DEVELOPMENT OF FORECASTING AND SCHEDULING METHODS AND DATA ANALYTICS BASED CONTROLS FOR SMART LOADS IN RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS.

DEVELOPMENT OF FORECASTING AND SCHEDULING METHODS AND DATA ANALYTICS BASED CONTROLS FOR SMART LOADS IN RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS

Design of Smart Energy Generation and Demand Response System in Saudi Arabia

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThough the promising benefits of renewable sources have already pushed many countries into implementing RE units, Saudi Arabia is still highly dependent on fossil fuel. However, the decrease in value of oil reserves has enforced Saudi Arabia to prioritize renewable energy sources in the next decades. Such energy sources are highly dependable on accurate forecasts, due to their intermittence and operability. The present research has the objective to develop models that can accurately forecast energy load for implementation in a decision-making system. The case investigated is the western region of Saudi Arabia. Two modelling approaches were evaluated, linear regression (LR) and artificial neural network (ANN). This last one was chosen because it is a mathematical model able to deal with non-linear relationship among input(s) and output(s) in the data. Time series (past load data) and multivariate data from 2010 until 2016 were investigated A hybrid model structure (combiner) was implemented to analyse the effects of combining outputs of two models in a single one. This hybrid model consisted of a regular average and weighted average of the time series and multivariate model, with calibration through Fuzzy and Particle Swarm Optimisation. These two were selected because, while Particle Swarm Optimization is an optimization algorithm, Fuzzy consists in a complete structured model. The forecasted load and the available input were used in the last chapter for power generation planning and decision-making support. The software used for the modelling and simulation is ETAP®. Different scenarios for replacement of fossil fuel power plants by renewable units were tested considering the network of western Saudi Arabia. The results show that Artificial Neural Network with time series input and 15 neurons in hidden layer shows superior performance (MSE 3.7*105 and R2 equals 99%) compared to other neural networks and linear regression. Though the application of combiner models did not significantly improve model performance, the Fuzzy Combiner shows the best one (MSE 5.8*105 and R2 equals 93%) since it incorporates information from time series and multivariate data. It is important to mention that all the modelling approaches evaluated have some limitations, such as the necessity of accurate input data and they are limited in capability of extrapolating over the training range. In the last section, it was observed that renewable energy sources can be integrated in the grid network without excessive risk regarding demand. This occurs because the current energy management policy of western Saudi Arabia enables the use of energy units with fast compensation (using gas units) in the case of demand increase or decrease in solar or wind power

Machine Learning with Metaheuristic Algorithms for Sustainable Water Resources Management

The main aim of this book is to present various implementations of ML methods and metaheuristic algorithms to improve modelling and prediction hydrological and water resources phenomena having vital importance in water resource management

Flood Forecasting Using Machine Learning Methods

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue Flood Forecasting Using Machine Learning Methods that was published in Wate

Application of Power Electronics Converters in Smart Grids and Renewable Energy Systems

This book focuses on the applications of Power Electronics Converters in smart grids and renewable energy systems. The topics covered include methods to CO2 emission control, schemes for electric vehicle charging, reliable renewable energy forecasting methods, and various power electronics converters. The converters include the quasi neutral point clamped inverter, MPPT algorithms, the bidirectional DC-DC converter, and the push–pull converter with a fuzzy logic controller

Advanced forecasting methods for renewable generation and loads in modern power systems

The PhD Thesis deals with the problem of forecasting in power systems, i.e., a wide topic that today covers many and many needs, and that is universally acknowledged to require further deep research efforts. After a brief discussion on the classification of forecasting systems and on the methods that are currently available in literature for forecasting electrical variables, stressing pros and cons of each approach, the PhD Thesis provides four contributes to the state of the art on forecasting in power systems where literature is somehow weak. The first provided contribute is a Bayesian-based probabilistic method to forecast photovoltaic (PV) power in short-term scenarios. Parameters of the predictive distributions are estimated by means of an exogenous linear regression model and through the Bayesian inference of past observations. The second provided contribute is a probabilistic competitive ensemble method once again to forecast PV power in short-term scenarios. The idea is to improve the quality of forecasts obtained through some individual probabilistic predictors, by combining them in a probabilistic competitive approach based on a linear pooling of predictive cumulative density functions. A multi-objective optimization method is proposed in order to guarantee elevate sharpness and reliability characteristics of the predictive distribution. The third contribute is aimed to the development of a deterministic industrial load forecasting method suitable in short-term scenarios, at both aggregated and single-load levels, and for both active and reactive powers. The deterministic industrial load forecasting method is based on multiple linear regression and support vector regression models, selected by means of 10-fold cross-validation or lasso analysis. The fourth contribute provides advanced PDFs for the statistical characterization of Extreme Wind Speeds (EWS). In particular, the PDFs proposed in the PhD Thesis are an Inverse Burr distribution and a mixture Inverse Burr – Inverse Weibull distribution. The mixture of an Inverse Burr and an Inverse Weibull distribution allows to increase the versatility of the tool, although increasing the number of parameters to be estimated. This complicates the parameter estimation process, since traditional techniques such as the maximum likelihood estimation suffer from convergence problems. Therefore, an expectation-maximization procedure is specifically developed for the parameter estimation. All of the contributes presented in the PhD Thesis are tested on actual data, and compared to the state-of-the-art benchmarks to assess the suitability of each proposal

Data-Intensive Computing in Smart Microgrids

Microgrids have recently emerged as the building block of a smart grid, combining distributed renewable energy sources, energy storage devices, and load management in order to improve power system reliability, enhance sustainable development, and reduce carbon emissions. At the same time, rapid advancements in sensor and metering technologies, wireless and network communication, as well as cloud and fog computing are leading to the collection and accumulation of large amounts of data (e.g., device status data, energy generation data, consumption data). The application of big data analysis techniques (e.g., forecasting, classification, clustering) on such data can optimize the power generation and operation in real time by accurately predicting electricity demands, discovering electricity consumption patterns, and developing dynamic pricing mechanisms. An efficient and intelligent analysis of the data will enable smart microgrids to detect and recover from failures quickly, respond to electricity demand swiftly, supply more reliable and economical energy, and enable customers to have more control over their energy use. Overall, data-intensive analytics can provide effective and efficient decision support for all of the producers, operators, customers, and regulators in smart microgrids, in order to achieve holistic smart energy management, including energy generation, transmission, distribution, and demand-side management. This book contains an assortment of relevant novel research contributions that provide real-world applications of data-intensive analytics in smart grids and contribute to the dissemination of new ideas in this area

Probabilistic and artificial intelligence modelling of drought and agricultural crop yield in Pakistan

Pakistan is a drought-prone, agricultural nation with hydro-meteorological imbalances that increase the scarcity of water resources, thus, constraining water availability and leading major risks to the agricultural productivity sector and food security. Rainfall and drought are imperative matters of consideration, both for hydrological and agricultural applications. The aim of this doctoral thesis is to advance new knowledge in designing hybridized probabilistic and artificial intelligence forecasts models for rainfall, drought and crop yield within the agricultural hubs in Pakistan. The choice of these study regions is a strategic decision, to focus on precision agriculture given the importance of rainfall and drought events on agricultural crops in socioeconomic activities of Pakistan. The outcomes of this PhD contribute to efficient modelling of seasonal rainfall, drought and crop yield to assist farmers and other stakeholders to promote more strategic decisions for better management of climate risk for agriculturalreliant nations

Controlling realism and uncertainty in reservoir models using intelligent sedimentological prior information

Forecasting reservoir production has a large associated uncertainty, since this is the final part of a very complex process, this process is based on sparse and indirect data measurements. One the methodologies used in the oil industry to predict reservoir production is based on the Baye’s theorem. Baye’s theorem applied to reservoir forecasting, samples parameters from a prior understanding of the uncertainty to generate reservoir models and updates this prior information by comparing reservoir production data with model production response. In automatic history matching it is challenging to generate reservoir models that preserve geological realism (obtain reservoir models with geological features that have been seen in nature). One way to control the geological realism in reservoir models is by controlling the realism of the geological prior information. The aim of this thesis is to encapsulate sedimentological information in order to build prior information that can control the geological realism of the history-matched models. This “intelligent” prior information is introduced into the automatic history-matching framework rejecting geologically unrealistic reservoir models. Machine Learning Techniques (MLT) were used to build realistic sedimentological prior information models. Another goal of this thesis was to include geological parameters into the automatic history-match framework that have an impact on reservoir model performance: vertical variation of facies proportions, connectivity of geobodies, and the use of multiple training images as a source of realistic sedimentological prior information. The main outcome of this thesis is that the use of “intelligent” sedimentological prior information guarantees the realism of reservoir models and reduces computing time and uncertainty in reservoir production prediction

Bayesian Based Parameter Identification for Building Energy Models

In this research work, a series of sensitivity analyses were performed to validate the proposed Bayesian approach to identify unknown parameters in building energy models. The proposed Bayesian approach mainly consisted of creating a Gaussian process emulator to sample the posterior distribution. Sensitivity case studies were carried out to investigate followings: appropriate sampling numbers, size of Gaussian process, observation noise, continuous/discrete variables situation. Validation on the proposed approach was done with closed loop results (one RC model and two DOE2.2 models) as well as three actual buildings (two commercial buildings and one residential building). The result showed success of identifying unknown parameters by higher occurrences on target values. Moreover, the proposed approach was tested in actual buildings and shown to calibrate the building energy models with unknown parameters still inside. As an application of the proposed Bayesian approach, development of identification of Energy Conservative Measures (ECMs) were carried out. The proposed approach succeeded in identifying the appropriate ECMs with uncertainties in budgets, initial costs, and actual performance of the ECMs. Furthermore, comparison studies between other linear models and traditional Bayesian approach have been carried out to demonstrate the characteristic of the proposed approach to other methods. Also, this study has validated the possibility of utilizing the simplified approach in a future study