A fault-tolerant permanent-magnet vernier (FT-PMV) machine incorporates the merits of high fault-tolerant capability and high torque density. In this paper, a new remedial control is proposed for a five-phase FT-PMV machine with short-circuit fault of stator windings. Based on the principle of copper loss minimization, the aims of the proposed control strategy are to keep magnetic motive force (MMF) unchanged and minimize torque ripple. The proposed remedial control strategy contains two parts. Firstly, the remedial currents of the healthy phases are used to compensate for the ripple of MMF caused by the short-circuit current. Secondly, an open-circuit fault-tolerant control strategy is used to compensate for the lack of normal torque in the fault phase. Finally, the vector sum of two parts is adopted to derive the remedial currents. The final expression of the proposed remedial current is simpler than that than these previous methods. In addition, the proposed remedial currents are si... [more]

This paper attempted to control a hybrid DC microgrid in islanded operation mode using decentralized power management strategies. Proposed adaptive I/V characteristic for hybrid photovoltaic (PV) and battery energy storage system (BESS) and wind turbine generator (WTG) adapts the distributed energy resources (DER) behavior independently in accordance with the load demand. Hence, the PV module can spend its maximum power on load demand and spend the extra power for charging the BESS, which will regulate DC bus voltage and maintain the power balance within the microgrid. When load demand is beyond the maximum generation power of PV unit, WTG will supply the energy shortage. The proposed control system was applied on the DC microgrid in order to achieve control objectives through a decentralized procedure, without telecommunication links. In order to validate the proposed strategies, the control system was implemented on a DC microgrid within MATLAB/SIMULINK, where the simulation results... [more]

Renewable energy resources and technologies are sufficient to meet all of humanity’s energy requirements, provided that the transition to renewables is accompanied in parallel by intense, disciplined initiatives to design, fabricate, and distribute ubiquitously an emerging class of ultra-efficient energy consuming devices. Renewables can thereby power devices which are disruptively more energy-efficient in the delivery of fundamental energy services (food production, cooking, heating, cooling, mobility, logistics, lighting, industrial processes, information systems, etc.). Rather than substituting new energy sources to directly power legacy devices that were originally designed on the basis of fossil fuels, designers will develop these novel devices to deliver superior performance in all respects: cleaner, safer, more durable, more convenient, and more economical. This Solarevolution, like the Industrial Revolution two hundred years ago, is about transforming the artifacts of human soc... [more]

The reduction of building energy consumption requires appropriate planning and design of the building’s envelope. In the last years, new innovative materials and construction technologies used in new or refurbished buildings have been developed in order to achieve this objective, which are also needed for reducing greenhouse gases emissions and building maintenance costs. In this work, the thermal conductance of a brick, made of wood and cement, used in a low-rise building, was investigated with a heat flow meter (HFM) and with numerical simulation using the Ansys® software package (Canonsburg, PA, USA). Due to their influence on the buildings’ thermal efficiency, it is important to choose an appropriate design for the building blocks. Results obtained by the finite element modeling of the construction material and by in-situ analysis conducted on a real building are compared, and furthermore a thermal optimization of the shape of the material is suggested.

A battery’s state-of-charge (SOC) can be used to estimate the mileage an electric vehicle (EV) can travel. It is desirable to make such an estimation not only accurate, but also economical in computation, so that the battery management system (BMS) can be cost-effective in its implementation. Existing computationally-efficient SOC estimation algorithms, such as the Luenberger observer, suffer from low accuracy and require tuning of the feedback gain by trial-and-error. In this study, an algorithm named lazy-extended Kalman filter (LEKF) is proposed, to allow the Luenberger observer to learn periodically from the extended Kalman filter (EKF) and solve the problems, while maintaining computational efficiency. We demonstrated the effectiveness and high performance of LEKF by both numerical simulation and experiments under different load conditions. The results show that LEKF can have 50% less computational complexity than the conventional EKF and a near-optimal estimation error of less th... [more]

We have conducted comprehensive exergy analyses of three integrated gasification combined cycle with carbon capture and storage (IGCC-CCS) power plant configurations: (1) a baseline model using Selexol™ for H₂S/CO₂ removal; (2) a modified version that adds a H₂-selective membrane before the Selexol™ acid gas removal system; and (3) a modified baseline version that uses a CO₂-selective membrane before the Selexol™ acid gas removal system. While holding the coal input flow rate and the CO₂ captured flow rates constant, it was determined that the H₂-selective membrane case had a higher net power output (584 MW) compared to the baseline (564 MW) and compared to the CO₂-selective membrane case (550 MW). Interestingly, the CO₂-selective membrane case destroyed the least amount of exergy within the power plant (967 MW), compared with the Baseline case (999 MW) and the H₂-membrane case (972 MW). The main problem with the CO₂-selective membrane case was the large amount of H₂ (48 MW worth of H₂... [more]

This paper provides a critical study of current Australian and leading international policies aimed at supporting electrical energy storage for stationary power applications with a focus on battery and hydrogen storage technologies. It demonstrates that global leaders such as Germany and the U.S. are actively taking steps to support energy storage technologies through policy and regulatory change. This is principally to integrate increasing amounts of intermittent renewable energy (wind and solar) that will be required to meet high renewable energy targets. The relevance of this to the Australian energy market is that whilst it is unique, it does have aspects in common with the energy markets of these global leaders. This includes regions of high concentrations of intermittent renewable energy (Texas and California) and high penetration rates of residential solar photovoltaics (PV) (Germany). Therefore, Australian policy makers have a good opportunity to observe what is working in an i... [more]

This paper presents a comprehensive analytical model for dual rotor radial flux wind generators based on the equivalent magnetic circuit method. This model is developed to predict the flux densities of the inner and outer air gaps, flux densities of the rotor and stator yokes, back electromotive force (EMF), electromagnetic torque, cogging torque, and some other characteristics important for generator design. The 2D finite element method (FEM) is employed to verify the presented analytical model, fine-tune it, and validate the prediction precision. The results show that the errors between the proposed analytical model and the FEM results are less than 5% and even less than 1% for certain parameters, that is, the results obtained from the proposed analytical model match well the ones obtained from FEM analysis. Meanwhile, the working points at different temperatures are confirmed to exceed the knee point of the BH curve, which means that irreversible demagnetization does not occur. Fina... [more]

Under the condition of load changing, the magnetic field of traditional permanent magnet generators (PMG) is hard to be adjusted, and the mechanical bearings are significantly worn. To overcome the drawbacks above, a novel hybrid excitation bearingless permanent magnet generator (HEBPMG) is proposed in this paper, which has integrated the merits of hybrid excitation permanent magnet generators and magnetic bearings. Firstly, the structure and winding configuration of the HEBPMG are introduced, and then the principles of radial suspension and power generation are presented. The suspension principle as well as power generation principle is analyzed in this paper. Then, the flux linkage and induced voltage equations are derived, and the accurate mathematical model of radial suspension force is built based on the Maxwell tensor method. Subsequently, by means of the finite element analysis software-ANSYS Maxwell, the corresponding electromagnetic characteristics are analyzed to verify the c... [more]

With the popularization of electric vehicles (EVs), the out-of-order charging behaviors of large numbers of EVs will bring new challenges to the safe and economic operation of power systems. This paper studies an optimal charging strategy for EVs. For that a typical urban zone is divided into four regions, a regional time-of-use (RTOU) electricity price model is proposed to guide EVs when and where to charge considering spatial and temporal characteristics. In light of the elastic coefficient, the user response to the RTOU electricity price is analyzed, and also a bilayer optimization charging strategy including regional-layer and node-layer models is suggested to schedule the EVs. On the one hand, the regional layer model is designed to coordinate the EVs located in different time and space. On the other hand, the node layer model is built to schedule the EVs to charge in certain nodes. According to the simulations of an IEEE 33-bus distribution network, the performance of the propose... [more]

In this paper, a conservation voltage reduction (CVR) scheme is proposed for a distribution system with intermittent distributed generators (DGs), such as photovoltaics and wind turbines. The CVR is a scheme designed to reduce energy consumption by lowering the voltages supplied to customers. Therefore, an unexpected under-voltage violation can occur due to the variation of active power output from the intermittent DGs. In order to prevent the under-voltage violation and improve the CVR effect, a new reactive power controller which complies with the IEEE Std. 1547TM, and a parameter determination method for the controller are proposed. In addition, an optimal power flow (OPF) problem to determine references for the resources of CVR is formulated with consideration of the intermittent DGs. The proposed method is validated using a modified IEEE 123-node test feeder. With the proposed method, the voltages of the test system are maintained to be greater than the lower bound, even though th... [more]

This paper describes a prototype of modularized three-phase semiconductor transformer that was developed in the lab for feasibility study. The developed prototype is composed of three units of single-phase semiconductor transformer coupled in Y-connection. Each single-phase unit has multiple units of high-voltage high-frequency resonant AC⁻DC converter, a low-voltage hybrid-switching DC⁻DC converter, and a low-voltage hybrid-switching DC⁻AC inverter. Also, each single-phase unit has two digital signal processor (DSP) boards to control converter operation and to acquire monitoring data. The monitoring system was developed based on LabView by using controller area network (CAN) communication between the DSP board and the personal computer (PC). Through diverse experimental analyses it was verified that the prototype operates with proper performance under normal and sag conditions. The developed prototype confirms the possibility of fabricating a commercial high-voltage high-power semicon... [more]

This paper endeavors to apply a hybrid bird-mating optimization approach to connection decisions of distribution transformers. It is expected that with the aid of hybrid bird-mating approach, the voltage imbalance and deviation can be mitigated, hence ensuring a satisfactory supplying power more effectively. To evaluate the effectiveness of this method, it has been tested through practical distribution systems with comparisons to other methods. Test results help confirm the feasibility of the approach, serving as beneficial references for the improvement of electric power grid operations.

In recent years, wireless charging technology has provided an alternative to charging equipment. Wireless charging technology has already proved to be useful in our daily lives in phones, buses, restaurants, etc. Wireless charging technology can also be applied in energy-bounded wireless sensor networks (WSNs), and these are called wireless rechargeable sensor networks (WRSNs). The optimized charging path problem is the most widely discussed issue in employing WRSNs with wireless charging vehicles (WCVs). This problem involves determining the most efficient path for charging sensor nodes. Further, charging-scheduling problems also need to be considered in the optimized charging path problem. In this paper, we proposed a multi-module charging strategy (MMCS) used to prolong the lifetime of the entire WRSN. MMCS can be divided into three stages: the charging topology, charging scheduling, and charging strategy stages, with multiple modules in each stage. The best module combination of MM... [more]

In the last few years, due to the technological improvement of advanced metering infrastructures, water and natural gas grids can be regarded as smart-grids, similarly to power ones. However, considering the number of studies related to the application of computational intelligence to distribution grids, the gap between power grids and water/gas grids is notably wide. For this purpose, in this paper, a framework for leakage identification is presented. The framework is composed of three sections aimed at the extraction and the selection of features and at the detection of leakages. A variation of the Sequential Feature Selection (SFS) algorithm is used to select the best performing features within a set, including, also, innovative temporal ones. The leakage identification is based on novelty detection and exploits the characterization of a normality model. Three statistical approaches, The Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), Hidden Markov Model (HMM) and One-Class Support Vector Machine (OC... [more]

Three kinds of inorganic alkali are introduced into tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) and polyethyleneimine (PEI)-modified MCM-41 as the CO₂ adsorbents. X-ray diffraction, N₂ adsorption, fourier-transform infrared and thermo gravimetric analysis are used to characterize the surface structures and the thermal stability of adsorbents. Chemical titration method is used to measure the alkali amounts of adsorbents. Thermo-gravimetric analysis with 10% CO₂/90% N₂ as the simulated flue gas is used to test the CO₂ adsorption performance of adsorbents. The results show that all three kinds of inorganic alkali-containing adsorbents exhibit higher CO₂ adsorption capability than traditional TEPA and PEI modified samples. Ca(OH)₂ and PEI modified samples exhibit the highest adsorption capacity and recyclable property. The introduction of inorganic alkali changes the chemical adsorption mechanism between CO₂ and adsorbent surface due to the increased hydroxyl groups. The CO₂ adsorption capacities have a... [more]

Inductive-capacitive-inductive (LCL)-type line filters are widely used in grid-connected voltage source inverters (VSIs), since they can provide substantially improved attenuation of switching harmonics in currents injected into the grid with lower cost, weight and power losses than their L-type counterparts. However, the inclusion of third order LCL network complicates the current control design regarding the system stability issues because of an inherent resonance peak which appears in the open-loop transfer function of the inverter control system near the control stability boundary. To avoid passive (resistive) resonance damping solutions, due to their additional power losses, active damping (AD) techniques are often applied with proper control algorithms in order to damp the LCL filter resonance and stabilize the system. Among these techniques, the capacitor current feedback (CCF) AD has attracted considerable attention due to its effective damping performance and simple implementa... [more]

In this work we propose a new hybrid model, a combination of the manifold learning Principal Components (PC) technique and the traditional multiple regression (PC-regression), for short and medium-term forecasting of daily, aggregated, day-ahead, electricity system-wide load in the Greek Electricity Market for the period 2004⁻2014. PC-regression is shown to effectively capture the intraday, intraweek and annual patterns of load. We compare our model with a number of classical statistical approaches (Holt-Winters exponential smoothing of its generalizations Error-Trend-Seasonal, ETS models, the Seasonal Autoregressive Moving Average with exogenous variables, Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average with eXogenous (SARIMAX) model as well as with the more sophisticated artificial intelligence models, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Support Vector Machines (SVM). Using a number of criteria for measuring the quality of the generated in-and out-of-sample forecasts, we have conc... [more]

To make the switching impulse (SI) generator more compact, portable and feasible in field tests, a new approach based on transformer boosting was developed. To address problems such as triggering synchronization and electromagnetic interference involved with the traditional spark gap, an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) module with drive circuit was employed as the impulse trigger. An optimization design for the component parameters of the primary winding side of the transformer was realized by numerical calculation and error correction. Experiment showed that the waveform parameters of SI and oscillating switching impulse (OSI) voltages generated by the new generator were consistent with the numerical calculation and the error correction. The generator was finally built on a removable high voltage transformer with small size. Thus the volume of the generator is significantly reduced. Experiments showed that the waveform parameters of SI and OSI voltages generated by the new ge... [more]

Big data mining, analysis, and forecasting play vital roles in modern economic and industrial fields, especially in the energy system. Inaccurate forecasting may cause wastes of scarce energy or electricity shortages. However, forecasting in the energy system has proven to be a challenging task due to various unstable factors, such as high fluctuations, autocorrelation and stochastic volatility. To forecast time series data by using hybrid models is a feasible alternative of conventional single forecasting modelling approaches. This paper develops a group of hybrid models to solve the problems above by eliminating the noise in the original data sequence and optimizing the parameters in a back propagation neural network. One of contributions of this paper is to integrate the existing algorithms and models, which jointly show advances over the present state of the art. The results of comparative studies demonstrate that the hybrid models proposed not only satisfactorily approximate the a... [more]

We present a cost-effective concentrating photovoltaic system composed of a prism and a compound parabolic concentrator (P-CPC). In this approach, the primary collector consists of a prism, a solid compound parabolic concentrator (CPC), and a slab waveguide. The prism, which is placed on the input aperture of CPC, directs the incoming sunlight beam to be parallel with the main axes of parabolic rims of CPC. Then, the sunlight is reflected at the parabolic rims and concentrated at the focal point of these parabolas. A slab waveguide is coupled at the output aperture of the CPC to collect focused sunlight beams and to guide them to the solar cell. The optical system was modeled and simulated with commercial ray tracing software (LightTools™). Simulation results show that the optical efficiency of a P-CPC can achieve up to 89%. when the concentration ratio of the P-CPC is fixed at 50. We also determine an optimal geometric structure of P-CPC based on simulation. Because of the simplicity... [more]

A non-vacuum processing method for preparing polymer-based ZrO₂/TiO₂ multilayer structure antireflection coating (ARC) films for crystalline silicon solar cells by spin coating is introduced. Initially, ZrO₂, TiO₂ and surface deactivated-TiO₂ (SD-TiO₂) based films were examined separately and the effect of photocatalytic properties of TiO₂ film on the reflectivity on silicon surface was investigated. Degradation of the reflectance performance with increasing reflectivity of up to 2% in the ultraviolet region was confirmed. No significant change of the reflectance was observed when utilizing SD-TiO₂ and ZrO₂ films. Average reflectance (between 300 nm⁻1100 nm) of the silicon surface coated with optimized polymer-based ZrO₂ single or ZrO₂/SD-TiO₂ multilayer composite films was decreased down to 6.5% and 5.5%, respectively. Improvement of photocurrent density (Jsc) and conversion efficiency (η) of fabricated silicon solar cells owing to the ZrO₂/SD-TiO₂ multilayer ARC could be confirmed. T... [more]

Li-doped ZnO (LZO) aggregated nanoparticles are used as an insulating layer in SnO₂ nanocomposite (SNC) photoanodes to suppress the recombination process in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Various weight percentages of SnO₂ nanoparticles (SNPs) and SnO₂ nanoflowers (SNFs) were used to prepare SNC photoanodes. The photocurrent-voltage characteristics showed that the incorporation of an LZO insulating layer in an SNC photoanode increased the conversion efficiency of DSSCs. This was due to an increase in the surface area, charge injection, and charge collection, and the minimization of the recombination rate of photoanodes. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results showed lower series resistance, charge injection resistance, and shorter lifetimes for DSSCs based on an SNC photoanode with an LZO insulating layer. The open circuit voltage and fill factor of the DSSCs based on SNC photoanodes with an LZO insulating layer significantly increased. The DSSC based on a SNC photoan... [more]

The companies involved in the energy sector must reinvent themselves to be innovative and adaptable to contemporary environmental changes. The promotion of renewable energy in rural communities is a great challenge for these companies. They should focus on improving the environment scanning actions and the knowledge management (KM) system and enhancing the collective intelligence to avoid the loss of information, to foster innovation, and to maintain a competitive advantage. To achieve these goals, energy companies require appropriate management tools and practices. The purpose of this study is to propose a theoretical framework of organizational intelligence (OI) supported by a cross-perspective analysis of various aspects: economic intelligence (EI) and KM practices, entropy processes, and organizational enablers. A pilot investigation for testing the framework in the case of Transelectrica S.A. has been elaborated. The findings reveal that the elements of the OI framework are embedd... [more]

A novel dynamic co-simulation methodology of overall wind turbine systems is presented. This methodology combines aerodynamics, mechanism dynamics, control system dynamics, and subsystems dynamics. Aerodynamics and turbine properties were modeled in FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamic, Structures, and Turbulence), and ADAMS (Automatic Dynamic Analysis of Mechanical Systems) performed the mechanism dynamics; control system dynamics and subsystem dynamics such as generator, pitch control system, and yaw control system were modeled and built in MATLAB/SIMULINK. Thus, this comprehensive integration of methodology expands both the flexibility and controllability of wind turbines. The dynamic variations of blades, rotor dynamic response, and tower vibration can be performed under different inputs of wind profile, and the control strategies can be verified in the different closed loop simulation. Besides, the dynamic simulation results are compared with the measuring results of SCADA (Supervisory Cont... [more]