Towards 100% renewable energy systems: Uncapping power system flexibility

Relying almost entirely on energy from variable renewable resources such as wind and solar energy will require a transformation in the way power systems are planned and operated. This paper outlines the necessary steps in creating power systems with the flexibility needed to maintain stability and reliability while relying primarily on variable energy resources. These steps are provided in the form of a comprehensive overview of policies, technical changes, and institutional systems, organized in three development phases: an initial phase (penetration up to about 10%) characterized by relatively mild changes to conventional power system operations and structures; a dynamic middle phase (up to about 50% penetration) characterized by phasing out conventional generation and a concerted effort to wring flexibility from existing infrastructure; and the high penetration phase that inevitably addresses how power systems operate over longer periods of weeks or months when variable generation will be in either short supply, or in over-abundance. Although this transition is likely a decades-long and incremental process and depends on the specifics of each system, the needed policies, research, demonstration projects and institutional changes need to start now precisely because of the complexity of the transformation. The list of policy actions presented in this paper can serve as a guideline to policy makers on effectuating the transition and on tracking the preparedness of systems.     

Renewable generation versus demand-side management. A comparison for the Spanish market

Conventionally the required instantaneous balance generation-load is achieved by adjusting production to fit variable consumer demand. Nowadays, a significant and increasing segment of generation is renewable. But renewable production cannot be scheduled on request since its generation is dependent on nature (wind, sun, …). In this context, demand-side management (DSM) would help since it would be advisable for part of the flexibility to be provided by the demand.The integration of renewable production and demand-side management (DSM), are compared in this work for Spain throughout 2008–2014. First a qualitative model, based on the linearization of the wholesale market, is employed to explore some hypotheses. A set of scenarios are then examined to quantify the main effects on the market.The results show that DSM exhibits the best performance in terms of economic efficiency and environmental sustainability, as well as for the reduction of load peaks and losses in the system, what suggests the convenience of promoting plans for the replacement of equipment with other more efficient as well as the implementation of real-time tariffs.     

Electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Poland

This article describes the current state of development and future direction in the market for electric vehicles in Poland, with respect to the charging infrastructure. The authors have concentrated above all on the assumptions and results of ventures to-date in this field. There has also been conducted an analysis of the influence of electric vehicle development, in part concerning the charging infrastructure, on the Polish power system. In addition, this article outlines the potential for using electric vehicle charging terminals, in developing Semi Smart systems at the level of low-voltage distribution grids.     

Indoor air quality in Portuguese schools: levels and sources of pollutants

Indoor air quality (IAQ) parameters in 73 primary classrooms in Porto were examined for the purpose of assessing levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), aldehydes, particulate matter, ventilation rates and bioaerosols within and between schools, and potential sources. Levels of VOCs, aldehydes, PM_2.5, PM₁₀, bacteria and fungi, carbon dioxide (CO₂), carbon monoxide, temperature and relative humidity were measured indoors and outdoors and a walkthrough survey was performed concurrently. Ventilation rates were derived from CO₂ and occupancy data. Concentrations of CO₂ exceeding 1000 ppm were often encountered, indicating poor ventilation. Most VOCs had low concentrations (median of individual species <5 μg/m³) and were below the respective WHO guidelines. Concentrations of particulate matter and culturable bacteria were frequently higher than guidelines/reference values. The variability of VOCs, aldehydes, bioaerosol concentrations, and CO₂ levels between schools exceeded the variability within schools. These findings indicate that IAQ problems may persist in classrooms where pollutant sources exist and classrooms are poorly ventilated; source control strategies (related to building location, occupant behavior, maintenance/cleaning activities) are deemed to be the most reliable for the prevention of adverse health consequences in children in schools.     

Atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge generation by a full-bridge flying capacitor multilevel inverter

A new configuration of a resonant full-bridge flying capacitor multicell inverter has been designed and constructed with the aim of achieving an extended output voltage frequency range with low harmonic distortion and reduced semiconductor commutation losses. This configuration was tested as a power supply for two different coaxial dielectric barrier discharge reactors, one of them employed for electric characterization and the other one for inorganic compound elimination in an aqueous solution. Two different gas mixtures, 90% Ar–10% O_2 and80% Ar–20% O_2, were individually supplied during the experiments; the results showed a highefficiency removal of meta-cresol(m-cresol) to the order of 98%, which was obtained by adding more oxygen to the plasma gas mixture.     

含独立源T-Π形电路等效变换的几个结论

本文讨论了含独立电源T形电路和Π形电路的等效变换,总结了几个相关的结论并给出了证明。这些结论扩展了T形电路和Π形电路等效变换的内容。通过实例说明了这些结论的正确性。本文的分析对电路课程教学具有一定的价值,可供教学参考。     

Biohydrogen by Rhodobacter sphaeroides during photo-fermentation: Mixed vs. sole carbon sources enhance bacterial growth and H2 production

Mixed carbon sources fermentation by bacteria is a promising approach for biohydrogen (H₂) production biotechnology. In the present study, growth and Н₂ production by purple bacteria Rhodobacter sphaeroides MDC6521 during mixed carbon sources (succinate + acetate, succinate + malate, and malate + acetate) photo-fermentation was investigated. The growth rate of bacteria in mixed carbon sources containing medium was of ∼0.33 h⁻¹ which was considerably higher (1.3–1.7-fold) compared with sole carbon substrate containing one. Moreover, the H₂ production during photo-fermentation of succinate and acetate mixture was of ∼6.5 mmol H₂ g⁻¹ (dry weight of biomass) and significantly more (∼2–3-fold) than that with appropriate sole sources and higher (1.5-fold) than that with succinate and malate mixture. Probably, supplementation of the mixed carbon sources into bacterial culture alters the mode of metabolism, resulting in enhanced H₂ production, thus they can be preferable compared to the sole carbon source. The changed F_OF₁-ATPase activity of membrane vesicles suggested its important role in the increase of Н₂ production efficiency. The results showed that mixed carbon sources provide more H₂ than the sole carbon substrates and succinate with acetate mixture is better than succinate with malate.     

Load frequency control of an autonomous hybrid power system by quasi-oppositional harmony search algorithm

This paper deals with a novel quasi-oppositional harmony search algorithm (QOHSA) based design of load frequency controller for an autonomous hybrid power system model (HPSM) consisting of multiple power generating units and energy storage units. QOHSA is a novel improved version of music inspired harmony search algorithm for obtaining the best solution vectors and faster convergence rate. In this paper, the efficacy of the proposed QOHSA is adjudged for optimized load frequency control (LFC) of an autonomous HPSM. The studied HPSM consists of renewable/non-renewable energy based generating units such as wind turbine generator, solar photovoltaic, solar thermal power generator, diesel engine generator, fuel cell with aqua-electrolyzer while energy storage units consists of battery energy storage system, flywheel energy storage system and ultra-capacitor. Gains of the conventional controllers such as integral (I) controller, proportional–integral (PI) controller and proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller (installed as frequency controller one at a time in the proposed HPSM) is optimized using QOHSA to mitigate any frequency deviation owing to sudden generation/load change. In order to corroborate the efficacy of QOHSA, performance of QOHSA to design optimal LFC is compared with that of other well-established technique such as teaching learning based optimization algorithm (TLBOA). The comparative performances of the HPSM under the action of QOHSA/TLBOA based optimized conventional controllers (I or PI or PID) are investigated and compared in the present work. It is found that the QOHSA tuned frequency controllers improves the overall dynamic response in terms of settling time, overshoot and undershoot in the profile of frequency deviation and power deviation of the studied HPSM.     

Indoor emissions of total and fluorescent supermicron particles during HOMEChem

Inhalation of particulate matter is associated with adverse health outcomes. The fluorescent portion of supermicron particulate matter has been used as a proxy for bioaerosols. The sources and emission rates of fluorescent particles in residential environments are not well-understood. Using an ultraviolet aerodynamic particle sizer (UVAPS), emissions of total and fluorescent supermicron particles from common human activities were investigated during the HOMEChem campaign, a test-house investigation of the chemistry of indoor environments. Human occupancy and activities, including cooking and mopping, were found to be considerable sources of indoor supermicron fluorescent particles, which enhanced the indoor particle concentrations by two orders of magnitude above baseline levels. The estimated total (fluorescent) mass emission rates for the activities tested were in the range of 4-30 (1-11) mg per person meal for cooking and 0.1-4.9 (0.05-4.7) mg/h for occupancy and mopping. Model calculations indicate that, once released, the dominant fate of coarse particles (2.5-10 micrometer in diameter) was deposition onto indoor surfaces, allowing for the possibility of subsequent resuspension and consequent exposures over durations much longer than the ventilation time scale. Indoor coarse particle deposition would also contribute to soiling of indoor surfaces.     

Optimal External Source Distribution in Subcritical Slab Reactors

The problem of the optimal external source distribution for maximum power in sub-critical uniform slab reactors with a maximum flux constraint is analyzed. The complete analytical solution of the problem is obtained, within the one group diffusion approximation, using optimal control theory. Some numerical examples are included to illustrate the behavior of the optimal solution.