Intentional Controlled Islanding in Wide Area Power Systems with Large Scale Renewable Power Generation to Prevent Blackout

Intentional controlled islanding is a solution to prevent blackouts following a large disturbance. This study focuses on determining island boundaries while maintaining the stability of formed islands and minimising load shedding. A new generator coherency identification framework based on the dynamic coupling of generators and Support Vector Clustering method is proposed to address this challenge. A Mixed Integer Linear Programming model is formulated to minimize power flow disruption and load shedding, and ensure the stability of islanding. The proposed algorithm was validated in 39-bus and 118-bus test systems

Mapping Building Characteristics In Mitcham

The London Borough of Merton has begun the development of a district heat and power system. In order to financially model the feasibility of this scheme, energy consumption data for borough buildings must be known. The objective of this project was to investigate and apply methods for mapping the energy use of buildings within the borough of Merton. Difficulties encountered in data collection led to a revision of our project to include the drafting of sustainable information gathering mechanisms. With these in place the Merton Council will be able to base future plans on an accurate and thorough knowledge base

Decentralized estimation and control for power systems

This thesis presents a decentralized alternative to the centralized state-estimation and control technologies used in current power systems. Power systems span over vast geographical areas, and therefore require a robust and reliable communication network for centralized estimation and control. The supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems provide such a communication architecture and are currently employed for centralized estimation and control of power systems in a static manner. The SCADA systems operate at update rates which are not fast enough to provide appropriate estimation or control of transient or dynamic events occurring in power systems. Packet-switching based networked control system (NCS) is a faster alternative to SCADA systems, but it suffers from some other problems such as packet dropouts, random time delays and packet disordering. A stability analysis framework for NCS in power systems has been presented in the thesis considering these problems. Some other practical limitations and problems associated with real-time centralized estimation and control are computational bottlenecks, cyber threats and issues in acquiring system-wide parameters and measurements. The aforementioned problems can be solved by a decentralized methodology which only requires local parameters and measurements for estimation and control of a local unit in the system. The cumulative effect of control at all the units should be such that the global oscillations and instabilities in the power system are controlled. Such a decentralized methodology has been presented in the thesis. The method for decentralization is based on a new concept of `pseudo-inputs' in which some of the measurements are treated as inputs. Unscented Kalman filtering (UKF) is applied on the decentralized system for dynamic state estimation (DSE). An extended linear quadratic regulator (ELQR) has been proposed for the optimal control of each local unit such that the whole power system is stabilized and all the oscillations are adequately damped. ELQR requires DSE as a prerequisite. The applicability of integrated system for dynamic estimation and control has been demonstrated on a model 16-machine 68-bus benchmark system

Pitfalls of Analysis

Systems Analysis-or Policy Analysis, as it is sometimes called when public problems are being addressed-aims to deepen our understanding of sociotechnical problems, and to bring about improved solutions to them. However, the craft of systems analysis is a relatively new one, and its practitioners are still exploring ways to conduct such analyses properly, a task complicated by the necessary use of tools and knowledge from many disciplines and contexts. Any craft learns both by what works and by what fails to work, and systems analysis is no exception. This book contributes to the craft of systems analysis by describing many pitfalls of analysis that will lead to failure, thus helping analysts and users to recognize and avoid them

Consumer policy - a network/political economy perspective : an application of the new macro-relational consumer policy framework to study the evolutionary dynamics of the policy community for the Electronic Fund Transfer System (EFTS) consumer issue in Canada

This thesis argued that-sole reliance by government on the micro-economic paradigm. as the rationale for intervening in the marketplace results in too narrow an approach to consumer policy and a lack of appreciation for the dynamic and relational aspects of the consumer policy process. An integration of select constructs from the political economy and network paradigms contributed to the development of a macro-relational consumer policy framework. The network approach provides a relational perspective while the political economy paradigm provides a macro approach to widening consumer policy theory. Together, they offer a macro-relational perspective to compliment the micro-economic approach. The investigator suggests that the computerization of the Canadian payment system represents a change in the technological sphere of the macro policy environment. This change challenges the marketplace interests of the consumer policy network constituents (secondary policy environment). The stakeholders affected by this change coalesce into a policy community to balance respective interests. This primary policy environment, evolutionary in nature (internal policy activity, then dyadic, multidyadic, and triadic), will exhibit varying patterns of stakeholder interaction, relationship development and network dynamics. Propositions developed, to explain the evolutionary dynamics of the policy community guided the content analysis, the case study and the network analysis. Relational data (matrices and graphs) profiled the chronological maps of the relationships of the aggregate, constituent and dyadic sets of stakeholders. A multi-layered network analysis revealed an evolutionary process and a policy community which varied on several interaction dimensions (frequency, directedness, durability, role perception, intensity) and network dimensions (size, density, connectedness, cohesiveness, knittedness, stability). To mirror parallel initiatives in complimentary disciplines, stakeholders and future macro-relational consumer policy researchers are challenged to embrace the powerful network/political economy perspective to profit from stimulating theoretical and pragmatic insights into the complex, dynamic consumer policy process.This thesis argued that-sole reliance by government on the micro-economic paradigm. as the rationale for intervening in the marketplace results in too narrow an approach to consumer policy and a lack of appreciation for the dynamic and relational aspects of the consumer policy process. An integration of select constructs from the political economy and network paradigms contributed to the development of a macro-relational consumer policy framework. The network approach provides a relational perspective while the political economy paradigm provides a macro approach to widening consumer policy theory. Together, they offer a macro-relational perspective to compliment the micro-economic approach. The investigator suggests that the computerization of the Canadian payment system represents a change in the technological sphere of the macro policy environment. This change challenges the marketplace interests of the consumer policy network constituents (secondary policy environment). The stakeholders affected by this change coalesce into a policy community to balance respective interests. This primary policy environment, evolutionary in nature (internal policy activity, then dyadic, multidyadic, and triadic), will exhibit varying patterns of stakeholder interaction, relationship development and network dynamics. Propositions developed, to explain the evolutionary dynamics of the policy community guided the content analysis, the case study and the network analysis. Relational data (matrices and graphs) profiled the chronological maps of the relationships of the aggregate, constituent and dyadic sets of stakeholders. A multi-layered network analysis revealed an evolutionary process and a policy community which varied on several interaction dimensions (frequency, directedness, durability, role perception, intensity) and network dimensions (size, density, connectedness, cohesiveness, knittedness, stability). To mirror parallel initiatives in complimentary disciplines, stakeholders and future macro-relational consumer policy researchers are challenged to embrace the powerful network/political economy perspective to profit from stimulating theoretical and pragmatic insights into the complex, dynamic consumer policy process

Nuclear Power

At the onset of the 21st century, we are searching for reliable and sustainable energy sources that have a potential to support growing economies developing at accelerated growth rates, technology advances improving quality of life and becoming available to larger and larger populations. The quest for robust sustainable energy supplies meeting the above constraints leads us to the nuclear power technology. Today's nuclear reactors are safe and highly efficient energy systems that offer electricity and a multitude of co-generation energy products ranging from potable water to heat for industrial applications. Catastrophic earthquake and tsunami events in Japan resulted in the nuclear accident that forced us to rethink our approach to nuclear safety, requirements and facilitated growing interests in designs, which can withstand natural disasters and avoid catastrophic consequences. This book is one in a series of books on nuclear power published by InTech. It consists of ten chapters on system simulations and operational aspects. Our book does not aim at a complete coverage or a broad range. Instead, the included chapters shine light at existing challenges, solutions and approaches. Authors hope to share ideas and findings so that new ideas and directions can potentially be developed focusing on operational characteristics of nuclear power plants. The consistent thread throughout all chapters is the "system-thinking" approach synthesizing provided information and ideas. The book targets everyone with interests in system simulations and nuclear power operational aspects as its potential readership groups - students, researchers and practitioners

Nuclear Power - System Simulations and Operation

At the onset of the 21st century, we are searching for reliable and sustainable energy sources that have a potential to support growing economies developing at accelerated growth rates, technology advances improving quality of life and becoming available to larger and larger populations. The quest for robust sustainable energy supplies meeting the above constraints leads us to the nuclear power technology. Today's nuclear reactors are safe and highly efficient energy systems that offer electricity and a multitude of co-generation energy products ranging from potable water to heat for industrial applications. Catastrophic earthquake and tsunami events in Japan resulted in the nuclear accident that forced us to rethink our approach to nuclear safety, requirements and facilitated growing interests in designs, which can withstand natural disasters and avoid catastrophic consequences. This book is one in a series of books on nuclear power published by InTech. It consists of ten chapters on system simulations and operational aspects. Our book does not aim at a complete coverage or a broad range. Instead, the included chapters shine light at existing challenges, solutions and approaches. Authors hope to share ideas and findings so that new ideas and directions can potentially be developed focusing on operational characteristics of nuclear power plants. The consistent thread throughout all chapters is the system-thinking approach synthesizing provided information and ideas. The book targets everyone with interests in system simulations and nuclear power operational aspects as its potential readership groups - students, researchers and practitioners

Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Reconfigurable Communication-centric Systems on Chip 2010 - ReCoSoC\u2710 - May 17-19, 2010 Karlsruhe, Germany. (KIT Scientific Reports ; 7551)

ReCoSoC is intended to be a periodic annual meeting to expose and discuss gathered expertise as well as state of the art research around SoC related topics through plenary invited papers and posters. The workshop aims to provide a prospective view of tomorrow\u27s challenges in the multibillion transistor era, taking into account the emerging techniques and architectures exploring the synergy between flexible on-chip communication and system reconfigurability