Evaporating system for cryogenic support of long length HTS power cables

The paper deals with an analysis of the results of theoretical and experimental research on an evaporating system for cryogenic support as supplied to long length thermostatting channels of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cables and hybrid power transmission lines as well as thermal control systems for cryogenic components in aircraft fuel tanks during long-term spaceflights. Experimental evidence for nitrogen and hydrogen are presented here. The importance of such research for practical application in developing modern cryostatting systems has been highlighted.The design of an experimental hybrid power transmission line for studying thermostatting of superconducting power cables has been considered in the paper. The transmission line contains three sections with different types of thermal insulation and current leads providing high current supply to superconducting threads with minimum external heat inflow. The unique experimental data on heat inflows from the outer surface of the transmission line in different sections has been obtained by the authors. It is shown that it may be possible to compensate fully for external heat inflow to a cryogenic line as well as to lower the temperature of a cryogenic coolant in the section with an evaporating system for cryogenic support. In order to determine the possible length of the cryostatting work field of a long length superconducting cable, estimates of using liquid nitrogen and liquid hydrogen as a working fluid for various mass flow rates of the coolant feed have been made via the mathematical model describing physical processes in a thermostatting channel using an evaporating system for cryogenic support. Calculation data on changes in the length of the long length temperature cryostat, pressure and cooling capacity of the evaporating cryostat system has been obtained.     

Power systems of the future. I

The assets and working philosophy of individual utilities will in large measure be reflected by the modernization of their power systems in the next 2 decades. The power system of the future should enable utilities to: be more competitive with their overall strategies; provide better service; better manage their assets; extend equipment life; improve diagnostics; and develop reliability-centered maintenance. In looking ahead at the next 2 decades, we consider various options that are available, point out the less likely, and highlight those that have the potential of achieving major improvements. Although the next 20 years is a little soon for dispersed generation to have a significant impact, some of the implications of dispersed generation are considered. The following topics are covered in this paper: transmission and distribution developments; comparison of overhead and underground power delivery; the pros and cons of underground delivery; superconducting power transmission including cables; and cryoresistive delivery including conventional cryoresistive delivery, hyperconductivity and metal-plated graphite fibres     

Long-distance renewable hydrogen transmission via cables and pipelines

Intermittency is one of the main obstacles that inhibit the wide adoption of the renewable energy in the power sector. Small-scale fluctuations can be tackled by short-term energy storage system, whereas long-term or seasonal intermittencies rely on large-scale energy management solutions. Besides the supply and demand mismatch in temporal domain, renewable energy sources are usually far away from consumption points. To connect the energy sources to the demand cost-effectively, cable transmission is usually the default option, and considering the long distance, other emerging energy carriers such as hydrogen could be a feasible option. However, there is handful studies on the quantitative evaluation of the long-distance energy transmission cost. This paper investigated the economic feasibility of renewable energy transmission via routes of power cable and gas pipeline. In the direct power transmission case, renewable energy is transmitted via HVDC cable and then converted to hydrogen for convenient storage. The alternative case converts renewable energy into hydrogen at the source and transports the hydrogen in the gas pipeline to consumers. Existing data available from public domain are used for cost estimation. Results show that the improvements of capacity factor and transmission scale are the most cost-effective approach to make the renewable hydrogen economically viable. At 4000 km of transmission distance, renewable hydrogen LCOE of 7 US$/kg and 9 US$/kg are achievable for the corresponding optimum cases, respectively.     

Superconducting transmission cables

The discovery of high-temperature superconductivity (HTS) in 1986-1988 rekindled interest in superconducting power transmission cables. Many projects are underway around the world to study the use of HTS power transmission cables. The siting and environmental issues facing the expansion of transmission capacity have become increasingly more difficult with time. The HTS power cable may be able to address some of these issues, especially in urban areas, where HTS retrofits of existing conventional cables can increase capacity substantially without increasing the footprint of the cable right of way. Several of the cable projects employing HTS are discussed in this article     

长距离跨桥高压电缆的关键技术设计

在跨海大桥上敷设电力电缆不仅能够起到安全、可靠、经济地输送电能的目的,还能解决许多岛屿采用独立小发电系统,其发电成本高、可靠性低、环保效果差等问题。结合目前现有的桥梁上敷设电缆的设计经验,介绍了在进行桥梁上敷设高压电缆时在电缆热伸缩、桥梁伸缩与振动、电缆空间布置及电缆与其他管线相互影响等方面的关键技术设计,可对今后桥梁电缆的施工、运行提供借鉴。     

Power cables in 21st century energy development

A brief overview is given which identifies and predicts some issues that will impact the use and development of cables over the next decades. Reliability of such cable systems will continue to be extremely important and will moderate the rate at which new technologies are introduced. The architecture of the distribution and transmission networks may change, for example, a wider use of DC cables would be one factor. A number of issues are identified and will require attention over the first part of the 21st Century. This will lead to more extensive use of underground and undersea cable systems. The following topics are covered: HVDC transmission; AC distribution and transmission cables; monitoring/diagnostic systems; multifunctional cables; and superconducting cables     

Feasibility of Iceland/United Kingdom HVDC submarine cable link

The authors address: market considerations, including forecasts for the development of electricity supply in the United Kingdom with cost of electricity from new plant; investments for the development of hydro resources in Iceland, supply of submarine cables, overhead transmission lines, and rectifier/inverter plant; marine environment, installation of cables, and cable repair; rectifier/inverter station equipment; high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) overhead transmission lines; and overall availability of the link. It is shown that: there should be no major difficulties in the manufacture and laying of submarine cables of the length and type necessary for the link; the availability of the connection should be at least equal to that of a new coal or nuclear plant; and the cost of energy delivered would be very competitive with that from new coal or nuclear power stations     

35kV三相统包冷绝缘高温超导电缆磁场数值计算

针对传统地下输电电缆已不能满足大城市未来发展的用电需求,以35kV三相统包冷绝缘高温超导电缆为例,首先对其超导电缆结构参数进行分析,计算出每层自感和互感,进而得出层电流分布;然后基于电磁物理学结合微分法推导超导电缆本体磁场逐点计算公式,根据三相超导电缆结构建立数值仿真计算三维模型;分别使用解析法、数值法对其超导电缆内部、外部磁场进行计算。计算结果表明,内部磁场分布并不均匀,最大磁感应强度位于载流层最外层;外部磁场呈负指数分布且护套层外部磁场最大值远远低于国际非电离辐射防护委员会给出的磁场强度限值100μT。     

Prospects and economic feasibility analysis of wind and solar photovoltaic hybrid systems for hydrogen production and storage: A case study of the Brazilian electric power sector

The work aims to verify the economic feasibility of renewable hybrid systems for hydrogen production and storage in the Brazilian electric power sector. The methodology applied is based on economic cost analyses of the two largest wind and solar photovoltaic plants in the country. As a result, the number of hours of electricity available for hydrogen production directly influences its cost. However, fully dedicated plants to produce green hydrogen have shown economically feasible to the exporter or other sectors, being trading hydrogen is more profitable than transforming it back into power. The model also concludes that wind and solar hybrid systems for hydrogen production and storage are still not economically viable in Brazil. The CAPEX of electrolysers and their operating losses are still very significant. Finally, hydrogen production and storage become economically feasible only from plants operating above 3000 h and for electrolysers with a CAPEX of USD 650/kWe.     

Model systems in photoelectrochemical energy conversion

Several model photoelectrochemical energy conversion systems are devised and analyzed, based on properties of liquid junction-solid state semi-conductor photoactive “membranes”. The systems are classified in terms of the following output objectives: electric power, short term chemical energy storage, desalted water from a saline source, acid-base production from a saline source, and hydrogen and oxygen from water. Multicompartment photoelectrochemical cells designed to achieve these objectives are made from various combinations of the photoactive component and ion selective membranes. All of the objectives are projected as technically feasible, but only the electric power and desalting are projected as economically feasible based on state-of-the-art technology. The properties of conceptual new solid state membranes needed to meet economic objectives in the other cases are analyzed.     

电缆中空间电荷的测量与特性研究

交联聚乙烯电力电缆因其优异的电气性能,现已广泛应用于电力系统输配电线路中,然而由于绝缘本体中空间电荷的存在,会畸变局部场强,进而导致绝缘老化和击穿,因此研究电缆本体绝缘中空间电荷的分布具有重大意义。目前针对固体绝缘电介质,电声脉冲法测量空间电荷由于无损和方便等优势,在国内外被广泛采用。鉴于此,介绍了电声脉冲法的测量原理,并且结合实际运行情况中电缆线芯和外半导体之间存在温度差,通过穿心升流变压器和接触式温度传感器控制线芯温度,改进测量下电极形状以适应不同厚度和半径的电缆本体绝缘,设计了一套能够用于电缆本体的空间电荷测量装置,并进行了不同温度下的实际测量,实验结果表明,温度对声信号在介质中的传播速度以及空间电荷的注入影响明显。     

Economic feasibility of solar pumping

Two major questions concerning the economic feasibility of solar pumping are addressed. The first of these is concerned with finding a least-cost solar system by considering the alternative use of either thermal or water storage. The second involves the determination of areas where solar energy would be economically competitive with electricity or fuel as a power source for pumping installations.A linear programming solution is developed to find the optimal combination of thermal and water storage for a solar installation. The formulation is then extended to determine a least-cost system when hybrid systems are considered. A hybrid system may incorporate a combination of solar, electric and fuel power inputs. The concept of a breakeven “critical” distance from existing infastructure for solar installations is developed, and an example problem is provided to illustrate typical values of this distance and to show its sensitivity to the base energy costs and rate of inflation for those costs. It appears that electrical pumping is probably the most economical alternative provided that electric infrastructure is located nearby. Fuel power will also be more economical than solar if there is a source of fuel near the proposed pumping site. However, solar systems may be economically competitive when considered for installation at realistic distances from existing infrastructure.     

Techno-economic analysis of RES & hydrogen technologies integration in remote island power system

The main objective of the present study is the integration of hydrogen technologies as an energy storage medium in a hybrid power system. The existing power system of the island of Milos, which is based on fossil fuel generators and a small wind park, is assessed in the context of this paper. System level simulation results, from both technical and economic point of view, are presented for the currently existing and the proposed island's hybrid power system. The latter integrates a higher number of wind turbines and hydrogen technologies as energy storage medium, and the two system architectures are being compared taking into account not only technical and economic parameters but also Green House – Gas (GHG) emissions, fossil fuels consumption and Renewable Energy Sources (RES) penetration increase. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis has been performed in order to determine the contribution of hydrogen technologies equipment costs; with the cost of energy produced (COE) being the critical parameter. Results show that COE for the proposed power system is higher than the existing one, but on the other hand GHG emissions and fossil fuel consumption are significantly reduced. In addition, RES penetration increases dramatically and the sensitivity analysis indicates that a further reduction in hydrogen technologies equipment and subsidy on wind turbine costs would make RES & Hydrogen-based systems economically competitive to the existing power system of the island.     

Hydrogen as a battery for a rooftop household solar power generation unit

Decentralization of electrical power generation using rooftop solar units is projected to develop to not only mitigate power losses along transmission and distribution lines, but to control greenhouse gases emissions. Due to intermittency of solar energy, traditional batteries are used to store energy. However, batteries have several drawbacks such as limited lifespan, low storage capacity, uncontrolled discharge when not connected to a load and limited number of charge/discharge cycles. In this paper, the feasibility of using hydrogen as a battery is analyzed where hydrogen is produced by the extra diurnal generated electricity by a rooftop household solar power generation unit and utilized in a fuel cell system to generate the required electrical power at night. In the proposed design, two rooftop concentrated photovoltaic thermal (CPVT) systems coupled with an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) are used to generate electricity during 9.5 h per day and the extra power is utilized in an electrolyzer to produce hydrogen. Various working fluids (Isobutane, R134a, R245fa and R123) are used in the ORC system to analyze the maximum feasible power generation by this section. Under the operating conditions, the generated power by ORC as well as its efficiency are evaluated for various working fluids and the most efficient working fluid is selected. The required power for the compressor in the hydrogen storage process is calculated and the number of electrolyzer cells required for the hydrogen production system is determined. The results indicate that the hybrid CPVT-ORC system produces 2.378 kW of electricity at 160 suns. Supplying 65% of the produced electricity to an electrolyzer, 0.2606 kg of hydrogen is produced and stored for nightly use in a fuel cell system. This amount of hydrogen can generate the required electrical power at night while the efficiency of electrolyzer is more than 70%.     

西北750 kV示范工程输电线路OPGW光缆防振特性的研究

介绍了光纤复合架空地线(OPGW)光缆在国内第一个超高压西北750 kV官亭-兰州东输电线路的应用。结合西北750 kV输电线路的特点和对OPGW的要求,描述了750 kV输电线路OPGW光缆的结构设计的特点,同时通过750 kV官亭-兰州东输电线路大档距OPGW光缆防振特性的研究,为西北750 kV输电线路1 235m大档距OPGW光缆推荐了满足技术条件的直线档防振方案,并提供了测试结果及分析意见,对探索和积累750 kV超高压等级上OPGW光缆的设计和运行经验具有现实意义。     

Economic viability and regulation effects of infrastructure investments for inter-regional electricity transmission and trade in China

The transition of energy structure to renewable energy is a social and systematic engineering that requires complex regional power interconnection as a support. Thus, an assessment of the economic viability of infrastructure investments for supporting such transmission expansion is crucial. This study presents a multi-regional power system optimization model to evaluate the potential economic benefits of infrastructure investments for the national inter-regional electricity network in China under various scenarios in the context of low-carbon transformation. Key factors influencing economic benefits are analyzed specifically and regulation barriers associated with inter-regional electricity trade are given particular attention. The results show that approximately 140 Giga Watt (GW) of infrastructure construction for the inter-regional electricity trade network is economically viable during the planning horizon. These new interconnections would lead to 250–440 billion RMB of economic benefits. Regional electricity trade barriers caused by imperfect market mechanisms have a negative impact on the economic benefits of transmission infrastructure investments, although they promote scale and utilization efficiency in the power sector of electricity-importing regions. Improving the national grid coordination mechanism to break the grid isolation between the State Grid Corporation of China and the China Southern Power Grid is crucial, because a large number of transmission lines connecting these two national-level power grids are economically viable.     

Technico-economic analysis of off grid solar PV/Fuel cell energy system for residential community in desert region

A technico-economic analysis based on integrated modeling, simulation, and optimization approach is used in this study to design an off grid hybrid solar PV/Fuel Cell power system. The main objective is to optimize the design and develop dispatch control strategies of the standalone hybrid renewable power system to meet the desired electric load of a residential community located in a desert region. The effects of temperature and dust accumulation on the solar PV panels on the design and performance of the hybrid power system in a desert region is investigated. The goal of the proposed off-grid hybrid renewable energy system is to increase the penetration of renewable energy in the energy mix, reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion, and lower the cost of energy from the power systems. Simulation, modeling, optimization and dispatch control strategies were used in this study to determine the performance and the cost of the proposed hybrid renewable power system. The simulation results show that the distributed power generation using solar PV and Fuel Cell energy systems integrated with an electrolyzer for hydrogen production and using cycle charging dispatch control strategy (the fuel cell will operate to meet the AC primary load and the surplus of electrical power is used to run the electrolyzer) offers the best performance. The hybrid power system was designed to meet the energy demand of 4500 kWh/day of the residential community (150 houses). The total power production from the distributed hybrid energy system was 52% from the solar PV, and 48% from the fuel cell. From the total electricity generated from the photovoltaic hydrogen fuel cell hybrid system, 80.70% is used to meet all the AC load of the residential community with negligible unmet AC primary load (0.08%), 14.08% is the input DC power for the electrolyzer for hydrogen production, 3.30% are the losses in the DC/AC inverter, and 1.84% is the excess power (dumped energy). The proposed off-grid hybrid renewable power system has 40.2% renewable fraction, is economically viable with a levelized cost of energy of 145 $/MWh and is environmentally friendly (zero carbon dioxide emissions during the electricity generation from the solar PV and Fuel Cell hybrid power system).     

Design of a cost-effective on-grid hybrid wind–hydrogen based CHP system using a modified heuristic approach

An economic model and optimization procedure is developed in this paper for grid-connected hybrid wind–hydrogen combined heat and power systems for residential applications in northeastern Iran. The model considers various significant factors: energy production cost, electrical trade with local grid, electrical power generation from the wind/hydrogen energy system, thermal recovery from the fuel cell, and maintenance. Also, various tariffs for purchasing and selling electrical energy from the local grid are considered for the hybrid system operation. The optimization objective is to minimize the system total cost subject to relevant constraints for residential applications. To achieve this aim, an efficient optimization method is proposed based on particle swarm optimization. The proposed algorithm performance is compared with that for the imperialist competition algorithm. The results show that the hybrid system is the most cost-effective for the residential load, and the results of the proposed algorithm are more promising than those for the alternative algorithm.     

Techno-economic evaluation of hydrogen refueling stations with liquid or gaseous stored hydrogen

In this study, different hydrogen refueling station (HRS) architectures are analyzed energetically as well as economically for 2015 and 2050. For the energetic evaluation, the model published in Bauer et al. [1] is used and norm-fitting fuelings according to SAE J2601 [2] are applied. This model is extended to include an economic evaluation. The compressor (gaseous hydrogen) resp. pump (liquid hydrogen) throughput and maximum pressures and volumes of the cascaded high-pressure storage system vessels are dimensioned in a way to minimize lifecycle costs, including depreciation, capital commitment and electricity costs. Various station capacity sizes are derived and energy consumption is calculated for different ambient temperatures and different station utilizations. Investment costs and costs per fueling mass are calculated based on different station utilizations and an ambient temperature of +12 °C. In case of gaseous trucked-in hydrogen, a comparison between 5 MPa and 20 MPa low-pressure storage is conducted. For all station configurations and sizes, a medium-voltage grid connection is applied if the power load exceeds a certain limit. For stations with on-site production, the electric power load of the hydrogen production device (electrolyzer or gas reformer) is taken into account in terms of power load. Costs and energy consumption attributed to the production device are not considered in this study due to comparability to other station concepts. Therefore, grid connection costs are allocated to the fueling station part excluding the production device. The operational strategy of the production device is also considered as energy consumption of the subsequent compressor or pump and the required low-pressure storage are affected by it. All station concepts, liquid truck-supplied hydrogen as well as stations with gaseous truck-supplied or on-site produced hydrogen show a considerable cost reduction potential. Long-term specific hydrogen costs of large stations (6 dispensers) are 0.63 €/kg – 0.76 €/kg (dependent on configuration) for stations with gaseous stored hydrogen and 0.18 €/kg for stations with liquid stored hydrogen. The study focuses only on the refueling station and does not allow a statement about the overall cost-effectiveness of different pathways.     

Discharge dynamics of coupled fuel cell and metal hydride hydrogen storage bed for small wind hybrid systems

In small hybrid wind systems, excess wind energy is stored for later use during the deficit power generation. Excess wind energy can be stored as hydrogen in a metal hydride storage bed and reused later to generate power using a fuel cell. This paper deals with the discharge dynamics of the coupled fuel cell and metal hydride storage bed during the power extraction. Thermal coupling of the fuel cell and metal hydride bed is also discussed. The waste heat generated in the fuel cell is removed using a water coolant. The exit fuel cell coolant stream is passed through the metal hydride storage bed to supply the necessary heat required for desorption of hydrogen from the bed. This will also lead to a reduction in the load on the radiator. The discharge dynamics and the thermal management of the coupled system are demonstrated through a system simulation model developed in Matlab/Simulink platform.