108,019 research outputs found
POWER CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT OF THE GRID CONTAINING LARGE-SCALE WIND POWER SYSTEMS
The ever increasing demand for electricity has driven many countries toward the installation of new generation facilities. However, concerns such as environmental pollution and global warming issues, clean energy sources, high costs associated with installation of new conventional power plants, and fossil fuels depletion have created many interests in finding alternatives to conventional fossil fuels for generating electricity. Wind energy is one of the most rapidly growing renewable power sources and wind power generations have been increasingly demanded as an alternative to the conventional fossil fuels. However, wind power fluctuates due to variation of wind speed. Therefore, large-scale integration of wind energy conversion systems is a threat to the stability and reliability of utility grids containing these systems. They disturb the balance between power generation and consumption, affect the quality of the electricity, and complicate load sharing and load distribution managing and planning. Overall, wind power systems do not help in providing any services such as operating and regulating reserves to the power grid.In order to resolve these issues, research has been conducted in utilizing weather forecasting data to improve the performance of the wind power system, reduce the influence of the fluctuations, and plan power management of the grid containing large-scale wind power systems which consist of doubly-fed induction generator based energy conversion system. The aims of this research, my dissertation, are to provide new methods for: smoothing the output power of the wind power systems and reducing the influence of their fluctuations, power managing and planning of a grid containing these systems and other conventional power plants, and providing a new structure of implementing of latest microprocessor technology for controlling and managing the operation of the wind power system.In this research, in order to reduce and smooth the fluctuations, two methods are presented. The first method is based on a de-loaded technique while the other method is based on utilizing multiple storage facilities. The de-loaded technique is based on characteristics of the power of a wind turbine and estimation of the generated power according to weather forecasting data. The technique provides a reference power by which the wind power system will operate and generate a smooth power. In contrast, utilizing storage facilities will allow the wind power system to operate at its maximum tracking power points' strategy. Two types of energy storages are considered in this research, battery energy storage system (BESS) and pumped-hydropower storage system (PHSS), to suppress the output fluctuations and to support the wind power system to follow the system load demands. Furthermore, this method provides the ability to store energy when there is a surplus of the generated power and to reuse it when there is a shortage of power generation from wind power systems. Both methods are new in terms of utilizing of the techniques and wind speed data.A microprocessor embedded system using an Intel® AtomTM processor is presented for controlling the wind power system and for providing the remote communication for enhancing the operation of the individual wind power system in a wind farm. The embedded system helps the wind power system to respond and to follow the commands of the central control of the power system. Moreover, it enhances the performance of the wind power system through self-managing, self-functioning, and self-correcting.Finally, a method of system power management and planning is modeled and studied for a grid containing large-scale wind power systems. The method is based on a new technique through constructing a new load demand curve (NLDC) from merging the estimation of generated power from wind power systems and forecasting of the load.To summarize, the methods and their results presented in this dissertation, enhance the operation of the large-scale wind power systems and reduce their drawbacks on the operation of the power grid
Real-time performance monitoring of tuned mass damper system for a 183 m reinforced concrete chimney
A 183 m reinforced concrete chimney for a coal-fired power station was instrumented in the latter part of its life during the construction of a replacement chimney. Because of concerns about large-amplitude response induced by interference effects from the new chimney in the prevailing upwind direction, a response monitoring system was installed, quickly followed by a tuned mass damper (TMD) system. As well as providing live display of the chimney response, the monitoring system was also used to check the functioning of the TMD. The monitoring system featured a direct implementation of the stochastic subspace identification procedure in the 'virtual instrument' controlling the system, so that modal damping values for the system were displayed automatically, in real-time. The system thus provided an immediate visual indication of increased damping levels during strong winds, showing the correct functioning of the TMD. The paper describes the chimney, the monitoring system and its installation, the data processing and system identification procedure, together with performance data before, during and after installation of the TMD. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Provision of Ancillary Services with Variable Speed Wind Turbines
In recent years, the amount of wind turbines in the power system has increased tremendously. As the current wind turbines do not participate in the provision of ancillary services such as frequency control and voltage control, this may compromise the proper functioning of the electric power system. However, since the modern wind turbines are equipped with a power-electronic converter, they can assist in the provision of ancillary services. To achieve this, additional control loops have to be added to the wind turbine controller. In this paper, an overview of the different ancillary services is given. The ability to provide them with wind turbines is discussed. Since frequency and voltage control are the most important, these two services are further elaborated. It can be concluded that wind turbines are suited
to provide frequency control, especially when they are operated slightly below their maximum power point. They can also assist in voltage control, while operation in the maximum power point is usually possible, so few energy is lost. These are important outcomes, since wind turbines which provide ancillary services can contribute in allowing a higher penetration of renewable energy in the power system without compromising its proper functioning
Impact of Forecast Errors on Expansion Planning of Power Systems with a Renewables Target
This paper analyzes the impact of production forecast errors on the expansion
planning of a power system and investigates the influence of market design to
facilitate the integration of renewable generation. For this purpose, we
propose a stochastic programming modeling framework to determine the expansion
plan that minimizes system-wide investment and operating costs, while ensuring
a given share of renewable generation in the electricity supply. Unlike
existing ones, this framework includes both a day-ahead and a balancing market
so as to capture the impact of both production forecasts and the associated
prediction errors. Within this framework, we consider two paradigmatic market
designs that essentially differ in whether the day-ahead generation schedule
and the subsequent balancing re-dispatch are co-optimized or not. The main
features and results of the model set-ups are discussed using an illustrative
four-node example and a more realistic 24-node case study
Thermodynamic optimization of global circulation and climate
The constructal law of generation of flow structure is used to predict the main features of global circulation
and climate. The flow structure is the atmospheric and oceanic circulation. This feature is modelled as
convection loops, and added to the earth model as a heat engine heated by the Sun and cooled by the
background. It is shown that the dissipation of the power produced by the earth engine can be maximized
by selecting the proper balance between the hot and cold zones of the Earth, and by optimizing the thermal
conductance of the circulation loops. The optimized features agree with the main characteristics of global
circulation and climate. The robustness of these predictions, and the place of the constructal law as a selfstanding
principle in thermodynamics, are discussed
The large scale impact of offshore wind farm structures on pelagic primary productivity in the southern North Sea
The increasing demand for renewable energy is projected to result in a
40-fold increase in offshore wind electricity in the European Union by 2030.
Despite a great number of local impact studies for selected marine populations,
the regional ecosystem impacts of offshore wind farm structures are not yet
well assessed nor understood. Our study investigates whether the accumulation
of epifauna, dominated by the filter feeder Mytilus edulis (blue mussel), on
turbine structures affects pelagic primary productivity and ecosystem
functioning in the southern North Sea. We estimate the anthropogenically
increased potential distribution based on the current projections of turbine
locations and reported patterns of M. edulis settlement. This distribution is
integrated through the Modular Coupling System for Shelves and Coasts to
state-of-the-art hydrodynamic and ecosystem models. Our simulations reveal
non-negligible potential changes in regional annual primary productivity of up
to 8% within the offshore wind farm area, and induced maximal increases of the
same magnitude in daily productivity also far from the wind farms. Our setup
and modular coupling are effective tools for system scale studies of other
environmental changes arising from large-scale offshore wind-farming such as
ocean physics and distributions of pelagic top predators.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, re-revised manuscript submitted to Hydrobiologi
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