Interconnected power systems with superconducting magnetic energy storage

The objective of this work is to discuss the concept of back‐to‐back interconnection systems with energy storage, especially with a Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) incorporated into a back‐to‐back DC link. In this case, each converter of the back‐to‐back system is used as a power conditioning system for the SMES coils. Since the AC–DC converter can be designed independently of the frequency of the power system, a two‐way switch is connected to the AC side of each converter. This two‐way switch can select the interconnected power systems. By using the two‐way switches, this system can provide the stored energy in the SMES system to each interconnected power system through two AC–DC converters. For instance, lower‐cost power of each power network can be stored through two converters during the off‐peak hours and made available for dispatch to each power network during periods of demand peak. Then this system increases the reliability of electric power networks and enables the economical operations depending on the power demand. This paper describes the unique operations of the back‐to‐back interconnection with SMES and discuses the optimal SMES configuration for a 300‐MW‐class back‐to‐back interconnection. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 164(2): 37–43, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20482     

“Biaxiality Effect” on the Energy Dissipated by Elastoplastic Base-Isolators

A plane elastic-plastic solid body presenting kinematic hardening is used to simulate a pair of dampers at the base of a rigid structure and determine the energy dissipation under conditions of assigned, homogeneous cyclic loading. The well-known von Mises theory of plasticity is applied with the aim of obtaining analytical solutions to the problem. Such solutions are arrived at by first calculating the Odqvist parameter, which yields dimensionless relations that depend on the external loads and mechanical properties of the material. The results, in terms of dissipated energy, are given for the case of a sinusoidal process, represented with the help of dimensionless parameters useful for engineering applications.     

Functional and sensory properties of chicken meat from spent-hen carcasses deboned manually or mechanically in Jordan

Samples of chicken meat from spent laying hens were obtained by four different methods: (1) manual deboning of whole carcasses; (2) manual deboning of skinned carcasses; (3) mechanical deboning of whole carcasses; and (4) mechanical deboning of skinned carcasses. The meat was packaged, frozen and stored at ?18 °C for up to 3 months. Functional properties studied were pH, emulsifying capacity (EC) and water‐holding capacity (WHC) and, in addition, pigment concentration was investigated. Sensory properties included aroma, colour, texture and overall acceptability, as judged by a trained panel using a nine‐point hedonic scale. Removal of the skin prior to deboning by either method gave significantly higher values (P < 0.05) for EC, while WHC values were not significantly different among the experimental treatments, despite higher pH values for mechanically‐deboned meat, with and without skin. Pigment concentrations were highest in meat from Treatment 4 and lowest for Treatment 1, but values for both methods of deboning were affected by the presence of skin. There were no significant differences between treatments for any of the sensory properties studied. Changes occurring in the meat during frozen storage are described.     

Optimizing investment levels for energy conservation: Individual versus social perspective and the role of uncertainty

The decision to invest in energy conservation must be made in the face of uncertainty: future energy prices and the magnitude of energy savings are uncertain. Since once does not know the optimal investment level in advance, one will incur cost penalties due to misoptimization. To analyse the cost penalties it is convenient to focus on the ratio of the life cycle costs that one pays and the life cycle costs one would have paid with an optimal investment level. Two models are used to evaluate this ratio: a model for conductive heat flow through a layer of insulation, and an exponential curve fit to a large number of residential energy conservation cost data. Plotting the life cycle cost ratio versus the ration of actual and guessed energy expenditures shows the effect both of price uncertainties and of uncertainties in the performance of conservation measures. The graph can also be used to evaluate the cost to society due to the mismatch between individual and social perspectives. The curve turns out to have a broad optimum, and penalties due to misoptimization are fairly small in most cases. With these models one can also calculate the long-term price elasticity of energy demand for rational consumers. It turns out to be -0.5 in the insulation model and -1.0 in the exponential model.     

Experimental Study on Energy Consumption of Combined Conventional and Dehumidification Drying

Conventional drying, dehumidification drying, and combined conventional-dehumidification drying of wood were experimentally studied in this article. The results showed that the energy consumption in the dehumidification drying is the least but its drying time is the longest. The energy consumption in the combined drying is more than that in the dehumidification drying but less than that in the conventional drying, and the drying time is half of that in the dehumidification drying. The advantages of the combined conventional and dehumidification drying are discussed from the experiments results.     

Thermal characteristics of packed bed storage system

The thermal behaviour of a packed bed storage system charged with hot air is modelled using two partial differential equations representing the energy conservation in the air and solid phases constituting the bed. These two equations are coupled through the heat exchange process between the two phases. A fully implicit numerical scheme based on forward, upwind and central differencing for the time, first and second space derivatives, respectively, is used to solve the modelling equations. Marching technique is used for the air equation and a tri-diagonal matrix solver is employed to solve the solid equation. The solution yields the thermal structure of the bed, namely the air and solid temperature distribution inside the bed at any particular time, and the variation of total energy stored in the bed with time. The effect of bed length, solid diameter and void fraction on the thermal characteristics of the packed bed is studied. Further, the performance of the bed under variable inlet air temperature and mass flow rate is investigated.     

Distributed architecture for energy management D-structure

Electric power systems are expanding in size and complexity, and the requirement for the energy management system (EMS) is becoming more important. In this computer control system, a single control computer is used mainly as the primary computer and its software is very complicated because of its hugh number of small, quick tasks to obtain high response speed. Therefore, much effort is needed to develop and modify the programs, and the responsiveness of this centralized architecture varies greatly when many faults occur in the power system. This paper describes a new distributed architecture for the EMS. Distributed processors execute the functions cooperatively with periodic access to the common bulletin board database in which information about the power system exist. This architecture facilitates the software development and maintenance, and it also enhances the performance by the parallel processing of the distributed functions.     

Non-participants in utility energy conservation programmes

Utility conservation programmes are designed to benefit both participants and non-participants. This article outlines the issues involved in designing conservation programmes for utilities and determining the appropriate amount of incentives that can be provided to participants without harming non-participants. More importantly, the article discusses the issue of access to the programmes by utility customers. It concludes that it is the existing restrictions to participation, and not the level of compensation, that are of greatest concern to non-participants. A number of utility programmes designed to eliminate the problem of non-participation are reviewed.     

A simplified cascade current‐source inverter interconnected to a single‐phase three‐wire distribution system and its application to electric energy storage systems with batteries

A novel current source inverter system interconnected to the single‐phase grid is proposed. It has the same construction as the conventional three‐phase current source inverter that is interconnected to the single‐phase three‐wire distribution system. Though the proposed circuit has no output transformer, it can be equivalently performed as the single‐phase double cascade inverter by diverting the pole transformer in the utility system. By controlling the appropriate scheme, the output currents can be obtained as the five‐level waveforms and their distortions can be decreased sufficiently. It is applied to the interactive electric energy storage system with batteries and the basic discharging characteristics are discussed experimentally. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 150(2): 50–61, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10380     

Energy and resources as production factors in process industries

It is shown that, when the mean productivity of some factors, such as energy or materials, is upperly bounded (a condition usually arising in energy production or in the process industries where energy takes part in physico-chemical processes), the production function may not be convex and, under some further conditions, is concave. Consequences of this model on the economics of energy savings are examined, and it is shown that energy savings may be considered at three levels: in the short run, by action on labour factors: in the medium run, by investment and action on labour factors; in the long run, by technological innovation, investment in new technologies and action on labour factors. Empirical findings along these lines are thus confirmed.