Residential distributed generation : decision support software to evaluate opportunities in the residential market : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Masters of Engineering at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand /

The residential market in New Zealand consumes a significant proportion of our electricity production and is one of the fastest growing sectors. As a vertically integrated generator retailer in the New Zealand electricity industry, Meridian Energy Ltd is concerned at retaining and growing their customer base. They recognise that utilisation of emerging distributed generation [DG] technologies can provide a competitive advantage in the market place. A decision tool was developed to help Meridian identify opportunities within the residential market for applications of DG. The model compares the cost to serve a household's energy needs using a business as usual case with a DG case on an annual basis for a single household or a neighbourhood. A modular approach was used for ease of development and to enable future enhancements. The main modules were: load profile development, DG technology, operation control, costing and a calculation engine. The load profile module estimated space heating/cooling, water heating and other electrical loads for each 30 minute period for 8 representative days of a year based on national end-use statistics and a set of 40 reference profiles. A Gamma distribution was used to simulate diversity between houses. The calculation engine computed the amount of demand that could be met by the DG technologies and hence the residual demand or surplus for export. The pricing module estimated the annual cost including aspects such as: capital cost, fuel cost, maintenance, value of export and cost of import. The technology modules allowed different DG technologies, as well as a range of parameters to be selected. It included renewable energy resource modelling. The performance module allowed different operation control of the heat engine technologies including: base load, electrical peaking, heat peaking, load following (heat-led) and load following(electricity-led). The model was implemented using Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications, in Excel. A series of user-forms were developed to enable the model to be run with a minimum of user input. Three case studies were undertaken. In the first, five technology types were modelled, with the heat pump and Stirling engine looking the most promising. The second case study involved these two technologies in a Christchurch urban area study. A hypothetical network analysis showed the benefit that these technologies could have in reducing peak loading on the network. The third case study examined the sensitivity of the results to the value of specific variables. Load size and capital cost had the strongest influence on NPV

Wet Reagent Profile Sensor Visualization Tool

Indiana University Purdue University IndianapolisThe Wet Reagent Profile Sensor is a system that Roche Diabetes Care Indy uses in its diabetes test strip manufacturing process. The current system they are using involves a laser sensor that projects onto a wet reagent material after it is coated onto a substrate. The machine that applies the reagent uses averages of 800 measurement points taken by the laser sensor to determine whether or not the reagent is within acceptable limits. If the reagent applied to a given section of the material is not within acceptable limits, then that section is marked for rejection and later taken out of the roll. The current system does not store the data that is collected, display it in an easily accessible manner, nor provide direct access to the 800-point profiles. No variable option currently exists for the data collection rate and the sponsor would prefer a variable option, if possible. The objective of this project is to store and display all 800 points of data in a profile, change the frequency at which data is collected, and display a 3-D visual of the profiles. These changes and additions should be accomplished while avoiding interference with the normal production process. During the first phase of this project, the student engineers have begun analyzing the system, making design decisions and choosing between different components, planning hardware and software connections, and designing an interface for the system. In the second phase of this process, students began working with Excel, which is the software that was chosen at the end of the first phase, as well as working with the controller in order to communicate serially to a computer. Due to the change of circumstances that occurred in the middle of the second phase, students could no longer test communication options with the controller. The testing and verifying stages of the project were concluded at this point and students were asked to focus on documentation. Students created a new document that discussed all of the decisions that were made throughout the project, if the decision was used, and why or why not. Test plans were revised and updated as well.Electrical Engineering Technolog

A hydrogen framework for the East Midlands

Profiles capabilities in midlands-based organisations in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies as a rationale for support of a Midlands hydrogen cluster

Overview of international organic market development and potential export markets for organic products of Ukraine

From the Summar of the Report Production At worldwide level in year 2003 66% of the world’s organic land (total 24 mio ha) are concentrated in two continents: Australia and Latin America. In these regions extensive grazing land is widespread beside the whole game of plant production, from cereals to coffee, tea and other tropical products. In Northern America the organic farmland achieves 1,5 mio ha. Europe has 23 % of the worldwide organic land (5,5 mio ha), these 5,5 mio ha correspond to almost 2% of agricultural land managed organically. Liechtenstein is with 26 % of agricultural area managed organically the leader followed by Aus-tria with 11% and Switzerland with 10%. In most countries the organically managed surface is still increasing. In the enlarged EU the area raised 4% from year 2002 to 2003, in the new countries of the EU (Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Hungary) the growing rates of organic farm land is over 10%. Small declines have been observed in Denmark, The Netherlands, Italy and United Kingdom. In the European Union and Switzerland the agrarian policy supports organic sec-tor with different measurers like direct payments for organically managed area, contribution for conversion, payments for environmental services and animal wel-fare, training and capacity building, research programs etc. Ukraine was the granary of the former Soviet Union. Large surfaces of fertile black soils are favourable for organic farming. In Ukraine 230’000 ha are certified organic or in conversion in year 2003. This represents 0.58% of land area under organic management. 69 production units with an average size about 3’500 ha are certified. Wheat, barley, sunflower and corn are the most important crops on these farms. The organic production increased in the last years with the expecta-tion to get access to export markets. In Ukraine certified organic fruit and vegetable producers are missing. There is also nearly no animal husbandry farm certified. The potential for conversion of plant production units is high, because many farmers use few external inputs. For smaller farms, without access to export markets, the certification costs of international certifiers are unattainable. Until now the agrarian policy doesn’t support especially organic farming. The ministry of agriculture and the commission of the parliament for agriculture are in contact with the new organic farming association Biolan Ukraine and other stake-holders for the elaboration of a law for organic production. There is advisory and training capacity for organic farming but this is still insufficient for the whole country. Market overview Europe and Northern America are responsible for 97% of organic sales to con-sumers. There is a global harmonisation of market trends and buying behaviours. The organic consumer lives in urban centres, has a higher education which is transformed in higher income, is young and has children or is older with a healthy lifestyle. Important issues for this consumer are food and health (free of dangersafety, label, certification) and food and emotions (animal welfare, regional product). Important triggers for buying organic are children, allergies and healthy life-style. The barriers for not buying organic are the price, the availability and in general less importance given to nutrition. Between the countries there are significant differences in the importance of the sales channels from direct marketing included weekly markets and box schemes, specialised organic food shops to general food shops (retailer shops, supermarkets, and discounter). General food shops are the most important sales channels over all and especially in countries with mature food markets like Austria, Den-mark, France, Switzerland and United Kingdom. Germany with a well developed organic food market is an exception with only 35 % of sales in general food shops. The organic market is in a growing phase in Northern America (15%-30%), Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Portugal and Finland. The rest of the Euro-pean countries, the Ukrainian neighbours like Russia and the Baltic States, Asian countries like Korea and Chine and Middle East countries like Saudi Arabia are in the phase of emerging market. The most important markets (in value and in decreasing order) are: USA, Ger-many, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada and Switzerland. In Switzerland the average consumer spends 104 Euro on organic products per annum, this is the highest amount. The price premiums for organic food paid to the farmers in the EU countries in year 2000 vary tremendous between the countries and the products. For cereals the average was 102% and the highest average price premium for plant product was reported for potatoes with 257%. The price premiums for animal products paid in EU are in average lower (milk 22%, beef 34% pork 68%) than for plant products with exception of poultry with 182% and eggs with 167%. In Europe there are supply and demand imbalances: oversupply in milk and beef and supply gaps in cereals. European organic fruit, vegetables and cereals can normally be sold as organic within Europe. Tropical, off season and exotic (eth-nic) products are imported to Europe and Northern America. In Europe the self sufficiency degree shows big variations from country to country and product to product. In cereals for example in year 2001 Belgium has 2% self sufficiency and Spain 316%, France an exporter of conventional cereals reports self sufficiency degree for organic of 35%. Even more important then the self suf-ficiency degrees are supply gaps (national production and imports are not suffi-cient). In the OMIaRD market research there were expected the following supply deficit for year 2003/04: For wheat and barley in Germany and Slovenia, for rye in Slovenia and Finland, for oilseed in Germany, Finland and Sweden, for legumi-nous fodder crops in Austria, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and United King-dom. Access to the EU and Swiss market is possible when the products are certified according to EU-standard (EU-regulations 2092/91 and 1804/99) or Swiss or-ganic ordinance. Depending on the market, other, mainly private, standards need to be fulfilled In Ukraine the national market for organic products is in the initial phase with some imported products like baby food, tea or coffee. The potential organic con-sumers are urban, younger professional women and young families with small children, from the new middle to upper class. At the moment they buy so called environmental clean products, with 20% to 100% price premium. These products are not certified; they are supposed to come from regions without relevant human made pollution and free of radioactivity. The Ukrainian consumers are aware of important organic issues like health and dangers residues. Up to now “organic” is not protected by law. Experts estimate that 5% to 10% of the Ukrainian products certified organic (mainly cereals and oilseeds) are sold as organic and exported to Western Europe

Constructing and Testing a Permanent-Magnet Railgun

A modified magnetic railgun has been built and investigated. Permanent magnets were used to supply the magnetic field and a car battery was used to provide the current. The projectile has been successfully shot out. An alternative way to create a magnetic field is running a large current through the rails. Preliminary calculations revealed that the current will need to be enormous in order to provide a satisfactory magnetic field. For such a large current a huge capacitor pool would be necessary. Strong permanent magnets are available and allow us to bypass the difficulties of simply using the current in the rails

Service Orientation and the Smart Grid state and trends

The energy market is undergoing major changes, the most notable of which is the transition from a hierarchical closed system toward a more open one highly based on a “smart” information-rich infrastructure. This transition calls for new information and communication technologies infrastructures and standards to support it. In this paper, we review the current state of affairs and the actual technologies with respect to such transition. Additionally, we highlight the contact points between the needs of the future grid and the advantages brought by service-oriented architectures.

The Muscle-Mechanical Compromise Framework: Implications for the Scaling of Gait and Posture

Many aspects of animal and human gait and posture cannot be predicted from purely mechanical work minimization or entirely based on optimizing muscle efficiency. Here, the Muscle-Mechanical Compromise Framework is introduced as a conceptual paradigm for considering the interactions and compromises between these two objectives. Current assumptions in implementing the Framework are presented. Implications of the compromise are discussed and related to the scaling of running mechanics and animal posture