Abstract
Lead-acid batteries utilised in electrical substations release hydrogen and oxygen when these are charged. These gases could be dangerous and cause a risk of fire if they are not properly ventilated. Therefore, this research seeks to design and implement a network control panel for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVACS). This is achieved by using a specific range of controllers, which have more than thirty loops of proportional, integral, and derivative (PID) control to achieve a cost-effective design. It performs the required function of extracting hydrogen and oxygen, maintaining the desired temperature of the battery storage room within recommended limits (i.e., 25 ± 1 °C tolerance) without compromising quality, as set out in the user requirement specification. The system control panel allows the user to access control parameters such as changing temperature set-points, fan-speed, sensor database, etc. It does this automatically and allows no human interface after all necessary settings and installation are completed. The hardware is configured to detect extreme hydrogen and oxygen gas content in the battery room and to ensure that the HVACS extracts the gas content to the outside environment. The system’s results show that the network control panel operates effectively as per the recommended system requirements. Therefore, the effective operation of the HVACS ensures sufficient gas ventilation, thus mitigating the risk of fire in a typical battery storage room. Furthermore, this also enhances battery lifespan because of regulated operating temperature, which is conducive to minimise the effect of sulfation in lead–acid batteries (LAB). The extraction of toxic gases, regulation of temperature, ensuring suitable humidity in UPS battery room is important as it provides longer operational service of equipment, thus reducing frequent maintenance in these rooms. This benefits the electricity supply industry and helps in saving for unplanned maintenance costs.
Highlights
This research is an extension of the work originally presented at the InternationalEnergy Conference (ENERGYCon), 2020 [1]
The results show that the nonlinear model predictive control could reduce gas and energy consumption of air-handling units (AHUs) and the deviation of temperature setpoints by 43% and 55%, respectively
When the proposed control is compared with PID, the results show that the sliding mode controller is more energy-efficient than PID in regards to overshooting and settling time
Summary
This research is an extension of the work originally presented at the InternationalEnergy Conference (ENERGYCon), 2020 [1]. The offshore substations comprise upper construction, which has battery room on the third layer. The battery room is separate from other rooms in the electrical substation. Battery rooms are included for the regulation of switchgear’s or uninterrupted power supply (UPS) systems, guaranteeing that a consistent energy source is always accessible during stand-in or extra operation requirements [2]. The global market of consumer batteries has increased significantly since the year 2017, with Europe and China being the leading consumers. This global capacity reached 103 GW-h in 2017 and is expected to reach 278 GW-h by the end of 2021 [3]
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