Magnetics in Smart Grid

This journal issue contain selected papers from the Asia-Pacific Data Storage Conference (APDSC'13)A revolution in power transmission and distribution, driven by environmental and economic considerations, is occurring all over the world. This revolution is spearheaded by the development of the smart grid. The smart grid is bringing profound change to both the power systems and many related industries. This paper reviews the development of the smart grid and its correlation with magnetics, including electromagnetic compatibility issue, magnetic-field-based measurement/monitoring, and magnetic energy storage/conversion. The challenge to the field of magnetics and the usage of the cutting edge magnetics technology in the development of the smart grid are discussed. This paper enables researchers in the magnetics community to be acquainted with the progress in the smart grid and inspires innovative applications of state-of-the-art magnetics technologies in the smart grid.published_or_final_versio

Recent Developments and Challenges on AC Microgrids Fault Detection and Protection Systems–A Review

The protection of AC microgrids (MGs) is an issue of paramount importance to ensure their reliable and safe operation. Designing reliable protection mechanism, however, is not a trivial task, as many practical issues need to be considered. The operation mode of MGs, which can be grid-connected or islanded, employed control strategy and practical limitations of the power electronic converters that are utilized to interface renewable energy sources and the grid, are some of the practical constraints that make fault detection, classification, and coordination in MGs different from legacy grid protection. This article aims to present the state-of-the-art of the latest research and developments, including the challenges and issues in the field of AC MG protection. A broad overview of the available fault detection, fault classification, and fault location techniques for AC MG protection and coordination are presented. Moreover, the available methods are classified, and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed

Innovation in Energy Systems

It has been a little over a century since the inception of interconnected networks and little has changed in the way that they are operated. Demand-supply balance methods, protection schemes, business models for electric power companies, and future development considerations have remained the same until very recently. Distributed generators, storage devices, and electric vehicles have become widespread and disrupted century-old bulk generation - bulk transmission operation. Distribution networks are no longer passive networks and now contribute to power generation. Old billing and energy trading schemes cannot accommodate this change and need revision. Furthermore, bidirectional power flow is an unprecedented phenomenon in distribution networks and traditional protection schemes require a thorough fix for proper operation. This book aims to cover new technologies, methods, and approaches developed to meet the needs of this changing field

Fault Management in DC Microgrids:A Review of Challenges, Countermeasures, and Future Research Trends

The significant benefits of DC microgrids have instigated extensive efforts to be an alternative network as compared to conventional AC power networks. Although their deployment is ever-growing, multiple challenges still occurred for the protection of DC microgrids to efficiently design, control, and operate the system for the islanded mode and grid-tied mode. Therefore, there are extensive research activities underway to tackle these issues. The challenge arises from the sudden exponential increase in DC fault current, which must be extinguished in the absence of the naturally occurring zero crossings, potentially leading to sustained arcs. This paper presents cut-age and state-of-the-art issues concerning the fault management of DC microgrids. It provides an account of research in areas related to fault management of DC microgrids, including fault detection, location, identification, isolation, and reconfiguration. In each area, a comprehensive review has been carried out to identify the fault management of DC microgrids. Finally, future trends and challenges regarding fault management in DC-microgrids are also discussed

Bidirectional Electric Vehicles Service Integration in Smart Power Grid with Renewable Energy Resources

As electric vehicles (EVs) become more popular, the utility companies are forced to increase power generations in the grid. However, these EVs are capable of providing power to the grid to deliver different grid ancillary services in a concept known as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and grid-to-vehicle (G2V), in which the EV can serve as a load or source at the same time. These services can provide more benefits when they are integrated with Photovoltaic (PV) generation. The proper modeling, design and control for the power conversion systems that provide the optimum integration among the EVs, PV generations and grid are investigated in this thesis. The coupling between the PV generation and integration bus is accomplished through a unidirectional converter. Precise dynamic and small-signal models for the grid-connected PV power system are developed and utilized to predict the system’s performance during the different operating conditions. An advanced intelligent maximum power point tracker based on fuzzy logic control is developed and designed using a mix between the analytical model and genetic algorithm optimization. The EV is connected to the integration bus through a bidirectional inductive wireless power transfer system (BIWPTS), which allows the EV to be charged and discharged wirelessly during the long-term parking, transient stops and movement. Accurate analytical and physics-based models for the BIWPTS are developed and utilized to forecast its performance, and novel practical limitations for the active and reactive power-flow during G2V and V2G operations are stated. A comparative and assessment analysis for the different compensation topologies in the symmetrical BIWPTS was performed based on analytical, simulation and experimental data. Also, a magnetic design optimization for the double-D power pad based on finite-element analysis is achieved. The nonlinearities in the BIWPTS due to the magnetic material and the high-frequency components are investigated rely on a physics-based co-simulation platform. Also, a novel two-layer predictive power-flow controller that manages the bidirectional power-flow between the EV and grid is developed, implemented and tested. In addition, the feasibility of deploying the quasi-dynamic wireless power transfer technology on the road to charge the EV during the transient stops at the traffic signals is proven

AN INTELLIGENT PASSIVE ISLANDING DETECTION AND CLASSIFICATION SCHEME FOR A RADIAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

Distributed generation (DG) provides users with a dependable and cost-effective source of electricity. These are directly connected to the distribution system at customer load locations. Integration of DG units into an existing system has significantly high importance due to its innumerable advantages. The high penetration level of distributed generation (DG) provides vast techno-economic and environmental benefits, such as high reliability, reduced total system losses, efficiency, low capital cost, abundant in nature, and low carbon emissions. However, one of the most challenges in microgrids (MG) is the island mode operations of DGs. the effective detection of islanding and rapid DG disconnection is essential to prevent safety problems and equipment damage. The most prevalent islanding protection scheme is based on passive techniques that cause no disruption to the system but have extensive non-detection zones. As a result, the thesis tries to design a simple and effective intelligent passive islanding detection approach using a CatBoost classifier, as well as features collected from three-phase voltages and instantaneous power per phase visible at the DG terminal. This approach enables initial features to be extracted using the Gabor transform (GT) technique. This signal processing (SP) technique illustrates the time-frequency representation of the signal, revealing several hidden features of the processed signals to be the input of the intelligent classifier. A radial distribution system with two DG units was utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed islanding detection method. The effectiveness of the proposed islanding detection method was verified by comparing its results to those of other methods that use a random forest (RF) or a basic artificial neural network (ANN) as a classifier. This was accomplished through extensive simulations using the DigSILENT Power Factory® software. Several measures are available, including accuracy (F1 Score), the area under the curve (AUC), and training time. The suggested technique has a classification accuracy of 97.1 per cent for both islanded and non-islanded events. However, the RF and ANN classifiers\u27 accuracies for islanding and non-islanding events, respectively, are proven to be 94.23 and 54.8 per cent, respectively. In terms of the training time, the ANN, RF, and CatBoost classifiers have training times of 1.4 seconds, 1.21 seconds, and 0.88 seconds, respectively. The detection time for all methods was less than one cycle. These metrics demonstrate that the suggested strategy is robust and capable of distinguishing between the islanding event and other system disruptions

Inductive Wireless Power Transfer Charging for Electric vehicles - A Review

Considering a future scenario in which a driverless Electric Vehicle (EV) needs an automatic charging system without human intervention. In this regard, there is a requirement for a fully automatable, fast, safe, cost-effective, and reliable charging infrastructure that provides a profitable business model and fast adoption in the electrified transportation systems. These qualities can be comprehended through wireless charging systems. Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) is a futuristic technology with the advantage of flexibility, convenience, safety, and the capability of becoming fully automated. In WPT methods resonant inductive wireless charging has to gain more attention compared to other wireless power transfer methods due to high efficiency and easy maintenance. This literature presents a review of the status of Resonant Inductive Wireless Power Transfer Charging technology also highlighting the present status and its future of the wireless EV market. First, the paper delivers a brief history throw lights on wireless charging methods, highlighting the pros and cons. Then, the paper aids a comparative review of different type’s inductive pads, rails, and compensations technologies done so far. The static and dynamic charging techniques and their characteristics are also illustrated. The role and importance of power electronics and converter types used in various applications are discussed. The batteries and their management systems as well as various problems involved in WPT are also addressed. Different trades like cyber security economic effects, health and safety, foreign object detection, and the effect and impact on the distribution grid are explored. Prospects and challenges involved in wireless charging systems are also highlighting in this work. We believe that this work could help further the research and development of WPT systems.publishedVersio

Detection of faults in a scaled down doubly-fed induction generator using advanced signal processing techniques.

The study ventures into the development of a micro-based doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) test rig for fault studies. The 5kW wound rotor induction machine (WRIM) that was used in the test rig was based on a scaled-down version of a 2.5MW doubly fed induction generator (DFIG). The micromachine has been customized to make provision for implementing stator inter-turn short-circuit faults (ITSCF), rotor ITSCF and static eccentricity (SE) faults in the laboratory environment. The micromachine has been assessed under the healthy and faulty states, both before and after incorporating a converter into the rotor circuit of the machine. In each scenario, the fault signatures have been characterised by analyzing the stator current, rotor current, and the DFIG controller signals using the motor current signature analysis (MCSA) and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) analysis techniques to detect the dominant frequency components which are indicative of these faults. The purpose of the study is to evaluate and identify the most suitable combination of signals and techniques for the detection of each fault under steady-state and transient operating conditions. The analyses of the results presented in this study have indicated that characterizing the fault indicators independent of the converter system ensured clarity in the fault diagnosis process and enabled the development of a systematic fault diagnosis approach that can be applied to a controlled DFIG. It has been demonstrated that the occurrence of the ITSCFs and the SE fault in the micro-WRIM intensifies specific frequency components in the spectral plots of the stator current, rotor current, and the DFIG controller signals, which may then serve as the dominant fault indicators. These dominant components may be used as fault markers for classification and have been used for pattern recognition under the transient condition. In this case, the DWT and spectrogram plots effectively illustrated characteristic patterns of the dominant fault indicators, which were observed to evolve uniquely and more distinguishable in the rotor current signal compared to the stator current signal, before incorporating the converter in the rotor circuit. Therefore, by observing the trends portrayed in the decomposition bands and the spectrogram plots, it is deemed a reliable method of diagnosing and possibly quantifying the intensity of the faults in the machine. Once the power electronic converter was incorporated into the rotor circuit, the DFIG controller signals have been observed to be best suited for diagnosing faults in the micro-DFIG under the steady-state operating condition, as opposed to using the terminal stator or rotor current signals. The study also assessed the impact of undervoltage conditions at the point of common coupling (PCC) on the behaviour of the micro-DFIG. In this investigation, a significant rise in the faulted currents was observed for the undervoltage condition in comparison to the faulty cases under the rated grid voltage conditions. In this regard, it could be detrimental to the operation of the micro-DFIG, particularly the faulted phase windings, and the power electronic converter, should the currents exceed the rated values for extended periods

Double Resonant High-Frequency Converters for Wireless Power Transfer

This thesis describes novel techniques and developments in the design and implementation of a low power radio frequency (40kHz to 1MHz) wireless power transfer (WPT) system, with an application in the wireless charging of autonomous drones without physical connection to its on-board Battery Management System (BMS). The WPT system is developed around a matrix converter exploiting the benefits such as a small footprint (DC-link free), high efficiency and high power density. The overall WPT system topology discussed in this thesis is based on the current state-of-the-art found in literature, but enhancements are made through novel methods to further improve the converter’s stability, reduce control complexity and improve the wireless power efficiency. In this work, each part of the system is analysed and novel techniques are proposed to achieve improvements. The WPT system design methodology presented in this thesis commences with the use of a conventional full-bridge converter. For cost-efficiency and to improve the converters stability, a novel gate drive circuit is presented which provides self-generated negative bias such that a bipolar MOSFET drive can be driven without an additional voltage source or magnetic component. The switching control sequences for both a full-bridge and single phase to single phase matrix converter are analysed which show that the switching of a matrix converter can be considered to be the same as a full-bridge converter under certain conditions. A middleware is then presented that reduces the complexity of the control required for a matrix converter and enables control by a conventional full-bridge controller (i.e. linear controller or microcontroller). A novel technique that can maximise and maintain in real-time the WPT efficiency is presented using a maximum efficiency point tracking approach. A detailed study of potential issues that may affect the implementation of this novel approach are presented and new solutions are proposed. A novel wireless pseudo-synchronous sampling method is presented and implemented on a prototype system to realise the maximum efficiency point tracking approach. Finally, a new hybrid wireless phase-locked loop is presented and implemented to minimise the bandwidth requirements of the maximum efficiency point tracking approach. The performance and methods for implementation of the novel concepts introduced in this thesis are demonstrated through a number of prototypes that were built. These include a matrix converter and two full WPT systems with operating frequencies ranging from sub-megahertz to megahertz level. Moreover, the final prototype is applied to the charging of a quadcopter battery pack to successfully charge the pack wirelessly whilst actively balancing the cells. Hence, fast battery charging and cell balancing, which conventionally requires battery removal, can be achieved without re-balance the weight of the UAV