Conventional Electric Grid Research Articles

Performance Optimization of Solar PV System Utilized for Cooling System

This work investigates the performance and energy effectiveness of a solar photovoltaic (PV) system used to provide a cooling system for a building in Iraq. To achieve the goal, simulations and optimization are utilized to find the economic feasibility of the building in Iraq. In addition, a comparative study is conducted to compare the economic feasibility of PV cooling based on two options. The first option depends on the conventional electrical grid to offer cooling for the Iraqi building. The second option relies on a solar PV system to provide the electrical power for cooling the same building. The major numerical analysis results revealed that using a PV system can save roughly 45% electrical power compared to the option when the electrical power is drawn from the conventional grid. For this reason, it is predicted that the PV system can save a higher level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to the first option. The results of this research revealed that the cooling load of the building in Samawah, Iraq equalled 600 kW. The PV system required to operate the cooling of the Samawah building during summer equals 18 kW peak. Using a solar PV system would be more economically feasible than the electrical power drawn from the electrical grid. Utilizing PV cooling is considered beneficial for the environmentas it can save GHG emissions that cause significant air quality problems and global warming.

Using solar photovoltaic energy in urban water supply systems: a case study in Kayseri, Turkey

Abstract Submersible pumps, widely used in deep wells drilled to meet the water needs of users in urban areas, add an additional load to the conventional electricity grid infrastructure and are responsible for increasing the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. The main objective of this study is to investigate the technical and economic feasibility of using solar photovoltaic (PV) energy to reduce the net power drawn from the grid by submersible pumps in urban water supply systems. The Germiraltı catchment area (Kayseri, Turkey), which provides all of its energy needs from the city electricity grid, was chosen as the research area. Two different scenarios, ‘hybrid-powered water pumping system’ and ‘grid-connected PV system’, were analyzed and evaluated. A 1,620 kWp grid-connected PV system can inject 2,787.8 MWh/year of energy into the grid, which is more than the total annual energy need of the submersible pumps. The system operates with 85.7% performance ratio (PR), 19.6% capacity factor (CF) and 4.71 (h/d) final yield. The payback period of the system is calculated as 4.1 years. The results show that it is economically competitive to meet the energy needs of submersible pumps in urban water supply systems with solar PV energy.

Design, Deployment and Performance Evaluation of an IoT Based Smart Energy Management System for Demand Side Management in Smart Grid

The Smart Grid (SG) is the technological development that incorporates digital technologies and advanced communication methods to determine and respond to variations in electricity consumption in order to revolutionize power distribution, transmission, and generation. In the conventional electrical grid, customers remain unaware to their energy usage patterns that not only results in energy loss but also money. The consumers’ usage and consumption standards need to be regulated in order to improve energy efficiency (EE). SG utilizes demand side management (DSM) for energy savings by use of various approaches like financial incentives, subsidized tariffs, and awareness to alter consumers’ energy demand. In smart environments (SE), Internet-of-Things (IoT) is evolving as a significant partner for resource and energy management. DSM in SG must take advantage of smart energy management system (SEMS) developed on smart meters (SMs) and modern technologies like IoT. Using SMs with IoT based technologies makes SEMS more effective in the SG. This paper offers design, deployment, implementation, and performance evaluation of an IoT based SEMS, including SMs as well as IoT middleware module and its related benefits. The proposed SEMS operates online and offers real-time (RT) load profiles (LPs) to customers and suppliers remotely. The customers’ LPs allow suppliers to disseminate and regulate their incentives as well as incite the customers to alter their energy consumption. Furthermore, these LPs serves as an input for developing numerous DSM approaches. The proposed solution is installed and evaluated at 4 different locations of Stylo Pvt. Ltd. Pakistan, which can communicate commands and observe the efficiency of electricity supplied by the utility. Moreover, the RT impact of using separate SM for automated control of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system is shown in terms of power consumption. The RT case study presents the efficacy of the proposed IoT-based-SEMS.

Optimal Planning of Residential Microgrids Based on Multiple Demand Response Programs Using ABC Algorithm

The smart grid has revolutionized the conventional electricity grid with the proposition of demand-side management (DSM). A DSM program enables the user to schedule its energy consumption in compliance with any pricing signal. This scheduling helps the grid operator to reduce the peak load demand and jointly benefits the user to reduce its electricity costs. Despite that, while doing so, it jeopardizes the user’s comfort. In the present paper, the authors have investigated the impact of communal DSM programs on the consumption patterns of users, including single as well as multiple households. The objective is to simultaneously minimize the electricity costs and user discomfort to make a win-win situation for both the grid operator and the user. Therefore, a multi-objective optimization problem (MOOP) has been formed to simultaneously minimize the daily electricity cost, peak to average ratio (PAR) of load demand, user discomfort, environmental emission, and total net present cost (TNPC). In order to evaluate the best scheduling method, sizing scenarios for a residential microgrid in a Southern Pakistani metropolis surrounded by rural areas are presented in this paper. The originality of this article comes from a comparison of the techno-economic and environmental performance of several sizing options for a residential load powered by renewable energy. The artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm has been selected to solve the MOOP. The DSM programs are based upon different pricing signals, including real-time electricity pricing (RTEP), critical peak pricing (CPP), time of use (TOU), and day-ahead pricing (DAP) pricing. The results of the proposed ABC algorithm are compared with GA and standard algorithms, and they reveal the effectiveness of the proposed method. When demand response is used, the suggested optimization technique shows that the SH spring with PV/WG/grid-connected microgrid is the most investable-reliable sizing option with a minimal TNPC of $1405.18 for DAP tariff with SH spring. Additionally, with a reduction in emissions of 6699 kg/yr, DAP tariff with SH spring shows that PV/WG/DG/grid-connected system has the greatest impact on the environment. For DAP tariff with SH spring, optimal sizes of PV, WG and converter are 26.7 kW, 30 kW and 6.67 kW, respectively.

A Review on Power Electronics Technologies for Power Quality Improvement

Nowadays, new challenges arise relating to the compensation of power quality problems, where the introduction of innovative solutions based on power electronics is of paramount importance. The evolution from conventional electrical power grids to smart grids requires the use of a large number of power electronics converters, indispensable for the integration of key technologies, such as renewable energies, electric mobility and energy storage systems, which adds importance to power quality issues. Addressing these topics, this paper presents an extensive review on power electronics technologies applied to power quality improvement, highlighting, and explaining the main phenomena associated with the occurrence of power quality problems in smart grids, their cause and effects for different activity sectors, and the main power electronics topologies for each technological solution. More specifically, the paper presents a review and classification of the main power quality problems and the respective context with the standards, a review of power quality problems related to the power production from renewables, the contextualization with solid-state transformers, electric mobility and electrical railway systems, a review of power electronics solutions to compensate the main power quality problems, as well as power electronics solutions to guarantee high levels of power quality. Relevant experimental results and exemplificative developed power electronics prototypes are also presented throughout the paper.

Secure and resilient electrical power and energy systems: the SDN-microSENSE project

Secure and resilient electrical power and energy systems: the SDN-microSENSE project The smart energy ecosystem constitutes the next technological leap of the conventional electrical grid. However, although it brings beneficial changes, it also generates significant cybersecurity challenges due to the various heterogeneous technologies. Thus, the SDN-microSENSE project intends to provide a set of cyberattacks mechanisms, thus ensuring the normal operation of the Electrical Power and Energy Systems (EPES).

Smart Power Management in OIC Countries: A Critical Overview Using SWOT-AHP and Hybrid MCDM Analysis

A conventional electrical grid mostly depends on the electrical power generated from fossil fuels. However, the pollutants from fossil fuels are the key factors for adverse climate change. Most of the developed countries of the world have already recognized the fact that the energy mix requires to be diversified by incorporating renewable energy. This is especially relevant for a good number of the member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), as much of their electric power is still generated from fossil fuels due to the relative abundance of fossil fuels in those countries. In order to integrate renewable energy sources into the hybrid energy mix, an existing conventional grid needs to undergo drastic changes. Alongside this, the population boom in the OIC member countries has caused higher demand for a steady supply of electricity that the conventional grids have long been struggling to cope with. With a view to solving this multifaceted problem, incorporation of the smart power management schemes is indispensable using a smart electrical grid, where information and communications technology is integrated into its major building blocks. This allows advanced applications of a grid, such as the formation of micro-grids, demand-side management, energy storage, high-tech power electronic converters, etc. As the smart grids are being adopted by many developed countries, it is high time for the OIC member countries to pay due attention to this development, if they have not already done so. This paper explains, with special focus on the OIC member countries, the various smart power management technologies, their operations and applications, and the benefits and challenges. Then, it goes on to carry out the Strength–Weakness–Opportunity–Threat with Analytical-Heuristic-Procedure (SWOT-AHP) analysis to evaluate its feasibility of incorporation and the underlying strategies appropriate for its implementation. Furthermore, a Hybrid Multi-Criteria-Decision-Making (MCDM) analysis is performed to evaluate the sequence of the emphasis that should be given on each of the technologies from those available for the smart power management initiative. Finally, the study reinforces the stance by drawing parallels from the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and highlights the importance of the smart grid in line with the global vision of SDG. This paper aims at assisting the decision-makers in implementing smart power management schemes in the OIC member countries, in particular, and other countries of the world, in general.

Distributed Generation and Renewable Energy Integration into the Grid: Prerequisites, Push Factors, Practical Options, Issues and Merits

Power system operators are in search of proven solutions to improve the penetration levels of distributed generators (DGs) in the grid while minimizing cost. This transition is driven, among others, by global climate concerns, the growing power demand, the need for greater flexibility, the ageing grid infrastructure and the need to diversify sources of energy production. Distributed renewables would not easily substitute the conventional electric grid system, perhaps because the latter is a well-established technology and it would not be prudent to abandon it, while the new distributed renewable energy technologies are generally not adequately developed to support the total load. Thus, it is becoming increasingly necessary to consider sustainable options such as integrating renewable energy sources into the existing power grid. This study is a review that is mainly hinged on distributed generation (DG) classification, the challenges of DG to grid integration, practical options used in DG integration, lessons learned from some countries with successful DG to grid integration, push factors in the growth of DGs and the merits of DG to grid integration. These standpoints of DG to grid interconnection are critical in conducting grid planning and operational studies, which should be conducted in strict observance of aspects such as optimal technology selection, optimal capacity and a suitable connection point of DGs in the network. Therefore, the perspectives highlighted regarding DG can assist power system engineers, developers of DG plants and policymakers in developing a power network that is stable, efficient and reliable.

The Role of the Electric Vehicle in Smart Homes: Assessment and Future Perspectives

The wide spreading of electric mobility is imposing the application of new technologies of hardware and software for supporting new operation paradigms, not only in the perspective of improving smart grids, but also each time more in the perspective of boosting the preponderance of smart homes. Concretely, nowadays it is clear that the emergent technologiesfor smart homes, targeting power quality and a more efficient power management, are also altering the conventional electrical power grids toward smart grids. In this panorama, by relating the strategic pillars of electric mobility and smart homes, this paper has as main objective the characterization of the role of the electric vehicle (EV) in smart homes, presenting a broad assessment based on the state of the art, as well as creating a link with upcoming advanced operations. From the smart home point of view, since it should be equipped to deal with the requirements of the EV, the assessment of both on-board and off-board EV battery charging systems are considered along the paper. Furthermore, the presence of technologies such as energy storage systems, renewable energy sources and dc electrical appliances in smart homes towards sustainability is also reflected in this paper, but framed from the point of view of an off-board EV battery charging system, since it is more convenient for enabling the interface of these mentioned technologies. Looking the paper as a whole, a relevant contribution is the discussion of future operations for the EV in smart homes, also envisioning the opportunity for ac, dc, or hybrid power grids. Illustrative and strategic results are shown, covering all these features with specific details, not only based on numerical simulations, but also based on experimental results, which were obtained with a proof-of-concept laboratory prototype.

A HYBRID ENERGY SOLUTION FOR THE SUSTAINABLE ELECTRICITY SUPPLY OF AN IRRIGATION SYSTEM IN A RURAL AREA OF ZONA BANANERA, COLOMBIA

A hybrid energy system allows the integration of various technologies to meet energy demands competitively. These systems are widely used in rural areas with connection problems in the conventional electrical grid due to their economic and environmental advantages. Thus, this paper presents the design and simulation of a hybrid energy system that evaluates the suitability of using various generation sources such as photovoltaic energy, biomass, diesel generation and connection to the conventional electrical grid, in order to establish scenarios competitive to supply energy in an irrigation system of the Palmar de la Sierra experimental field, located in the municipality of Zona Bananera, Magdalena, Colombia. The sizing of the system was performed with Homer Pro software, with which technical, economic and environmental aspects of the studied scenarios were evaluated. The data of solar irradiance and the characteristics of the oil palm fruit peel, used for generation with biomass, were provided by the Cenipalma company. The results obtained show that the hybrid system (photovoltaic, biomass, diesel) can satisfy the demand of 2200 kWh/day of the irrigation system under study, using a connection to the electricity grid that allows the purchase and sale of energy. Keywords: Hybrid Energy System, Photovoltaic Energy, Biomass Gasification, Financial Analysis JEL Classifications: Q42, G32, G00, O13 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.11014

SPEAR SIEM: A Security Information and Event Management system for the Smart Grid

The technological leap of smart technologies has brought the conventional electrical grid in a new digital era called Smart Grid (SG), providing multiple benefits, such as two-way communication, pervasive control and self-healing. However, this new reality generates significant cybersecurity risks due to the heterogeneous and insecure nature of SG. In particular, SG relies on legacy communication protocols that have not been implemented having cybersecurity in mind. Moreover, the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) creates severe cybersecurity challenges. The Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems constitute an emerging technology in the cybersecurity area, having the capability to detect, normalise and correlate a vast amount of security events. They can orchestrate the entire security of a smart ecosystem, such as SG. Nevertheless, the current SIEM systems do not take into account the unique SG peculiarities and characteristics like the legacy communication protocols. In this paper, we present the Secure and PrivatE smArt gRid (SPEAR) SIEM, which focuses on SG. The main contribution of our work is the design and implementation of a SIEM system capable of detecting, normalising and correlating cyberattacks and anomalies against a plethora of SG application-layer protocols. It is noteworthy that the detection performance of the SPEAR SIEM is demonstrated with real data originating from four real SG use case (a) hydropower plant, (b) substation, (c) power plant and (d) smart home.

A Comparison between Exhaust Gas and Electrical Grid Heating of a Diffusion Absorption Refrigerator

A considerable quantity of waste energy in the exhaust system could be reutilized and added in a vehicle to run auxiliary systems, and contribute to improving the overall efficiency of the system. In the current work, a comparison between the conventional electrical grid and exhaust gas heating of an absorption refrigeration system was performed experimentally. A heat exchanger was fabricated to recover the wasted exhaust gas energy of internal combustion engine and operate the generator portion of a diffusion type refrigeration absorption system. The components performance of the absorption refrigerator was analyzed and estimated thermodynamically as a function of type energy source. The results revealed that the components temperatures were rapidly responded in case of the exhaust gas energy with the maximum and minimum steady state temperatures of the generator and evaporator of 140 °C and -1.1 °C, respectively. The steady state values of the COP can be reached from electrical grid, and the exhaust gas energy sources of the refrigerated system were 0.083 and 0.072, respectively. The key conclusion to be drawn is that the proposed system can be used to recycle the waste heat for refrigeration purpose; yet, with low COP values.

Grid code compatibility and real-time performance analysis of an efficient inverter topology for PV-based microgrid applications

The integration of the Photovoltaic (PV) - based Distributed Generation (DG) Systems to the conventional electrical grid is a significant issue to achieve a confidential grid operation. This study presents a novel structure for the suppression of the common-state leakage current for PV-based inverters. It investigates the real-time performance of the inverter for the grid-code compatibility of the PV-based microgrid applications. Many of the topologies have been introduced to suppress leakage currents in grid-based Photovoltaic (PV) inverters, but most of them cannot practically reach more than 95% efficiency. The number of the components, especially the switching semiconductors, including the power switches and power diodes and the current and ripples' level in the topology filter side inductors, are essential criteria for efficiency. The proposed inverter includes six power switches and two power diodes. Since different operational states, only two power components per branch of the inverter are activated a higher efficiency than the conventional H5, H6, and HERIC converters. It presents the THD equal to 1,42 for load-connection states that is considerable. This converter can also generate pure sinusoidal current and voltage waveforms for the reactive loads, especially resistive-inductive load connections that are most common in industrial applications. As a study-case, the implemented inverter was tested under different grid conditions in the laboratory, and a real-time LabVIEW-based monitoring and grid protection system was realized within the research scope. Under/over-frequency protection and under/over voltage protection were performed to provide a reliable microgrid management system for the developed inverter. According to IEEE 929-2000 threshold values for the breakers' reaction operation under the ±10% as the output threshold voltage, the converter's performance is presented. A real-time monitoring and protection system are developed, and the developed LabVIEW analyzer has done the hardware test results. THD and spectrum analysis are also investigated in the real-time domain by the developed inverter test system. In this way, the implemented inverter's grid code compatibility is investigated in real-time, and the experimental results show that the proposed inverter is reliable for PV-based microgrid applications.

Optimal Location of the Wind Turbine and Socio-Techno-Economic Analysis of an Insolated Airplane-Type Organic Building Based on a Photovoltaic/Hydrokinetic/Battery

The global dynamics in the electricity sector generates development in the towns. This permanent search for new opportunities has made renewable energies visible as a very certain option and which is currently a reality to electrify areas that until recently were very difficult to reach. In this research, a combination of these resources is presented for the supply of energy to an airplane-type building, the same one that serves to house people who want to get out of the stressful urban life level, it is an innovative and interesting study that is being launched in the Ecuador. Is a fantastic study that allows the design of a hybrid system in conjunction with a support subsystem backed by a battery bank to guarantee the electrical service of a load outside the conventional electrical grid. Additionally, the techno-economic study of all the components is considered for an efficient use of resources, considering the different seasons of the year. The results show that the hybrid system provides sufficient and timely power for the loads, the resources of the hydroelectric, wind and photovoltaic generation are optimized, maintaining the state of charge of the storage subsystem.

Segmentation of Satellite Images of Solar Panels Using Fast Deep Learning Model

Segmenting satellite images provides an easy and cost-effective solution to detect solar arrays installed on building tops and on ground over a region. Solar panel detection is the first step towards the estimation of energy generation from the distributed solar arrays connected to a conventional electric grid. Segmentation models for small devices require light weight procedures in terms of computational effort. Â State-of-the-art deep learning segmentation models have the disadvantage that these require long training times, large number of floating-point operations (FLOPS) and tens of millions of parameters which make these models less suitable for devices with limited computational power. This paper proposes a deep learning segmentation architecture that is suitable for small devices. The proposed architecture combines features of Mobilenet classification architecture and Unet architecture in such a way such that it is efficient in terms of computational effort and produces segmentation results with good accuracy. The results of the proposed model are compared with the results obtained by various state-of-the-art segmentation models. The results demonstrate that the proposed model is computationally efficient as it requires less number of model parameters, less training time, consumes less number of FLOPS and produces good segmentation results with competitive accuracy.

A survey on: Automation of micro grid and micro distributed generation

The demand and supply gap of energy is large and the people are pressured to bear increasing hours of load losing, unnecessary intake of energy makes subjects even worse. So, the importance and requirement for energy conservation is increased exponentially. This paper outlines a step towards the conservation of electricity in standard and electricity especially with the aid of employing efficient constructing system with automation and installation of renewable based Micro Distributed Generator (MDG). The Smart Grid (SG) is a technological transformation from conventional electric grid, electro-mechanically controlled system, to smart, intelligent, and electronically controlled system. There are about 20–30% losses present in the conventional electric grid due to substandard operations at generation, transmission and distribution side. MDG play important role to build an efficient and autonomous micro-grid. In this paper importance of microgrid and some renewable energy sources utilized in formation of microgrid are discussed.

Optimal sharing energy of a complex of houses through energy trading in the Internet of energy

To increase utilization of distributed renewable energy and decrease dependence on conventional electrical grids, the Internet of energy integrates smart grids with battery energy storage systems and the Internet of things to utilize redundant energy, so that energy can be shared among users. However, few works considered sharing energy in the Internet of energy from a residential community scale. Therefore, this paper constructs a mixed-integer programming model for the optimal sharing energy of a complex of houses through the Internet of energy with an energy trading platform, by which houses with renewable energy facilities and battery energy storage systems can trade and share energy so that the total profit of the whole complex of houses is maximized. This paper further solves this problem by a hybrid algorithm of harmony search and variable neighborhood search, which are good at finding optimal solutions through population search and individual search, respectively. Additionally, a solution repairing scheme is proposed to guarantee solution feasibility during the algorithm. Through simulation, this algorithm can save energy consumption of 748.17 kW for one day, and shift the peak load. On the average, each house can make a profit above 70¢ for one day.

Energy usage modeling for heating and cooling of off-grid shelters

Temporary shelters are widely used in various missions, whether military or non-military, to meet the needs of low-cost and quick deployment of structures. The shelters are unlikely to be connected to conventional electrical grids, hence are known as ‘off-grid shelters’ and require independent energy sources such as gas-fueled generators. Since the supply of the fuel is often limited, planning efficient energy usage is crucial for their operations, and having energy models of structures will greatly support the planning process. This research presents a method for modeling energy usage in off-grid soft-wall shelters, and propose a systematic model validation process. The model is generated for a soft-wall shelter using the OpenStudio software, and the thermal properties of the materials are measured using 1D conduction analysis. Air leakage is measured using modified blower door tests, and a ground coupling model is used to account for ground temperatures. Finally, the model is validated with field measured data in terms of HVAC load, which showed an average difference of 0.64 kWh over a mean value of 2.43 kWh over a 7 day period. The models were then used to conduct parametric studies using advanced materials to seek energy efficiency improvements. The integration of aerogel insulation showed 0.98% reduction, while radiant barrier showed 3.6% reduction in cooling energy usage. The findings from this study provide a method of reliable energy modeling for less-studied area of soft-wall shelters which can be subsequently used to efficiently plan the energy requirement of off-grid shelters prior to their deployments.

Energy Cost-Efficient Task Positioning in Manufacturing Systems

A problem to determine a production schedule which minimises the cost of energy used for manufacturing is studied. The scenario assumes that each production task has assigned constant power consumption, price of power from conventional electrical grid system is defined by time-of-use tariffs, and a component of free of charge renewable energy is available for the manufacturing system. The objective is to find the most cost-efficient production plan, subject to constraints involving predefined precedence relationships between the tasks and a bounded makespan. Two independent optimisation approaches have been developed, based on significantly different paradigms, namely mixed-integer linear programming and tabu search metaheuristic. Both of them have been verified and compared in extensive computational experiments. The tabu search-based approach has turned out to be generally more efficient in the sense of the obtained objective function values, but advantages of the use of linear programming have also been identified. The results confirm that it is possible to develop efficient computational methods to optimise energy cost under circumstances typical of manufacturing companies. The set of numerous benchmark instances and their solutions have been archived and it can be reused in further research.

Applications of Internet of things on Smart Grid

Internet of Things devices in public and private spaces has changed our lifestyle. For example, home automation applications that support smart devices, locks, keys, surveillance systems, and Internet-connected devices has change the way we interact with our living spaces. These systems are widely adopted; the Internet of Things digitally expresses concern on safety and security. This technology makes life easier, safety as its priority. The firewall is also very important for the Internet of objects. The algorithms designed for users should be unique and safety. The basic principle of the Internet of Things is based on the integration of information networks to make people’s lives easier. In this way, the objects can connect to each other and share information. The development of the Internet of Things has triggered by technology. A smart grid is an electricity network based on digital technology that is used to supply electricity to consumers via two-way digital communication. This system allows for monitoring, analysis, control and communication within the supply chain to help improve efficiency, reduce energy consumption and cost, and maximize the transparency and reliability of the energy supply chain. The smart grid was introduced with the aim of overcoming the weaknesses of conventional electrical grids by using smart net meters. Smart Grid technologies contribute to manage IoT energy efficiently, which the present ones lack in the existing framework. The two-way communication between connected devices and hardware which can sense and respond to user demands makes the IOT smart grid better. A smart Grid with the help of these technologies is more resilient and less costly than the current power infrastructure