Smart grid architecture for rural distribution networks: application to a Spanish pilot network

This paper presents a novel architecture for rural distribution grids. This architecture is designed to modernize traditional rural networks into new Smart Grid ones. The architecture tackles innovation actions on both the power plane and the management plane of the system. In the power plane, the architecture focuses on exploiting the synergies between telecommunications and innovative technologies based on power electronics managing low scale electrical storage. In the management plane, a decentralized management system is proposed based on the addition of two new agents assisting the typical Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system of distribution system operators. Altogether, the proposed architecture enables operators to use more effectively—in an automated and decentralized way—weak rural distribution systems, increasing the capability to integrate new distributed energy resources. This architecture is being implemented in a real Pilot Network located in Spain, in the frame of the European Smart Rural Grid project. The paper also includes a study case showing one of the potentialities of one of the principal technologies developed in the project and underpinning the realization of the new architecture: the so-called Intelligent Distribution Power Router.Postprint (published version

Optimization of the operation of smart rural grids through a novel rnergy management system

The paper proposes an innovative Energy Management System (EMS) that optimizes the grid operation based on economic and technical criteria. The EMS inputs the demand and renewable generation forecasts, electricity prices and the status of the distributed storages through the network, and solves with an optimal quarter-hourly dispatch for controllable resources. The performance of the EMS is quantified through diverse proposed metrics. The analyses were based on a real rural grid from the European FP7 project Smart Rural Grid. The performance of the EMS has been evaluated through some scenarios varying the penetration of distributed generation. The obtained results demonstrate that the inclusion of the EMS from both a technical point of view and an economic perspective for the adopted grid is justified. At the technical level, the inclusion of the EMS permits us to significantly increase the power quality in weak and radial networks. At the economic level and from a certain threshold value in renewables’ penetration, the EMS reduces the energy costs for the grid participants, minimizing imports from the external grid and compensating the toll to be paid in the form of the losses incurred by including additional equipment in the network (i.e., distributed storage).Postprint (published version

Reaction kinetics of protons and oxide ions in LSM/lanthanum tungstate cathodes with Pt nanoparticle activation

Composite electrodes of La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 (LSM)/La28–xW4+xO54+3x/2 (x = 0.85, “LWO56”) on LWO56 electrolytes have been characterized by use of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy vs. pO2 and temperature from 900°C, where LWO56 is mainly oxide ion conducting, to 450°C, where it is proton conducting in wet atmospheres. The impedance data are analyzed in a model which takes into account the simultaneous flow of oxide ions and protons across electrolyte and electrodes, allowing extraction of activation energies and pre-exponential factors for the partial electrode reactions of protons and oxide ions. One composite electrode was infiltrated with Pt nanoparticles with average diameter of 5 nm, lowering the overall electrode polarization resistance (Rp) at 650°C from 260 to 40 Ω cm2. The Pt-infiltrated electrode appears to be rate limited by surface reactions with activation energy of ∼90 kJ mol−1 in the low temperature proton transport regime and ∼150 kJ mol−1 in the high temperature oxide ion transport regime. The charge transfer reaction, which makes a minor contribution to Rp, exhibits activation energies of ∼85 kJ mol−1 for both oxide ion and proton charge transfer

High-speed dynamic partial reconfiguration for field programmable gate arrays

With dynamically and partially reconfigurable designs, it is necessary that the speed of the reconfiguration be accomplished in a time that is sufficiently small such that the operation of reconfiguration is not the limiting factor in the process. Therefore, the communication between the source of configuration and the configurable unit must be made as fast as possible. The aim of this work is to use an embedded controller internal to the FPGA to control the reconfiguration process and obtain the maximum speed at which reconfiguration can occur, with current FPGA technology. The use of Direct Memory Access (DMA) driven operations instead of the current arbitrated bus architectures yielded a 30% increase in the speed of reconfiguration compared to other methods such as OPB_HWICAP and PLB_HWICAP [1]. The use of interrupt driven partial reconfiguration was also introduced, allowing the processor to switch to other tasks during the reconfiguration operation. All of these contributions lead to significant performance improvements over current partial reconfiguration subsystems. The configuration controller was tested using four partially reconfigurable system implementations: (i) one targeting the Hard IP PowerPC405 on Virtex-4, (ii) a second targeting the Soft IP MicroBlaze on Virtex-5, (iii) a third targeting the Hard IP PowerPC440 on Virtex-5, and (iv) a fourth system targets the Hard IP PowerPC440 on Virtex-5 capable of adaptive feedback. The adaptive feedback Virtex-5 system can use internal voltage and temperature measurements from the Xilinx System Monitor IP to dynamically increase or decrease the speed of reconfiguration and/or change other reconfigurable aspects of the system to better match the environment

Contribution to the operation of smart rural distribution grid with energy resources for improvement of the quality of service

This Thesis aims for contributing in the deployment and operation of Smart Grid, in isolated rural areas. As it would be expected, technological developments and investments in the electrical field have mainly focused on urban and industrial areas where the energy demand is high, as well as, the possibility to recover easily the investment. Therefore, difficult accessing areas where population and electrical demand are low are less attractive to invest. For this reason, this Thesis, in parallel to the European project known as Smart Rural Grid, has focused on the rural grid development. In this sense, the Thesis contributes directly in the design, conception and justification of an innovate architecture for rural systems. The architecture has been deployed and tested at the end of a medium voltage line of Estabanell Energia in Vallfogona del Ripollès. In addition, the presented architecture is characterised to integrate power electronics with embedded battery systems, an innovative management system and a proper telecommunication network in order to gain robustness, flexibility and hosting capacity for distributed and renewable generation. To sum up, the Thesis has focused on the design and development of new operation modes, algorithms and equipment that allow to manage automatically and optimally the energy resources; like power electronics, energy storage systems, distributed and renewable generation, and controllable loads. These strategies are able to correct common issues in rural grids, such as voltage variations and electrical losses. In addition, they improve and ensure the power quality and supply continuity, contribute to reduce operational costs and infrastructure optimization and deferral.Aquesta tesi vol contribuir en el desplegament de les futures xarxes elèctriques intel.ligents, en entorns rurals que habitualment són oblidats. Cal mencionar que els principals avenços tecnològics i les inversions per part dels gestors de la xarxa s'han centrat en entorns urbans i industrials, ja que aquests solen demandar grans quantitats d'energia, fet que facilita la recuperació de la inversió. Per tant, en un entorn on la densitat de població i la demanda energètica és baixa i a més l'orografia és complexa resulta menys atractiu invertir-hi. Per aquest motiu, la tesi, en paral.lel al projecte Europeu Smart Rural Grid, s'ha centrat en el desenvolupament de les xarxes elèctriques en entorns rurals. El principal objectiu de la tesi i alhora del projecte Smart Rural Grid és desenvolupar tecnologies per concebre les futures xarxes en entorns rurals. Aquestes han de permetre incrementar la baixa eficiència, qualitat i resiliència de la xarxa. En aquest sentit, la tesi ha contribuït en la concepció, disseny i justificació d'una innovadora arquitectura. Aquesta arquitectura, s'ha dut a terme en el final d'una línia de mitja tensió d'Estabanell Energia a Vallfogona del Ripollès. A més, aquesta arquitectura es caracteritza per integrar electrònica de potència, sistemes elèctrics d'emmagatzemament, un innovador sistema de gestió i de telecomunicacions, poden proporcionar a la xarxa una major robustesa, flexibilitat i capacitat per integrar a la nova generació distribuïda i renovable. D'altre banda, la Tesi també s'ha centrat en la concepció i desenvolupament de nous modes d'operació, algoritmes i dispositius que permeten automatitzar i optimitzar la gestió dels recursos distribuïts; és a dir, la electrònica de potència, els sistemes d'emmagatzemament, la generació renovable i distribuïda i les càrregues controlables. Aquestes estratègies permeten solventar els problemes habituals en aquest tipus de xarxes, com per exemple les variacions de tensió i les pèrdues. A més, també milloren i asseguren la qualitat i continuïtat del subministrament, ajuden a reduir els costos d'operació i retrassar la inversió en nova infraestructur

Tunable Security for Deployable Data Outsourcing

Security mechanisms like encryption negatively affect other software quality characteristics like efficiency. To cope with such trade-offs, it is preferable to build approaches that allow to tune the trade-offs after the implementation and design phase. This book introduces a methodology that can be used to build such tunable approaches. The book shows how the proposed methodology can be applied in the domains of database outsourcing, identity management, and credential management

Articulated Pose Estimation Using Hierarchical Exemplar-Based Models

Exemplar-based models have achieved great success on localizing the parts of semi-rigid objects. However, their efficacy on highly articulated objects such as humans is yet to be explored. Inspired by hierarchical object representation and recent application of Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNNs) on human pose estimation, we propose a novel formulation that incorporates both hierarchical exemplar-based models and DCNNs in the spatial terms. Specifically, we obtain more expressive spatial models by assuming independence between exemplars at different levels in the hierarchy; we also obtain stronger spatial constraints by inferring the spatial relations between parts at the same level. As our method strikes a good balance between expressiveness and strength of spatial models, it is both effective and generalizable, achieving state-of-the-art results on different benchmarks: Leeds Sports Dataset and CUB-200-2011.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure