Application of particle swarm optimization for solving optimal generation plant location problem

The global demand for energy especially-in-developing-countries,-has-been witnessing a tremendous growth due to rapid population growth, economic growth and developing industrial sectors. Therefore, it is necessary to forecast the future energy needs and expand generation capacity to meet the increasing peak demand.-This-paper-presents-an-optimization approach to determine the optimal location for installing a new generator in which the technical, economic and environmental aspects are all taken into consideration. The location that yields the minimum fuel costs, total emission and system loss is considered as the optimal generation plant location. The- formulated- objective- function- and- its constraints compose an optimization problem is solved using particle swarm optimization (PSO). The proposed PSO based optimization approach is tested on IEEE 14-bus system and IEEE 30-bus system to illustrate the potential of the new approach. The simulation results have shown that the proposed approach is indeed capable of determining the optimal generation location that can save much overall fuel cost as well as reduce the total emissions of generators and losses in the network

Tidal energy generation using the double-emptying system scheme

This paper presents the electrical power generation by using the tidal lagoon system. In general, using tidal concept, water will flow into the dam in one direction, and then water will be forced to be released back into the sea via the low-head one-way generator. In some cases, there is a two-way power generation where power is generated when water from the sea flowing into the dam and one more generation when power is released back into the sea via two different generators. However, in this paper, a new scheme of tidal generation namely Double-Emptying System is proposed where the power can be generated during in flow and out flow, but, by using just one low-head one-way turbine only. The operation of this scheme is explained in detail in the paper. Analysis regarding the potential power production is then executed on the best location in Malaysia; Port Klang. Findings show that by using the proposed technique, the maximum potential mean power can be generated in March whereas the minimum in June, with 9.8926 MW and 6.151 MW, respectively

Economic Feasibility of Stand-Alone Wind Energy Hybrid with Bioenergy from Anaerobic Digestion for Electrification of Remote Area of Pakistan

Hybrid Renewable Energy systems (HRES) are gaining importance throughout the world because of the finite sources of oil and gas reservoirs. These have the great ability in the production of electrical energy and cleaning the environment. It is difficult to get grid electricity in the remote areas where no infrastructure exists. The utilization of renewable sources is the ultimate solution for the generation of electricity. In this paper, the economic modeling of Hybrid system consisting of Wind/biomass is explored for the remote area ‘Jangiah’ of Balochistan province, Pakistan. Anaerobic Digestion of biomass is used to get biogas. This source is used to complement the uncertainties in the wind production. Homer is used to simulate the hybrid model. Economic analysis is performed to get the net present value (NPV) and cost of energy. It is observed that wind/biomass alone is capable to meet the demand of community which consumes 60 kW peak daily along with the storage backup. This system is the most economical with COE equal to 0.118 US$/kWh following the hybrid biomass/wind/diesel system with COE 0.202 US$/kWh. The sensitivity analysis is carried out and shows that the proposed system is sensitive to the prices of fossil fuel and project lifespan. The net present value increases as the lifetime of the project increases from 15 years to 30 years. It can also be concluded that if the price of the diesel drops below 0.8 US$/liter, the traditional system using fossil fuels will become the most suitable system for the generation of electricity in remote areas

Difference of PV Solar Farm Performance between Simulated Result with Actual M¬easurement under Climate Condition at Eastern Peninsular Malaysia

Estimation from simulation tool in feasibility study could be rarely achieved under real operating condition since it calculates the expected output power using algorithms embedded in the tools and synthetic solar irradiance data without considering environmental conditions at the actual site. The aim of this study is to identify the differences in performance between measured data and estimated values using HOMER and PVSyst and to develop a baseline system performance prior installation. A case study at the eastern part of Peninsular Malaysia was conducted to examine the effect of climate condition on the performance of PV solar farm. Findings indicated that PV solar farm in Terengganu has generated 5,416,252.49kWh of energy in a year while the annual energy estimated by HOMER and PVSyst are 7,124,650.00kWh and 6,408,925.69kWh, respectively. This shows that the actual energy production is 15% and 24% lower than PVSyst and HOMER. Hence, baseline developed for PV solar farm at eastern region would comprise energy yield from 1,083.25kWh/kWp to 1,281.79kWh/kWp with 12% to 15% capacity factor and performance ratio from 73% to 78% in average. This baseline is useful for PV system integrator as a guideline and reference to estimate the PV system performance prior actual installation

Generator Revenue Adequacy in the Competitive Electricity Markets: The case of Malaysia

Malaysia, like many other developing countries, is reforming its electric supply industry into a more transparent, efficient and competitive environment. The introduction of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in 1992 was the first step taken to encourage the private investors to participate in the generation sector. The adoption of the single buyer market model in 2001 was a step further to create competition in generation. However, these efforts invite the financial crisis due to IPP generation capacity price obligation and generation surplus as stated in the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). As the PPA is coming towards the end, the pool market model was  initially identified as a possible model to overcome the weaknesses of the single buyer market. However, this model could invite a lot of denials from the power producers if it is not implemented properly. This paper proposes a hybrid market model to satisfy the generator revenue adequacy in Malaysian electricity markets under a competitive environment. A case study of Malaysia’s electricity market system is used to illustrate the proposed market. The result shows that the proposed market model has merit over a pool market model in the context of guaranteed revenue remuneration for each generator. The hybrid model proposed in this paper could effectively be used by ESI in developing countries as a first step of introducing a competition in their electricity marke

Comparison of new and previous Net Energy Metering (NEM) scheme in Malaysia

Net Energy Metering (NEM) scheme was introduced in Malaysia in 2016 to replace the previous Feed in Tariff (FIT) scheme. NEM allows electricity consumers to generate, use and export the net excess energy to the grid. For the net excess energy exported to the grid, the consumer will be paid base on the displaced cost per kWh unit. However, after two years of implementation, not many consumers engaged with the NEM scheme as compared to the previous FIT scheme due to the poor financial return. Beginning 2019, new NEM scheme (NEM 2019) is introduced to replace the previous NEM 2016 scheme. This paper will investigate the potential financial return of the new NEM 2019 in term of net present cost (NPC) and electricity cost savings. The analysis is conducted by using HOMER software on three different size of residential customers; large, medium and small. Different photovoltaic (PV) panel sizes ranging from 1kWp to 8kWp were used in the analysis. The results show that the NEM 2019 produced lower NPC as compared to NEM 2016 for most cases

Electricity consumption pattern disaggregation using non-intrusive appliance load monitoring method

In practice, a standard energy meter can only capture the overall electricity consumption and estimating electricity consumption pattern of various appliances from the overall consumption pattern is complicated. Therefore, the Non-Intrusive Appliance Load Monitoring (NIALM) technique can be applied to trace electricity consumption from each appliance in a monitored building. However, the method requires a detailed, second-by-second power consumption data which is commonly not available without the use of high specification energy meter. Hence, this paper analyzes the impact of different time sampling data in estimating the energy consumption pattern of various appliances through NIALM method. This is so that consumers will have an overview of time sampling data which is required in order to apply the NIALM technique. As for the analysis, air-conditioning systems and fluorescent lamps were used in the experimental setup. One minute sample rate was the minimum time interval required by NIALM carried out in this analysis. Through the study presented in this paper, it can be established that higher time sampling led to uncertain appliance detection and low accuracy

Disaggregated Electricity Bill Base on Utilization factor and Time-of-use (ToU) Tariff

Time of Use tariff is introduced to motivate users to change their electricity usage pattern. Commonly the tariff is high during peak hours and relatively low during off peak hours, to encourage users to reduce consumption during peak hours or shift it to off-peak hours. This tariff scheme provides opportunities for building owners to reduce their electricity bill provided that their electricity usage patterns of various spaces in that building at every hour are known. In practice, the kWh meter installed by the utility can only provide the overall hourly electricity consumption pattern. To know the usage pattern of different spaces or rooms, separate individual meter need to be installed in each space/room, which is costly and impractical.  This paper presented the disaggregated electricity bill method based on user utilization factor and time of use (ToU) tariff. It estimates hourly electricity bill of each appliance at each space/room. Utilization factor is used to represent the electricity usage behavior of the occupants. The proposed method is applied on practical load profile data of a university building

Data selection test method for better prediction of building electricity consumption

The issue of obtaining an accurate prediction of electricity consumption has been widely discussed by many previous works. Various techniques have been used such as statistical method, time-series, heuristic methods and many more. Whatever the technique used, the accuracy of prediction depends on the availability of historical data as well as the proper selection of the data. Even the data is exhaustive; it must be selected so that the prediction accuracy can be improved. This paper presented a test method named Data Selection Test (DST) method that can be used to test the historical data to select the correct data set for prediction. The DST method is demonstrated and tested on practical electricity consumption data of a selected commercial building. Three different prediction methods are used (ie. Moving Average, MA, Exponential Smoothing, ES and Linear Regression, LR) to evaluate the prediction accuracy by using the data set recommended by the DST method

Integration of time of use (TOU) tariff in net energy metering (NEM) scheme for electricity customers

The introduction of Net Energy Metering (NEM) scheme for electricity customers in Malaysia is seen as an improvement from the previous Feed-In Tariff (FIT). However, the new NEM scheme only benefited the large residential customers but not to medium and small residential customers. Due to electricity tariff blocks structure, the large customers can avoid paying expensive tariff and hence reducing their electricity bill. This is not the case for medium and small customers since they are already paying lower tariff blocks due to their lower electricity consumption. This issue will discourage most residential customers to install solar PV system in their home and affect the Malaysia’s renewable energy target. This paper proposed a NEM scheme that integrates Time of Use (TOU) electricity tariff to the scheme. The proposed NEM-TOU scheme will be simulated, tested and compared to the new NEM scheme by using practical small, medium and large residential customers’ data. The results show that the proposed TOU-NEM scheme able to overcome the weakness of the current scheme where all customers (large, medium and low) can benefited by installing solar PV system in their home