Evaluation of the reduction in CO2 emissions by applying Micro‐Grid to home energy supply system

Dispersed generators such as wind power systems, photovoltaic systems, and cogeneration systems are expected to mitigate the environmental burden of energy consumption, and their installation has been promoted recently. Micro‐Grid is focused on as a method to solve some problems in a commercial electric power line when installing a large number of dispersed generators, and some demonstrative research on Micro‐Grid for large‐scale systems is being carried out now. Also, small cogeneration systems for houses, such as gas engines and fuel cells, are expected to improve CO₂ emissions. However, if the power and heat demand of a family are relatively small or are unbalanced, the cogeneration system does not operate effectively. The authors have studied the application of Micro‐Grid for home energy supply, and have developed a control system to solve this problem. The system achieves a reduction of CO₂ emissions and energy costs by sharing electric power and heat among some houses with cogeneration systems. This paper presents an outline of the newly developed system, and in particular describes the effect of the reduction in CO₂ emissions compared with a conventional energy supply method, and the case in which dispersed generators are installed in some houses and operate independently. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 170(3): 19–27, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20879     

A Hydrogen Management Method in Residential Distributed Generation Systems with Photovoltaic Cells and Hydrogen‐Storage Type Fuel Cells

Recently, renewable energy has been attracting attention as a result of global warming and the depletion of fossil fuels. Photovoltaic (PV) systems have spread rapidly around the world because they generate electric power quietly and can be installed in many places. The output power generated in a PV system fluctuates with changes in solar irradiance and panel temperature. The reverse flow of surplus power in output spikes may have a negative effect on electric power quality, such as on the frequency and voltage in a power system. A residential distributed generation (DG) system composed of a fuel cell (FC) unit, an electrolyzer (EL) unit, and a PV system has been proposed in order to resolve these problems. In order to operate this system without interruption, the hydrogen storage volume must be managed. This paper proposes a novel hydrogen management method for a residential DG system with PV cells and hydrogen‐storage type FCs. The hydrogen storage volume is maintained at the preset frequency by operating the FC unit and the EL unit. Models of the PV, FC, and EL were constructed for a simulation. In the simulation, we showed that the proposed management method is viable for a residential DG system with PV cells and hydrogen‐storage FCs.     

Cost‐Benefit Analysis of Renewable Installation in Inter‐Intelligent Renewable Energy Network

In this paper, we target the specific smart grid concept called “inter‐intelligent renewable energy network (i‐Rene),” which is characteristically associated with photovoltaic (PV) panels, microstorage, and regional electricity markets. In this smart grid, every house has an artificial intelligence agent that learns the optimal treading strategy to minimize payments by residents. From the economic standpoint, we perform a cost‐benefit analysis (CBA) of the optimal installation of PV panels and microstorage in this smart grid. To perform the CBA, we use actual measured values of power demand profiles and power production profiles, which were obtained in 2010 at Shiga, Japan. In accordance with this analysis, we also discuss the necessary conditions for achieving grid parity of the i‐Rene smart grid .     

A study on collaborative operation method for a new energy type dispersed power supply system by AC‐EMAP model

Application of a dispersed power supply system consisting of a large‐scale photovoltaic system (PV), a fuel cell (FC), and an electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) is studied in this paper. This system is operated in autonomous mode, taking account of time delay characteristics of FC. The modified Euler type Moving Average Prediction (EMAP) model is improved using short‐time fast Fourier transform (ST‐FFT). The Adaptive Control type EMAP (AC‐EMAP) model is introduced to reduce the capacity of EDLC. This system can meet the multi‐quality electric power requirements of customers, and improve voltage stability and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) function as well. Moreover, the required capacity of EDLC to compensate the fluctuation of both PV output and Load demand is clarified by a simulation based on collaborative operation method by a prediction model using software MATLAB/Simulink. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 156(1): 13–24, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20262     

DC‐linked hybrid generation system with an energy storage device including photovoltaic generation and gas engine cogeneration for residential houses

For the past few years, hybrid generation systems including solar panel and gas cogeneration have been used for residential houses. Solar panels can generate electronic power at daytime but not at night. But the power consumption of residential houses usually peaks in the evening. The gas engine cogeneration system can generate electronic power without such a restriction, and it also can generate heat power to warm up a house or to produce hot water. In this paper we propose a solar panel and gas engine cogeneration hybrid system with an energy storage device, combined by a DC bus. If a blackout occurs, the system still can supply electronic power for special house loads. We propose a control scheme for the system related to the charging level of the energy storage device and the voltage of the utility grid, which can be applied to both grid‐connected and standalone operation. Finally, we report experiments designed to demonstrate system operation and calculations for loss estimation. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 182(4): 29–46, 2013; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ).DOI 10.1002/eej.22321     

Optimal coordination of voltage controllable devices in distribution systems using power‐based models and quadratic programming

The incorporation of photovoltaic (PV) inverters makes the management of voltage difficult for power system operators. One solution is to consider these inverter‐based devices as controllable reactive power (VAr) sources and to coordinate them with other voltage regulating devices in the distribution system. This paper proposes some acceptable approximations to quickly formulate and solve a mixed‐integer quadratic programming problem to periodically determine the optimal voltage coordination of a load tap changer, voltage regulators, capacitor banks, and PVs on a smart grid platform. The solution to the optimization problem is aided by an iteration‐based algorithm. By using the MATLAB software to carry out the simulation and computation, the method is well verified by comparing its generated result with a trustworthy solution obtained from examining all possible coordinating combinations of voltage regulating devices and PVs in a modified IEEE 34‐bus system. The effectiveness and features of the method are clearly illustrated on that test system by considering a time‐varying load and PV generation. The obtained results demonstrate the practical application of this work to medium‐voltage systems. © 2017 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Load‐following control for dispersed generators using a PI controller

Recently, there has been growing interest in utilizing dispersed generation systems, which are grouped into micro turbine systems, co‐generation systems, and so on, as a substitute for fuel oil energy and a technology to prevent global warming. Since start‐up time of dispersed generation systems is short, it is possible to operate systems to supply load power corresponding to a demand. Moreover, PPSs (Power Producers and Suppliers) can participate in a power retail sales company, since deregulation of electric utilities was instituted in March 2000. However, PPSs have to keep instantaneous generating power commissioning rule, to maintain supply‐and‐demand balance between customer and supplier. Therefore, in this paper, we examine instantaneous generating power commissioning for dispersed generators where start‐up time is short and it is possible to operate systems to supply a power load corresponding to a demand. We adopt a PI controller as a controller. The system is composed of double control loop in inner loop and in outer loop. In inner loop electric power is controlled and in outer loop electric energy is controlled. The controller parameters are designed using the pole‐placement technique. The effectiveness of the proposed control system is confirmed by simulations. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 145(2): 58–66, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10200     

Optimal operation of residential fuel cell system with rapidly fluctuating energy demand

Household cogeneration systems using proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC systems) have attracted attention due to their high energy efficiency. To bring out a PEMFC system's performance, it is crucial to use effectively both the electric power and hot water produced from a PEMFC system. Therefore, the optimal scheduling problem of a PEMFC system is very important. However, there are difficulties due to uncertainty of household energy demand. A difficulty to which little attention has been paid so far lies in the difference between the scheduled electric power output and the actual electric power output of a PEMFC system caused by rapid fluctuations in electric power demand. In this paper, we propose a new method of dealing with this problem. In our method, we treat the energy demand as a random variable and calculate its probability density at each time step. Then a constraint that takes account of the energy demand fluctuations is defined through the probability density and is incorporated into the original optimal scheduling problem of the PEMFC system. Using our method, we can deal with rapid energy demand fluctuations in settings of the scheduling problem with long time intervals. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 175(1): 8–17, 2011; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.21064     

An operational algorithm for residential cogeneration systems based on the monitored daily‐basis energy demand

Residential cogeneration systems with PEFC are promising as distributed power system resources with the ability to improve energy system efficiency. However, it is important to develop an efficient algorithm for operation because the energy demand at each house differs greatly from day to day. In this paper, we propose an operational algorithm and evaluate it from the viewpoint of energy conservation and economic effectiveness based on the energy demand characteristics. In the algorithm, the hot water and electricity demand on the next day are estimated based on the average of past data. The results of simulations using actually monitored energy demand data indicate that (1) the greater the electrical demand of a household, the more effective this algorithm becomes with respect to energy conservation; (2) the greater the hot water demand of a household, the more effective this algorithm becomes with respect to economic effectiveness. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 170(2): 37–45, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley. com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20892     

A study of the buying price of photovoltaic electricity under a carbon tax regime

Assuming that photovoltaic (PV) systems are adopted in residential houses under a carbon tax regime, the economic performance of PV systems is investigated from the standpoint of an electric utility. The economic performance is estimated by using the buying price of PV electricity and the PV economic index, which is defined as the ratio of the buying price to the generation cost of the electric utility. Because these values depend on electric power development and operation, the best mix and the operation of power plants are obtained by linear programming subject to restrictions on power generation. Then, the buying price of PV electricity is calculated from the total cost of the electric utility. The buying price means the upper limit at which the electric utility never suffers a loss. The buying price is also compared with the power generation cost. The parameters are the prevalence attainment ratio of PV systems (0 to 100%), the upper limit of newly developed nuclear power plants (0 to 4 GW/10 y), and the generated energy ratio of coal‐fired thermal plants (0 to 15%). Chubu Electric Power Company, Inc. is used as the electric utility. The calculation results show that the buying price of PV electricity increases linearly with increasing carbon tax rate, and its values are 9 and 11.5 yen/kWh when the carbon tax rate is 0 and 25 thousand yen/t‐C, respectively, which does not depend on the prevalence attainment ratio of PV systems and the upper limit of newly developed nuclear power plants. It is not the carbon tax rate but the newly developed nuclear power plant that influences the PV economic index. The values of the PV economic index are 1.35 to 1.45 and 1.50 to 1.60 when the newly developed nuclear power plant capacity is 0 and 4 GW/10 y, respectively. These results show that the economic performance of PV systems is increased by developing nuclear power plants at a certain rate and introducing a carbon tax. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 143(2): 38–49, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10067     

Analysis of possible introduction of PV systems considering output power fluctuations and battery technology,employing an optimal power generation mix model

This paper presents an evaluation of the impact of extensive introduction of photovoltaic (PV) systems and stationary battery technology into the optimal power generation mix in the Kanto and Kinki regions. The introduction of solar PV systems is expected to be extensively deployed in the Japanese household sector and utility companies in order to address the concerns of energy security and climate change. Considering this expected large‐scale deployment of PV systems in electric power systems, it is necessary to investigate the optimal power generation mix which is technologically capable of controlling and accommodating the intermittent output‐power fluctuations inherent in PV systems. Against this background, we develop both a solar photovoltaic power generation model and an optimal power generation mix model, including stationary battery technology, which can be used to explicitly analyze the impact of PV output fluctuations at a detailed time interval resolution such as 10 minutes for 365 consecutive days. Simulation results reveal that PV introduction does not necessarily increase battery technology due to the cost competitiveness of thermal power plants in the load‐following requirement caused by PV systems. Additionally, on the basis of sensitivity analysis on PV system cost, dramatic cost reduction proves to be indispensable for PV to supply bulk electricity similarly to thermal and nuclear power plants. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 182(2): 9–19, 2013; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.22329     

Evaluation of the introduction of a micro‐cogeneration system into residential houses based on monitored daily‐basis energy demand data

In order to reduce CO₂ emission from residential sectors in Japan, PEFC with high efficiency and low environmental impact is expected as one of the promising micro‐cogeneration (µCGS) systems. However, the energy demands in houses largely differ from each other and the profiles are also changed every day. Thus, when µCGS is actually introduced, it is necessary to examine the equipment capacity and operation of µCGS in each house. In this paper, the optimization model is developed in order to evaluate the µCGS based on daily‐basis demand data. Using actually monitored energy demand data in four households, the differences between using daily‐basis data and using the monthly‐average data are evaluated from viewpoints of economic and environmental performance of µCGS systems. Moreover, by adding the penalty factor to disposal heat of µCGS, it is seen that system configuration and system operation of µCGS can attain CO₂ reduction and energy conservation as well as cost reduction. ©2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 166(4): 20–30, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20653     

Potential evaluation of energy supply system in grid power system,commercial, and residential sectors by minimizing energy cost

If the economic activity in the commercial and residential sector continues to grow, improvements in energy conversion efficiencies of energy supply systems is necessary for CO₂ mitigation. In recent years, the electricity driven hot water heat pump (EDHP) and the solar photovoltaic (PV) have been commercialized. The fuel cell (FC) of co‐generation system (CGS) for the commercial and residential sector will be commercialized in the future. Copyright © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The aim is to indicate the ideal energy supply system of the users sector, which manages both the economical cost and CO₂ mitigation, considering the grid power system. In this paper, cooperative Japanese energy supply systems are modeled by linear programming. It includes the grid power system and energy system of five commercial sectors and a residential sector. The demands of sectors are given by the objective term for 2005 to 2025. Twenty‐four‐hour load for each three annual seasons are considered. The energy systems are simulated to minimize the total cost of energy supply, and to mitigate the CO₂ discharge. As a result, the ideal energy system at 2025 is shown. The CGS capacity grows to 30% (62 GW) of the total power system, and the EDHP capacity is 26 GW, in commercial and residential sectors. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 160(2): 9–19, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/ eej.20361     

Controller saturation nonlinearity in doubly fed induction generator‐based wind turbines under unbalanced grid conditions

Doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) is widely used in wind energy generation systems due to its cost‐effective, partially rated back‐to‐back power converters, variable rotor speed operation, and maximum wind power capture. The conventional design assumes balanced grid voltage and utilizes power protection for the power converters. The DFIG wind turbine is naturally one of the major components in distributed generations of the smart grid system. However, newly developed smart grid system is rich in unbalanced loads. This paper summarizes the limiter settings of controllers and explores the nonlinear behaviors of the DFIG‐based wind power generation system with unbalanced loads. The generator rotor speed and an unbalanced load resistance are chosen as variation parameters. An emerging low‐frequency linear‐modulated oscillation at line second harmonic frequency with DC drifting is identified on the DC link voltage of the back‐to‐back power converters. In terms of second harmonic and the usually reported hazardous low‐frequency oscillation, the saturation nonlinearity and over‐modulation of the back‐to‐back power converter and its power flow are investigated and analyzed. The built‐in detailed model of the DFIG wind energy generation system in Matlab with SimPowerSystems library is used in this study. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of Residential PV‐EV System for Supply and Demand Balance of Power System

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in ecofriendly technologies such as residential photovoltaic (PV) systems and electric vehicles (EVs). PV systems and EVs will contribute to reducing CO₂ emissions in the residential sector and the transportation sector, respectively. In spite of that, high penetration of PV systems into the power grid can cause grid voltage and frequency stability problems. Also, the growth of the EV market will create an extra electricity load (for charging the EV fleet), leading to an increase in power utility fuel costs. In this research, we proposed the usage of the PV‐EV system as a method of mitigating the impact the spread of residential PV systems and EV on the power grid. We built an PV‐EV system simulation model and investigated the PV‐EV system contribution to the balance of power supply and demand and to reducing the total cost of the household under different electricity pricing scenarios. We also evaluated the effect of uncertainty in the forecasting of load and PV output on the performance of the PV‐EV system.     

Flywheel‐based AC cache power for stand‐alone power systems

Stand‐alone power systems (SPS) are attracting more and more interest with the global move toward distributed generation (DG). Without strong support from the power grid, they suffer from poor load‐following capability at varying loads. A cache power that has fast response and high energy efficiency is demanded. As a solution, this paper provides an AC power technology based on flywheel energy storage. Different from the other DC generation technologies such as electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) or superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES), the proposed flywheel system generates AC power and therefore can be directly connected to the power line without any power semiconductors. Furthermore, the proposed technology realizes power in/out automatically in response to the frequency/voltage variation of the power line. Therefore, this system has the advantages of robustness, simplicity, and fast response. Besides, by getting rid of power semiconductors, the proposed flywheel system has a good overload capability as high as two to three times. We prove by simulation and experimentation the validity and effectiveness of the proposed technology to provide cache power for stand‐alone power systems. © 2013 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Online energy management strategy of a hybrid fuel cell/battery/ultracapacitor vehicular power system

A hybrid power system based on a fuel cell (FC) and an energy storage system appears to be very promising for satisfying the high energy and high power requirements of automotive applications in which the power demand is impulsive rather than constant. This paper deals with the use of a hybrid energy storage system with the battery (BAT)/ultracapacitor (UC) as ancillary power source in FC electric vehicles. The energy management strategy (EMS) is one of the most important issues for the efficiency and performance of such systems. The designed EMS uses a splitting method, allowing a natural frequency decomposition of the power demands. It takes into account the slow dynamics of FC and the state of charge of the UC and BAT. A simulation is conducted using MATLAB/SIMULINK software in order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. It confirms the performance of the control method and also demonstrates the robustness and stability of the control strategy with good tracking response (transient performance), low overshoot, zero steady‐state error, and control flexibility during a power demand cycle. © 2014 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A method for designing the power and capacitance of fuel cells and electric double‐layer capacitors of hybrid railway vehicles

A hybrid railway traction system with fuel cells (FC) and electric double‐layer capacitors (EDLC) is discussed in this paper. This system can save FC costs and absorb regenerative energy. A method for designing FC and EDLC on the basis of the output power and capacitance, respectively, has not been reported, although their design is one of the most important technical issues encountered in the design of hybrid railway vehicles. Such a design method is presented along with a train load pro?le and an energy management strategy. The design results obtained using the proposed method are veri?ed by performing numerical simulations for a running train. These results reveal that the proposed method for designing the EDLC and FC on the basis of the capacitance and power, respectively, and using a method for controlling the EDLC voltage, is su?ciently e?ective in designing e?cient EDLC and FC of hybrid railway traction systems. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 184(3): 47–54, 2013; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.22395     

风光氢联合式独立发电系统的建模及仿真

提出了一种独立使用的风光氢联合式独立发电系统，该系统由风力发电、太阳能发电、氢能系统(包括电解水制氢、燃料电池系统、超级电容等)及其他系统单元组成。各单元通过2条直流总线联接，并采用功率流控制。由于风力发电与太阳能发电所输出的功率随风速和日照的变化而变化，因此采用燃料电池系统与超级电容堆与风光发电系统配合使用，以保证系统在任何条件下都具有可靠的供电性能。当风能与太阳能充足时，风机与光伏阵列可满足负荷的需要，同时还可向电解池供电；如果不能满足负荷的需要则由燃料电池提供额外的电能，同时由超级电容在短时期内向负荷提供燃料电池最大功率以外的那部分电能。最后在Matlab环境下建立了系统仿真模型，并以西藏边远村落为例对该系统的动态响应进行了仿真分析，仿真结果表明本文提出的供电系统可以用于以西藏为典型代表的风速和光能变化较大的边远地区。     

Application of unified voltage analysis for high‐ and low‐voltage distribution systems by power flow calculation using indication method between nodes

It has been noted that the voltage of connection points rises according to the reverse power flow when grid‐connected photovoltaic systems are concentrated in distribution systems in residential areas. When this happens, the photovoltaic system may control the power generation output to maintain a suitable voltage for the connection point. Designing a demand area power system aiming at free access to a distributed power supply for energy‐effective practical use requires a precise understanding of this problem. When analyzing photovoltaic systems mainly connected to low‐voltage systems, we looked for a method of analysis in which the high‐voltage systems and the low‐voltage single‐phase three‐wire systems are unified. This report concerns use of the indication method between nodes using power flow calculation, for the purpose of developing a technique of analyzing unified high‐voltage systems and low‐voltage single‐phase three‐wire systems. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 147(3): 49–62, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10255