Adjustable Speed Control and Damping Analysis of Torsional Vibrations in VSD Compressor Systems

This paper proposes a model-based two-degree-of-freedom (2DOF) speed control for a medium voltage (MV) variable speed drive (VSD) connected to a centrifugal compressor (CC) train. Torsional mode excitations in the drive shaft due to converter switching behaviour are considered. An effective description of the harmonics transfer is proposed. The tuning strategy aims to optimize the tracking behaviour of the step and ramp command, taking care of critical speed excitations. The stability of the closed-loop dynamics against time delay and drive parameter variations are studied by means of Nyquist diagrams and time-domain simulations. A descriptive method for the process damping behaviour is proposed. The control strategy is evaluated through simulations as well as an experimental setup, based on a hardware in the loop (HIL) in a master–slave configuration

Electrothermal Aging Model of Li-Ion Batteries for Vehicle-to-Grid Services Evaluation

The growing interest in Electrical Vehicles (EVs) opens new possibilities in the use of Li-ion batteries in order to provide ancillary grid services while they are plugged to recharging stations. Indeed, Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), Vehicle-to-Building (V2B), Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) as well as Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) services can be carried out depending on the particular installation and on the connection to the distribution grid of the considered recharging station. Even if these are interesting and challenging opportunities, the additional charging/discharging cycles necessary to provide these services could decrease the expected life of EV batteries. For this reason, it is of paramount importance to study and develop reliable models of the batteries, which take the aging phenomena affecting the reliability of the Li-ion cells into account to evaluate the best charging/discharging strategy and the economic revenues. To this aim, this paper focuses on a battery pack made up with Li-ion nickel–manganese–cobalt (NMC) cells and proposes a semiempirical Electrothermal Aging Model, which accounts for both calendar and cycle aging. This modeling phase is supported by several experimental data recorded for many charge and discharge cycles at different C-rates and for several temperatures. Thus, it is possible to analyze and compare scenarios considering V2G services or not. Results show that the considered battery is subjected to a life reduction of about 2 years, which is a consequence of the increased Ah charge throughput, which moves from 120,000 Ah over 10 years (scenario without V2G services) to almost 230,000 Ah over 8 years (scenario with V2G services)

Design of a Rotary Transformer for Installations on Large Shafts

Rotary transformers are adopted to transfer energy from primary to secondary in situations in which the two sides are in relative rotation. These devices are cylindrical transformers with two cores and the corresponding winding separated by an air gap. Their employment became quite convenient with the availability of power electronics, allowing the operation of electrical systems at relatively high frequencies. In particular, this paper proposes the design of a light and efficient transformer which can be used in applications involving large shafts. Moreover, a sliced arrangement for the magnetic core is proposed together with the experimental validation of this solution on a reduced-size prototype

Integration of Distributed Energy Resources and EV Fast-Charging Infrastructure in High-Speed Railway Systems

Low carbon emission transportation is attracting global attention where electric railway power systems (ERPS) and electric vehicles (EVs) act as a load. Besides the main utility grid, renewable energy sources (RES) including photovoltaic (PV) panels and wind turbines are implemented to supply the loads fully or partially. In this paper, a novel smart DC catenary system is proposed in which renewable sources, storage systems, and DC fast-charging stations are connected to the overhead DC catenary line of the high-speed railway power system. The generated power from renewable sources and consumed power by charging stations are processed by their dedicated DC-DC power electronics converters. Furthermore, a storage system is used as a backup system not only for the case of blackouts but also because of the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources to supply the loads continuously. The paper presents an optimal power control for various parts and a power management system (PMS) that manages the power flow from wind-PV-storage system to EV-ERPS system. The proposed system has been investigated using a real Italian Rome-Florence 3 kV high-speed line as a case study with real data of ERPS load. The EV fast-charging station power demand, wind speed, solar irradiance, and temperature were recorded for 24 h in order to provide us with realistic output data. The simulation results obtained by MATLAB/Simulink are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed system