DC Energy Research Articles

A hybrid solar and RF energy harvester for applications of self-Powered wireless sensor nodes

A hybrid solar and RF energy harvester is proposed for applications in self-powered wireless sensor nodes. A planar slot antenna array backed by substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity is produced for RF energy harvesting. A designed rectifier connected to the antenna array converts the received RF energy into DC energy. Solar cells are placed on the rest of the antenna array except slots, fully utilizing the array's surface. The solar cell coverage ratio reaches 87%. The measurement results indicate that under solar simulator illumination, the solar energy harvester has a short-circuit current of 15.7 A, an open-circuit voltage of 0.542 V, and a maximum output power of 5.81 W. Under the RF power density of 85.5 μW/cm2, the RF energy harvester reaches its peak power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 69%. All simulated and measured results are in good agreement, verifying the capabilities of the designed hybrid harvester.

Efficiency of sub-THz – DC energy conversion of a silicon detector

The efficiency of sub-THz to DC energy conversion of a silicon-based plasmonic detector was studied. The dependence of the signal at the detector output on the incident radiation power was measured. In the power linear region, the coefficient η was shown to grow with increasing power and to saturate in the sub-linear regime. The maximum achieved values of η were 0.4% for the radiation frequency of 97 GHz. The measurements were carried out both at room temperature and when the detector was cooled to liquid nitrogen temperature.

Optimization of DC Energy Storage in Tokamak Poloidal Coils

Tokamaks are a very promising option to exploit nuclear fusion as a programmable and safe energy source. A very critical issue for the practical use of tokamaks consists of the power flow required to initiate and sustain the fusion process, in particular in the poloidal field coils. This flow can be managed by introducing a DC energy storage based on supercapacitors. Because such storage may be the most expensive and largest part of the poloidal power supply system, an excessive size would cancel its potential advantages. This paper presents innovative strategies to optimize the DC storage in poloidal power supply systems. The proposed solution involves the sharing of the DC storage between different coil circuits. The study is supported by novel analytical formulas and by a circuital model developed for this application. The obtained results show that this method and the related algorithms can noticeably reduce the overall size of the storage and the power exchange with the grid, providing a practical contribution toward the feasibility and the effectiveness of nuclear fusion systems.

Reactive Power Compensation for Standalone Hybrid Power System Using Facts Devices

Reactive power compensation is essential in hybrid grid-connected systems because power electronic inverters utilized for supplying DC energy into the grid causes a reduction in the overall power factor of the power systems. Due to the ability to provide a reliable and efficient power supply to remote and off-grid areas, hybrid power systems are growing in popularity. It can provide greater opportunities for operational growth by combining economic and technology advancement. To meet the demand for electrical energy in both regular and critical situations, operators must be in charge of the power systems reliable and secure operation. The primary objective of the work is to control the reactive power flow in a grid-connected hybrid renewable energy system (PV-wind-battery). The power quality problems that these systems frequently experience include voltage sags, harmonics, and flicker. A FACTS device Unified Power Quality controller (UPQC) with a Genetic Algorithm based PI controller is suggested to handle these power quality issues. In order to improve the performance of the power system, the proposed optimization approaches are used to tune the UPQC in a multiline transmission system. The model was developed with the help of the MATLAB/Simulink work framework.

View Factors Approach for Bifacial Photovoltaic Array Modeling: Bifacial Gain Sensitivity Analysis

Abstract Bifacial modules are highly valued in the global photovoltaic market since they are able to receive sunlight from both sides and can generate up to 10–30% additional energy compared to monofacial ones. They are integrated into various sectors, including building and notably Agrivoltaics. In this work, a coupled optical–thermal–electrical model was developed in matlab to simulate the energy performance and bifacial gain for a ground-raised bifacial system. The model allows optimization as a function of the photovoltaic (PV) system and bifacial module characteristics. A fixed, south-facing bifacial PV arrays composed of three rows assumed installed in Agadir, Morocco, is considered. The optical model is based on an analytical determination of view factors using the cross-string rule. These enable the determination of irradiances received by both sides of modules, which are subsequently used to evaluate energy yield of the system. Model validation was carried out based on various statistical metrics by comparing our results with simulation results generated by various softwares. The comparison shows a very good agreement, notably with 3dbifacialvf (R2 = 1, root-mean-square error (RMSE) = 0.03 W/m2 and R2 = 0.96, RMSE = 12.4 W/m2) for front and rear side irradiance, respectively. The DC energy generated by the system differs by less than 1% compared to pvsyst results. Sensitivity analysis revealed that all system parameters, particularly ground albedo, positively affect the bifacial gain. The bifacial gain increased from 10.6% to 20.1% as the ground albedo increased from 0.25 to 0.5.

Energy dissipation methods and protection device synergy strategies for offshore wind power receiving end surplus power

Abstract Firstly, a theoretical analysis of the fault ride-through scheme is carried out based on the land-side AC faults in the offshore wind power delivery system. According to the topological structure of the DC energy consumption device, the working mode and switching of the DC energy consumption device are analyzed and studied. Secondly, the DC protection action of offshore wind power flexible and direct transmission systems was studied, and the switching strategy of energy-consuming devices was determined. Then the impact of the switching of the energy-consuming device on the DC protection function was studied, focusing on the synergy between the DC overvoltage protection and the switching judgment voltage of the energy-consuming device. Finally, based on a typical offshore wind power flexing project, a system model is built in PSCAD/EMTDC to verify the effectiveness of the proposed synergy strategy.

(Digital Presentation) Mechanically Driven Electromagnetic Energy Harvesting for Power System Sensing Applications

Introduction Energy harvesting is a process of producing energy or usable power from the environment. Among potential ambient energy harvesting sources, electromagnetic (EM) field offers the great promise for emerging power system applications. This is because EM energies are widely available around the current-carrying wires (busbars) that connect various power devices and equipment. Most previous works on EM energy harvesting were built upon AC transmission lines [1-5], whereas modern power systems are typically driven by renewable DC energy sources. In this work, a mechanically-driven, DC-based EM energy harvesting system is designed and implemented as a lab-scale prototype to ultimately power sensing devices in the power system. Key Results: The schematic diagram and the photograph image of the EM induction experimental setup are shown in Figures 1a) and 1b), respectively. The energy harvester consists of a high permeability (μ ~ 2300) ferrite toroidal coil (cross sectional area 760 mm2) that is placed below a DC conducting (copper) slab at a distance of 1 cm. According to the Faraday’s law of induction (Equation 1), the open circuit voltage is proportional to the time rate of change of the magnetic flux (dφ/dt). This work is sharply distinguished from other works because the time variant nature originates from the physical vibration without using the AC power source. As seen in the figure, the toroidal coil is directly attached to a vibrator, thus experiencing a light-to-moderate amount of vibration. Here, the copper slab emulates the busbar in the power system, and the vibrator represents a practical scenario where the energy harvester is exposed to mechanical, machinery, and other noise sources.Figure 2 plots the open circuit voltage (VOC) as a function of the number of coil turns (N) for the experimental setup shown in Fig. 1. VOC was measured using a multimeter between two terminals of the coil for the maximum current of 3 A applied to the copper slab. As expected, a linear trend of VOC vs. N was observed with the VOC value as high as 51.4 mV for the case of 2,500 turns. Importantly, VOC is scalable to the value that is sufficiently high to drive most modern sensing devices because VOC is proportional to current (I). It is common that more than 100 A flows in the busbar of the power system, which escalates VOC to more than 1.7 V. The idea of increasing VOC by increasing current is confirmed in Figure 3; we repeated the experiments by lowering the current value in the copper slab, and obtained the linear trend line. Thus, both results shown in Figures 2 and 3 indicate a strong correlation of our energy harvester prototype with the EM theory. The maximum VOC value we obtained (51.4 mV) is separately shown in Figure 4 as a photograph image of the multimeter reading.In Table 1, we estimated the VOC values that can be readily achievable in the power system that affords the busbar current of 300 A and/or the 10,000 coil turns. For example, as compared with a previous work [3] with VOC of 1.4 V for 30 A (AC), this work features VOC of about 2 V with the 30 A DC power source. Significance: This work demonstrates the possibility of newly developing an mechano-electromagnetic energy harvester for modern power systems. Taking full advantage of EM energies and vibration present in the power system, the proposed DC-sourced energy harvesting scheme can greatly facilitate development and adoption of various sensing/monitoring/diagnosis device technologies. This is because these devices will not require separate batteries or power sources; they will be easily powered using the electromagnetic energy and mechanical vibration.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A 67.2 KWP SI-POLY PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM CONNECTED TO THE GRID USING PVSYST TOOL

This paper presents the simulated performance evaluation of a 67.2 kWp grid-connected Si-poly photovoltaic system. This study was carried out to assess the feasibility of installing a photovoltaic system to supply the electrical loads at the Alioune DIOP University of Bambey, Senegal, a public institution. Indeed, the UADB is facing load shedding problems caused by its exorbitant energy consumption. The study system comprises 240 Si-poly modules. Each module has a rated output of 280 Wp. All photovoltaic modules are connected in 12 strings, each string consisting of 20 modules in series. Three solar inverters, each rated at 20 kW, are used for interconnection with the grid via a public meter. For the case study, PVsyst 7.4 is used for simulation. PVsyst 7.4 is a PC software package for the design, dimensioning and data analysis of complete photovoltaic systems. Meteonorm 8.1 meteorological data sets on solar radiation, ambient temperature, wind speed and humidity from the PVsyst database were used for this analysis. In this study, the parameters evaluated were the photovoltaic arrays effective energy production, the energy injected into the grid, the performance rate and the normalized energy production per kWp installed. The 67.2 kWp photovoltaic system generates 111.287 MWh/year of DC energy, of which 108.980 MWh/year of AC energy is fed into the grid. The systems annual performance rate is around 81.5%, and the loss diagram over the whole year is also computed.

Two-Input Single-Output Boost Converter with Fault Tolerant Operation

The need for multi-input DC-DC converters is highly demanded in the context of the integration of different energy sources. When integrating several energy sources, such as batteries, solar PV arrays, fuel cells, etc., multi-input DC-DC converters preferred over multiple single-input DC-DC converters. The vast majority of MISO converters in use today only have one mode of operation, which is conventional operation using all sources. Very few MISO topologies have been presented with fault-tolerant capability. In this work, a non-isolated two-input single-output (MISO) boost converter is investigated for low-voltage DC (LVDC) applications with fault tolerant capability. The presented converter works in three modes, such as DC sources of equal values, DC sources of unequal values, and one of the DC sources that is faulty or out of order. The converter is simulated in a MATLAB/Simulink environment and experimentally validated using a scaled prototype. The outcomes demonstrate that the converter can integrate systems with two DC energy sources, accommodates DC sources of equal values, DC sources of unequal values, and works even when one of the DC sources is faulty or out of order. This work points out that the presented MISO converter would be an apt solution for integrating varying input voltage sources with fault-tolerant capability.

A Scalable, Wide-Angle Metasurface Array for Electromagnetic Energy Harvesting.

A metasurface array for electromagnetic (EM) energy harvesting for Wi-Fi bands is presented in this paper; the metasurface array consists of a metasurface unit, a rectifier, and a load resistor. Each row of unit cells in the array is interconnected to form an energy transfer channel, which enables the transfer and concentration of incident power. Furthermore, at the terminal of the channel, a single series diode rectifier circuit and a load resistor are integrated in a coplanar manner. It is used to rectify the energy in Wi-Fi bands and enables DC energy harvesting across the load. Finally, a 5 × 7 prototype of the metasurface array is fabricated and measured for the verification of the rationality of the design. Testing in an anechoic chamber shows that the prototype achieves a 72% RF-DC efficiency at 5.9 GHz when the available incident power is about 7 dBm.

Synthesis and Control of a Three-Port LCL Resonant Wireless Power Transfer System for DC Energy Conversion Applications

Synthesis and Control of a Three-Port <i>LCL</i> Resonant Wireless Power Transfer System for DC Energy Conversion Applications

Design and analysis of soft-switching isolated step-up/down DC–DC converter for fuel cell vehicles and EV battery charging applications

ABSTRACT With the increasing adoption of non-conventional energy sources, there is a significant demand for DC energy conversion systems as they play a crucial role in integrating power sources and loads that operate at different voltage levels. In this paper, a novel DC–DC converter topology is presented, which can efficiently perform Buck-boost operation with minimal duty cycle operation, making it an attractive option for DC energy conversion applications. Furthermore, its switching voltage stress is less than the voltage present at the output, allowing the use of low power rated devices. Additionally, the topology contains isolation between the load and source, which prevents circulating currents and protects the source from load harmonics. The proposed converter has the ability to achieve soft switching without using any extra circuitry. Moreover, the presented converter is evaluated against recently developed topologies in terms of active/passive components, gain, efficiency, and switching stress. Closed-loop analysis is done for the proposed converter using small-signal modeling. The converter is tested by subjecting it to a sudden step change at the input voltage from 20 V to 40 V in boost condition while maintaining a constant output voltage of 240 V. Additionally, load disturbances are introduced to assess the system’s robustness in closed-loop operation. In the laboratory, A 100-W prototype of the presented converter is built, which gives an efficiency of 95% at the rated load condition.

Practical design of an optical filter for thermal management of photovoltaic modules

AbstractThis work presents a practical approach to designing an optical filter for thermal management for photovoltaic modules. The approach emphasizes the practicality of manufacturing over optical performance. Simulation work demonstrates that, for an interdigitated back contact solar cell architecture, complete rejection of infrared radiation offers limited thermal benefits requiring highly complex optical filter designs. An alternative approach consists of reducing thermalization losses by providing reflectance at lower wavelength values. An optical filter design that fulfills this requirement is possible using simple structures based on two materials and taking advantage of the harmonics present in quarter wavelength optical thickness designs. The filter is later optimized for angular performance via second‐order algorithms, resulting in a device consisting of only 15 thin‐film layers. Performance simulations on two locations, Delft (the Netherlands) and Singapore, estimate a temperature reduction of 2.20°C and 2.45°C, respectively. In a single year, the optical loss produced by the filter is not compensated via temperature reduction. However, improvements in the annual degradation rate show that in Singapore, the overall effect of the filter on the lifetime DC energy yield is positive.

SCADA implementation in microhydro power plant control and monitoring systems of screw turbine type

Screw turbine-type micro-hydro power plants are still controlled manually by humans when there is a change in the electrical load on the generator output. If there is a change in the electrical load, the generator output voltage will change, thus affecting the rotation of the turbine being used. In this case, humans are needed to manually regulate the flow of water entering the turbine to maintain the stability of the generator output voltage by controlling the sluice gate. The water discharge entering the screw turbine will rotate the generator through a belt/gearbox pulley transmission, thus producing an electrical voltage at the generator output. To maintain the stability of the generator output voltage, it is necessary to control the water discharge entering the screw turbine. The expected goal of this research is to design a control system for a screw turbine type microhydro power plant to stabilize the generator output voltage and monitor the output of a screw turbine type generator using a SCADA (Supervisory Control, and Data Aquisition) system. The method used is the research and development method, namely the system design stage based on secondary data that has been collected, where the system design includes hardware design and software design, followed by making hardware such as control panels and devices. Software, which includes display design and leader diagrams and testing, is carried out by testing the system on software, hardware, and overall system testing. From the results of the discussion and analysis, the screw turbine type microhydro power plant control design system was created, a load control system consisting of 6 groups and sluice gate opening control that uses an ultrasonic sensor to determine the water level. With the results of controlling the sluice gate at a door opening of 30 mm, the generator voltage is 18.42 Volts DC, DC current is 0.0 Ampere at a load of 0 watts, when the load is 30 watts the generator voltage decreases by 18.40 volts, current is 1.37 Ampere. Through the on-line monitoring system, electrical parameters are obtained which are displayed on the SCADA system by looking in real-time at the history of DC voltage and DC current, DC power, and DC energy generated by the screw turbine-type DC generator. The voltage read is 18. 57 volts, current 1.37 Amperes, DC electrical power is 25.4 watts with a DC light load of 30 watts.

Active Equalization of Lithium Battery Pack with Adaptive Control based on DC Energy Conversion Circuit

Background:: How to solve the inconsistency of battery pack is a key point to ensure reliable operation of electric vehicles. Battery equalization is an effective measure to address the inconsistency. Passive equalization method has poor efficiency and thermal management problems. Average voltage equalization method is only suitable for situations where there is a significant voltage difference between batteries. The SOC-based equalization method is relatively difficult and may inevitably lead to the accumulation of errors during the process. Objective:: In order to avoid the disadvantages of traditional control methods, a new control method is proposed to improve the accuracy and self-adaptation of active equalization, which is easy to be realized without online calculation. Methods:: Cascaded bidirectional Buck-boost circuit is adopted as the novel equalization topology. Based on fuzzy PID theory, an adaptive digital-analog hybrid control strategy based on fuzzy PID is proposed in this paper. Parameter design of the fuzzy PID controller is carried out. A battery equalization system based on cascaded bidirectional Buck-boost circuit is designed and developed. Experimental verification is conducted on relevant hardware platforms. Results:: An adaptive digital-analog hybrid control strategy based on fuzzy PID is proposed. Compared to passive equalization, this proposed method provides high efficiency. Regarding traditional voltage control, the method improves control reliability and flexibility. Compared to the average voltage equalization method, the approach needs less convergence time. Moreover, the control method is much easier to realize than the SOC-based equalization method. Conclusion:: By using the presented adaptive control based on DC energy conversion circuit, the degree of self-adaptation of the equalization process has been obtained as higher and the inconsistency as smaller.

The influence of ripple on DC energy measurement and the improvement of wavelet threshold function filtering method

DC energy has been applied in the construction of DC power grids, photovoltaic power generation, energy storage, and rapid charging of electric vehicles. The application of DC energy is of great significance for energy conservation, emission reduction, carbon reduction, and efficiency increase. In this paper, the reasons for the decrease in DC energy measurement accuracy caused by ripples in voltage and current are analyzed. The minimum requirements of ripples for DC energy meters are analyzed, and the traditional filtering method based on wavelet threshold is studied. An optimized and fast iterative wavelet threshold function was designed, the current signal of electric vehicle charging was selected, and the effectiveness of the algorithm proposed in this paper was verified through simulation.

Hierarchical Control and Stability Analysis for a Nonisolated Grid-Tied DC Energy Router Integrating Energy Storage and Partial Distributed Generation

Hierarchical Control and Stability Analysis for a Nonisolated Grid-Tied DC Energy Router Integrating Energy Storage and Partial Distributed Generation

An Efficiency Improvement Strategy for Triple-Active-Bridge-Based DC Energy Routers in DC Microgrids

A triple-active bridge (TAB) can be used as a power conversion unit in a three-port DC energy router (DCER) such as a triple-active bridge-based DC energy router (TAB-DCER). The operational loss of a TAB can be seen as a key factor affecting the efficiency of a TAB-DCER. However, the RMS value of the inductor current of the TAB-DCER increases under single-phase shift (SPS) control, and this greatly increases the system operating losses. The use of phase-shifted plus PWM (PS-PWM) control can reduce the RMS value of the inductor current, but its mathematical model is complex, and involves difficult calculations. To address this problem, in the study reported here, we developed an optimal control strategy for the RMS value of the inductor current based on TAB-DCER. First, the working principle of a TAB-DCER under PS-PWM control was analyzed, and a circuit decomposition model was established. Second, the operating modes under PS-PWM control were analyzed, and corresponding expressions of port power and the RMS value of the inductor current were obtained. Third, an optimized mathematical model of the sum of squares of the RMS value of the inductor current of the TAB-DCER was constructed. Finally, a genetic algorithm was used to solve the mathematical model and derive the optimal phase shift angle; this resulted in a lower RMS value of the inductor current in the TAB-DCER and reduced the system operating losses. The simulation and experimental results show that the TAB-DCER used in the present study can reduce operating losses, improve system efficiency, and deliver coordinated power control.

Simulation analysis of energy metering error of non-vehicle charger

This paper studies three methods of DC energy measurement for non-vehicle chargers, namely, the average value method, effective value method, and time domain integration method, introduces the definition of ripple, and analyzes the characteristics of constant voltage, constant current charging mode and pulse charging mode of electric vehicles, providing an algorithm basis for the establishment of DC energy metering error model and simulation analysis. This paper studies high-power DC energy measurement algorithms with ripple parameters, analyzes the error characteristics of various algorithms, summarizes the relevant laws, and provides a theoretical basis for the design of a high-precision DC metering module under the influence of ripple.

A Novel Multi-Loop PID Controller for Photovoltaic-Grid Interface DC Energy Utilization Farm

This paper proposes a novel control system for control of a hybrid photovoltaic PV farm utilization with alternative power source for DC type loads. A controller consisting of two different controllers is mainly used to regulate the DC-DC converter and also to control power flow from alternative power source to reduce a weighted total sum of all loop errors, to mainly track a given speed reference trajectory depicting the demand for discharge or flow and also to ensure power quality, reliability and stability. The proposed control function is digitally simulated using the MATLAB/Simulink/SimPower System software environment. The dynamic performance of the hybrid system is examined for the control system validation under normal and abnormal operating conditions.