DC Fault Clearing Characteristics of a Bulk Power VSC HVDC Transmission System using DC Circuit Breakers

Development of wind power generation resources is considered in Japan. However, long‐distance transmission lines are necessary to utilize the wind power because most of the wind power resources are distant from load centers. A voltage source converter based high voltage dc transmission (VSC HVDC) system is an option to realize their effective use. A VSC HVDC system equipped with dc circuit breakers has been considered to clear the dc line faults promptly. However, the fault clearing characteristics by the dc circuit breakers have not been analyzed very well for the system with the long distance overhead transmission line. This paper focuses on a fault clearing in the VSC HVDC system with long‐distance overhead line by the dc circuit breaker using a new fault detection method. A 2.4‐GW bipolar VSC HVDC system with 600‐km overhead transmission line is modeled and its operation performance is verified by computer simulations. The simulation results demonstrate the detailed fault clearing characteristics with the long transmission line. Moreover, specifications required for the dc circuit breakers are considered in terms of operation delay, peak current, and absorbed energy.     

Pd-SiO2复合膜的氢气选择渗透特性

Palladium membranes were prepared on an a-alumina support by metal-organic compound chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method from palladium(Ⅲ) acetate precursor. Permeation properties of hydrogen and helium gas were studied as a function of the number of times of deposition of palladium on the peeling off phenomenon of palladium, which is common in electroless plated membrane, was observed. Silica was introduced into the pores to prevent the palladium grain from peeling off. The palladium-silica conjugated membrane does not show the peeling off phenomenon and can withstand the high temperature up to 800℃ which is the upper limit of our apparatus.The separation factor for hydrogen gas over carbon dioxide gas was improved with the increase of number of times of silica coating by sacrificing the H2 permeation and finally increased to four times. The improvement on the separation of hydrogen gas over carbon dioxide for pulladium-silica conjugated membrane was evaluated and a model of permeation pattern (palladium and silica) was proposed. This model suggests that the separation factor for hydrogen over carbon dioxide could be improved by introducing silica layer because the silica layer fills the pores and reduces the gas permeation without sacrificing the hydrogen permeation through the palladium region. These results indicate that the introduction of silica into the palladium grain is a promising means to improve the hydrogen separation performance of palladium based composite membranes.     

Integration of Incinerator Plants and Utilization of Forest Biomass on the Basis of FIT

Feed‐in tariff (FIT) has been enforced in order to promote the utilization of renewable energy since 2012 in Japan. In consideration of FIT, we propose an integration plan for incinerator plants (IPs) with highly efficient power generation for the whole area of a prefecture. The plan includes disposal of forest biomass using the reserve capacity of IPs. The model prefecture's population is set to 1,200,000 and the proportion of the forested area is set to 70% of the model area based on data for northeastern Japan. The present 16 IPs are integrated into three new IPs. A relay transportation (RT) facility for waste is located at a decommissioned IP, and the waste from the area is transported to the new IP. In order to calculate the RT costs, an approximation formula for the RT distance is estimated via the IPs integration study. The plan will realize about 37% cost reduction and 1.8‐fold CO₂ reduction including RT as compared to the plan to update the current IP situation. Forest biomass of 56,500 tons per year, which is about 43% of available forest biomass volume in the model prefecture, can be disposed of at new IPs. On the other hand, enough profit is not expected from the dedicated biomass power generation plant as a result of wood chip processing fees. The plan will help to develop local forestry.     

The Circuit Analysis and Performance Evaluation of an Hc Type Magnetic Coupling Contactless Power Transformer that is Compatible with Both Solenoid and Circular Type Transformers

There are two types of the transformers in a contactless power transfer system: solenoid type (H‐shaped) and circular type transformers. These two types of transformers are not compatible because their magnetic field structures are different. An Hc type transformer that is compatible with both transformer types has been proposed. The Hc type receiver adds a central magnetic pole by dividing the winding coil of the H‐shaped receiver. The Hc type receiver can change the magnetic field structure by changing the connections of the divided windings and can receive power from both types of transmitters. In this study, we conducted a circuit analysis and evaluated the performance of the Hc type transformer.     

Data‐Driven Controller Tuning for Nonminimum Phase Plants with Stability Constraints

This paper addresses the model reference control problem, which is a typical control problem found in data‐driven controller tuning methods. For nonminimum phase plants, the unstable zeros of the plant should be included in the reference to avoid destabilization of the resulting closed‐loop system and improve tracking performance. First, we propose a data‐driven controller tuning method with closed‐loop stability taken into consideration and with the tuned controller parameters in the time domain. If the plant has unstable zero(s), the proposed method would not lead to destabilizing controller in the worst case. Closed‐loop stability is checked using linear inequalities described with input/output data. This contributes to reducing computation in the proposed method. Moreover, this paper proposes a data‐driven controller tuning method for nonminimum phase plants estimating the unstable zero(s) using a flexible reference model at each parameter update and reflecting them into the resulting reference model. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed through numerical experiments.     

Circuit Analysis and Characterization of Contactless Power Transfer System with Variable Impedance

A contactless power transfer system using a repeater coil (repeater Coil topology) has been proposed as a method of suppressing overcurrent without power control during misalignment or no‐load. By installing a repeater coil between the primary and secondary coils, it is possible to increase the input impedance in the case of misalignment of the secondary coil or no‐load condition. In addition, another contactless power transfer system using primary parallel and secondary series resonance capacitors (PS capacitor topology) has been proposed. In the PS capacitor topology, the input impedance can be increased during misalignment of the secondary coil or no‐load condition similar to the repeater coil topology. In this paper, we evaluated the characteristics of both these topologies. First, we conducted a circuit analysis of the repeater coil topology and proposed a design method. In addition, we theoretically clarified the characteristic difference of the two topologies and experimentally evaluated the characteristics.     

Optimal Weekly Operation Scheduling of Pumped Storage Hydropower Plant Considering Optimal Hot Reserve Capacity in a Power System with a Large Penetration of Photovoltaic Generation

In recent years, a large amount of photovoltaic (PV) generation capacity has been installed in power systems. However, the power output from the PVs is random and intermittent in nature. Therefore, PV generation poses many challenges to power system operation. To estimate the impact of these issues on power system operation, we propose an optimal weekly demand and supply simulation method considering large penetration of PV generation. In this paper, an operation scheduling method considering optimal hot reserve capacity is studied. The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown by using Monte Carlo simulation.     

Degradation of Cholesterol in Egg Yolk by Rhodococcus equi No. 23

The degradation of egg yolk cholesterol was investigated with Rhodococcus equi No. 23, a strain previously isolated from butter. R. equi No. 23 was inoculated into culture media (10 mL) containing egg yolk at various levels (0.2 to 1.4g) and grown with continuous shaking at 37°C for varying time periods. Egg yolk cholesterol was degraded via 4-cholesten-3-one into nonsteroid compounds with almost no accumulation of steroid intermediates, as detected by thin-layer chromatography.     

The stochastic observability for noisy non-linear stochastic systems†

The purpose of this paper is to present sufficient conditions for the stochastic observability of noisy non-linear systems. First, the stochastic observability is defined and then an estimation algorithm of the system state is constructed for the given noisy non-linear stochastic system. Secondly, by using a stochastic Lyapunov-like approach, sufficient conditions of the stochastic observability are shown for non-linear systems with state dependent noise and also with state independent noise. Finally, for the purpose of supporting the theoretical aspects developed here, results of digital simulation studies are demonstrated.