, a BHA dynamic model with the finite element method was established. Meanwhile, an indoor experimental setup based on similarity criterion was designed and built to verify the numerical simulation results. Finally, the effects of measuring positions, rotate speeds, weight on bit (WOB), and friction coefficients on the motion states were analyzed in numerical simulation and experiment. The results show that the experimental results can match well with the numerical simulation results. The motion states of BHA in horizontal wells can be divided into three kinds, including circular arc swing, "8" shape swing, and dot-like circular motion. The circular arc swing mainly appears at middle section of BHA and occurs through the collective result of gravity and tangential friction. The dot-like cir... [more]

The paper presents an experimental study on the formation process of burden surface texture on the blast furnace throat and its influence on the radial distribution of gas flow. The study was performed with the application of blast furnaces equipped with a bell-type charging device using radio-isotope means for the control of burden surface texture (profile) and burden surface level, i.e., gamma locators for burden surface texture. The study was carried out under the conditions of an operating blast furnace in an iron and steel plant using a unique GEOTAPS system for automated control of geometric and temperature parameters of burden material surface on the blast furnace throat. The influence of the surface texture on the gas flow distribution was also investigated. The possibility of a self-stabilization effect for burden surface texture and gas flow in an operating blast furnace under suitable conditions was experimentally proven. As a result of the experimental study performed, four... [more]

The optimal coordination of overcurrent relays (OCRs) has recently become a major challenge owing to the ever-increasing participation of distributed generation (DG) and the multi-looped structure of modern distribution networks (DNs). Furthermore, the changeable operational topologies of microgrids has increased the complexity and computational burden to obtain the optimal settings of OCRs. In this context, classical approaches to OCR coordination might no longer be sufficient to provide a reliable performance of microgrids both in the islanded and grid-connected operational modes. This paper proposes a novel approach for optimal coordination of directional OCRs in microgrids. This approach consists of considering the upper limit of the plug setting multiplier (PSM) as a variable instead of a fixed parameter as usually done in traditional approaches for OCRs coordination. A genetic algorithm (GA) was implemented to optimize the limits of the maximum PSM for the OCRs coordination. Seve... [more]

The high consumption of firewood in Honduras necessitates the search for alternatives with less-negative effects on health, the economy, and the environment. One of these alternatives has been the promotion of improved cooking stoves, which achieve a large reduction in firewood consumption. This paper presents a cost-benefit analysis for an improved cooking stove adoption strategy for Honduras. The methodology uses the Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning System, LEAP, a tool used globally in the analysis and formulation of energy policies and strategies. The energy model considers the demand for firewood as well as the gradual introduction of improved cooking stoves, according to the premises of a National Strategy for improved cooking stoves adoption in Honduras. Hence, it is demonstrated that the costs of implementing this adoption strategy are lower than the costs of not implementing it, taking into consideration representative scenarios up to and including the year 2030.

Reliable access to electricity is still a challenge in many developing countries. Indeed, rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa and developing countries such as India still encounter frequent power outages. Local energy markets (LEMs) have emerged as a low-cost solution enabling prosumers with power supply systems such as solar PV to sell their surplus of energy to other members of the local community. This paper proposes a one-to-one automated negotiation framework for peer-to-peer (P2P) local trading of electricity. Our framework uses an autonomous agent model to capture the preferences of both an electricity seller (consumer) and buyer (small local generator or prosumer), in terms of price and electricity quantities to be traded in different periods throughout a day. We develop a bilateral negotiation framework based on the well-known Rubinstein alternating offers protocol, in which the quantity of electricity and the price for different periods are aggregated into daily packages and ne... [more]