Racist Securitization of Refugees, Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: A case study

With the growing rates of involuntary (forced) migration and even traditional migration (movement from one country to another in search of work opportunities, better lifestyle, study, etc.); the movement of these bodies raises their vulnerability to be constructed as threats. The same threat they are fleeing from is being attached to them as they attempt to seek security elsewhere. This intersection of migration and securitization studies especially emerged because of the interconnectedness of the world that is majorly facilitated by globalization. Within this context, this thesis examines how Syrian refugees in Lebanon are racialized because of a securitization process perpetuated by speech acts. It also looks at race and racism in relation to colonialism as the root cause for the construction of such notions. Within the Lebanese context, this thesis also looks at nationalism and religion from the Lebanese perspective in an attempt to explain the racist securitizing attitude towards those refugee

Energy Optimization for Smart Housing Systems

Smart home is an emerging technology which is growing continuously now. It integrates many of the new technologies with the help of home networking for improving human’s quality and standard of living, so there are many projects which are researching in di-verse technologies in order to apply them to the smart home system. As the technology evolves it comforts mankind with some additional ease and advancement. At the time the evolution calls upon all the daily routine devices to operate over internet and this project is based on the idea to make these devices accessible to the owner anytime an-ywhere. Particularly for now we intend to connect electrical appliances in any house to a kind of a local area network so that it can be operated by the respective authorities so as to minimize the electricity wastage. Further these devices along with sensors can be made to operate on their own, intelligently and accurately. The excellency of the project can be utilized in hostels and classrooms as well where most of the times we find electri-cal appliances operational even when not necessary. The idea is to turn a house into a smart house. The project utilizes the current technology such as wifi and low-cost elec-tronic modules to meet the requirements of IOT and gives it a web as well as an app interface for an ease of access. The technologies which we are using include - Wifi mod-ule, Relay module, Raspberry pi, Sensors for automatic support and feedback to user. The project can be extended to cloud also for data storage and providing access to au-thorized user

Explicit Impedance Modeling and Shaping of Grid-Connected Converters via an Enhanced PLL for Stabilizing the Weak Grid Connection

The voltage source converters (VSCs) are used to interface and control the renewable energy resources that are integrated into the power grids. However, a weak grid connection raises a stability problem for grid synchronization of the grid-feeding current-controlled VSCs (CCVSCs). This paper handles modeling and controller design for stabilizing the weak grid connection of CCVSCs. The impedance modeling/shaping of the VSC has been recognized as an effective tool to analyze and design the dynamics of the VSC. But an explicit and accurate impedance model of the CCVSC is required. Particularly, modeling the impact of the phase-locked loop (PLL) synchronization unit on the impedance model of the CCVSC is complex. Therefore, at first, an efficient impedance model of the CCVSC is developed while the impact of the PLL is rigorously considered through a complex procedure that results in an explicit/accurate impedance model. The developed impedance model is used to conduct passivity/weak grid connection stability analysis to clarify the underlying causes of instability problems. Then, a novel PLL, with an in-loop low-pass filter (LPF) to account for harmonics/asymmetries, is proposed with enhanced characteristics using the state feedback control. The impedance shaping method (with the aid of the impedance model) is utilized to design the state feedback gains. The state feedback loops provide degrees of freedom for bandwidth design of the PLL considering the current/power control loops and stabilize the system under weak grid connection/distorted conditions. Simulation results prove the accuracy and effectiveness of the models

Pre-Perturbation Operational Strategy Scheduling in Microgrids by Two-Stage Adjustable Robust Optimization

A two-stage adaptive robust optimization is developed for pre-disturbance scheduling in microgrids (MGs) for handling uncertainties associated with electricity market prices, renewable generation, demand forecasts, and islanding events. The objective is to produce a reliable and optimal solution for MG operation that minimizes operational costs and the risk/failure in islanding events. In the literature, the uncertainty sets associated with islanding events cover a full scheduling period which results in a sub-optimal solution. In this paper, uncertainty sets corresponding to islanding events are modeled based on reliability/resiliency-oriented indexes of the MG/grid to achieve a more accurate/reliable solution. Besides, the Benders decomposition algorithm which is used to handle uncertainties in solving the optimization problem is time-consuming. Therefore, the column-and-constraint generation (C&CG) decomposition strategy is adopted to make the problem computationally tractable. Further, the uncertainty budget parameters are clarified to balance the conservatism and optimality (cost minimization) of the robust solution in uncertainty sets. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is evaluated and discussed by using a set of numerical studies with different scenarios in an MG. The simulations show that the proposed framework reduces operational costs by using the precise analysis of uncertainty budgets and a change in scheduling periods

Primary Frequency Response Improvement in Interconnected Power Systems Using Electric Vehicle Virtual Power Plants

The smart grid concept enables demand-side management, including electric vehicles (EVs). Thus way, some ancillary services can be provided in order to improve the power system stability, reliability, and security. The high penetration level of renewable energy resources causes some problems to independent system operators, such as lack of primary reserve and active power balance problems. Nowadays, many countries are encouraging the use of EVs which provide a good chance to utilize them as a virtual power plant (VPP) in order to contribute to frequency event. This paper proposes a new control method to use EV as VPP for providing primary reserve in smart grids. The primary frequency reserve helps the power system operator to intercept the frequency decline and to improve the frequency response of the whole system. The proposed method calculates the electric vehicles' primary reserve based on EVs' information, such as the state of charge (SOC), the arriving time and the vehicle's departure time. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified by several simulation scenarios on a real-world modern power system with different generating units, such as conventional power plants, renewable energy resources, and electric vehicles

Harmonic mitigation and power quality improvement in utility grid with solar energy penetration using distribution static compensator

Abstract Distribution static compensator is based on power electronic devices technology which is utilized to supply rapid changes in active power as well as reactive power of utility grids. This is useful to achieve corrections in power factor, balancing of load, compensation of current and filtering of harmonics. Therefore, proposed work investigates the improvement of the power quality by utilizing the distribution static compensator, which is equipped by battery energy storage system and interfaced to distribution network with solar photo voltaic (PV) energy integration. In the present study, distribution static compensator is controlled using a control strategy based on the synchronous reference frame theory. Customised IEEE‐13 nodes test system incorporating solar PV generation and distribution static compensator, is utilized to perform the harmonic mitigation and power quality analysis. Disturbances of power quality and harmonics have been investigated due to abrupt changes in the insolation of solar radiation, outage of PV plant from grid and synchronization of PV plant to grid. MATLAB/Simulink environment is utilized to perform the study. Effectiveness of a developed approach is validated by comparing results of simulation with results extracted in real time using real time digital simulator. Results indicate that the developed method is more effective for harmonic mitigation and improving power quality of electrical power in distribution network integrated with solar PV generation. Performance of the approach is compared with the performance of methods reported in the literature to establish the suitability of the method for harmonics mitigation and power quality improvement in grid with solar energy