Magnetic Field Energy Harvesting in Railway

Magnetic field energy harvesting (MFEH) is a method by which a system can harness an ambient, alternating magnetic field in order to scavenge energy. Presented in this article is a novel application of the concept aimed at the magnetic fields surrounding the rail current in electrified railway. Due to its noninvasive nature, the approach has the potential to be widely deployed as a part of low-cost trackside condition monitoring systems in order to increase lifetime and reduce maintenance requirements. In this article, the viability of MFEH in railway is substantiated experimentally—two different configurations are assessed both in a controlled laboratory environment as well as in situ along Norwegian railway. When placed near an emulated section of railway carrying 200 A in the laboratory, the power output of the system is up to 40.5 mW at 50 Hz and 4.15 mW at 16 23Hz . In the field, the prototype system harvests 109 mJ from a single freight train passing by, rendering an estimated daily energy output of 1.14 J in a moderately trafficked location. It is argued that the approach could indeed eliminate the need for battery replacements and potentially increase the lifetime of an energy-efficient, battery-powered condition monitoring system indefinitely.acceptedVersio

With a Little Help from Your Friends: Collaboration with Vendors During Smart Grid Incident Response Exercises

The introduction of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) into conventional power grids has resulted in a digitalized smart grid, enabling a more efficient and robust operation. However, it can also lead to increased risk and new threats due to more complex systems and longer supply chains. Recent events indicate that the electrical power grid is an attractive target, promoting the need for well-prepared incident management processes that involve external vendors. This paper addresses this through the development of scenarios for collaborative preparedness exercises, and an investigation into which factors may contribute to making it easier to include vendors in preparedness exercises.acceptedVersio

Smart Grid: Shunt Compensation in Non-Sinusoidal Regimes

The electric power theory is of fundamental importance in most aspects of electric power engineering, enabling to analyze and control the grid based on an unambiguous physical interpretation of the power and current flow. The futuristic SmartGrid concept will include scenarios of potentially very challenging network conditions, due to large impact of non-linear loads, combined with unsymmetric and non-sinusoidal voltage regimes. New and more advanced power theories are needed, in order to maintain correct physical understanding of the power grid, independently of voltage conditions. Moreover sophisticated power theories can help identify and eliminate detrimental effects induced by loads; i.e. unsymmetry, reactive power consumption and harmonic pollution. This project has reviewed the recent and promising conservative power theory (CPT). Major part of the project was dedicated to experimental research, evaluating the CPT purely from a power theory perspective. Central part of these experiments was a real-time rapid prototyping system (RPS) and three-phase voltage source converter. Control system for the programmable voltage source, data acquisition and CPT-algorithm were implemented by the RPS. Based on extensive tests it was found that the CPT offers enhanced and physical correct interpretation of current and power flow. Obtained results from the virtual instrumentation are principally consistent with and support previous research presented in the literature. Second part evaluated the CPT in context of shunt active power filter (SAPF). Experimental implementation of SAPF failed, mainly as the RPS did not provide sufficient sampling rate. Selected cases of reactive and harmonic compensation were demonstrated, utilizing computer modeling tools (MATLAB/Simulink). The results conclude that the CPT performs excellent selective compensation, only when grid voltages are balanced sinusoidal. In scenarios of unsymmetric or distorted voltages, the compensation strategies provided by the CPT are apparently less versatile and effective, compared to the popular pq-theory. Overall this study demonstrated that optimal network operation can only be achieved, through the joint action of series and parallel compensators. Future work will amongst others include further in-depth study of the rapid prototyping system, and experimental implementation of SAPF

Magnetic Field Energy Harvesting in Railway

Magnetic field energy harvesting (MFEH) is a method by which a system can harness an ambient, alternating magnetic field in order to scavenge energy. Presented in this article is a novel application of the concept aimed at the magnetic fields surrounding the rail current in electrified railway. Due to its noninvasive nature, the approach has the potential to be widely deployed as a part of low-cost trackside condition monitoring systems in order to increase lifetime and reduce maintenance requirements. In this article, the viability of MFEH in railway is substantiated experimentally—two different configurations are assessed both in a controlled laboratory environment as well as in situ along Norwegian railway. When placed near an emulated section of railway carrying 200 A in the laboratory, the power output of the system is up to 40.5 mW at 50 Hz and 4.15 mW at 1

A Design Method of an Embedded Real-Time Simulator for Electric Drives using Low-Cost System-on-Chip Platform

This paper presents a modular and easily reusable Zynq System-on-Chip (SoC) based Embedded Real-Time Simulator (ERTS) aimed for rapid prototyping of electric drives. The power hardware components of the drive including the voltage source converters (VSC) is programmed in the field programmable gate array (FPGA) fabric of the SoC to achieve real-time emulation. The control algorithms of the electric motor drive are programmed in the on-chip processor which can be used to drive either the physical- or emulated- hardware. The ERTS is scaled in the per-unit system to enhance reusability irrespective of the hardware ratings. The architectures and schematics of different partitions of the ERTS are illustrated. The simulator is demonstrated using a position–sensorless, interior permanent magnet synchronous machine (IPMSM) drive and compared against offline simulation for performance

Two novel current-based methods for locating earth faults in unearthed ring operating MV networks

Automated fault location plays a key role in improving the reliability of modern power grids—it helps to reduce the power outage time and the number of affected customers. Earth faults in isolated systems are among the fault types that are difficult to detect and locate with a reasonable accuracy, and there has therefore not been a well-established method for detecting and locating such faults in isolated systems. This paper presents two novel current-based methods for locating earth faults in unearthed closed-ring MV networks. The methods are based on the utilisation of sequence components of standard current and voltage measurement at a primary substation and they do not require new devices or measurements in the field. Both methods are tested with a simulation of a network based on data provided by a Norwegian network operator and their prediction performances were investigated considering different scenarios on fault resistance, load asymmetry and measurement errors. Both methods performed well and showed good accuracy. The simulation results are promising and strengthens the prospect of further testing of the methods in real networks and adoption of the methods for a real-world implementation.publishedVersio

With a Little Help from Your Friends: Collaboration with Vendors During Smart Grid Incident Response Exercises

The introduction of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) into conventional power grids has resulted in a digitalized smart grid, enabling a more efficient and robust operation. However, it can also lead to increased risk and new threats due to more complex systems and longer supply chains. Recent events indicate that the electrical power grid is an attractive target, promoting the need for well-prepared incident management processes that involve external vendors. This paper addresses this through the development of scenarios for collaborative preparedness exercises, and an investigation into which factors may contribute to making it easier to include vendors in preparedness exercises

With a Little Help from Your Friends: Collaboration with Vendors During Smart Grid Incident Response Exercises

The introduction of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) into conventional power grids has resulted in a digitalized smart grid, enabling a more efficient and robust operation. However, it can also lead to increased risk and new threats due to more complex systems and longer supply chains. Recent events indicate that the electrical power grid is an attractive target, promoting the need for well-prepared incident management processes that involve external vendors. This paper addresses this through the development of scenarios for collaborative preparedness exercises, and an investigation into which factors may contribute to making it easier to include vendors in preparedness exercises

NATO Federated Coalition Cloud with Kubernetes: A National Prototype Perspective

In NATO, the IST-168 research task group (RTG) “Adaptive Information Processing and Distribution To Support Command and Control” aims to investigate cloud computing at the tactical edge from a coalition force perspective. From recent developments in cloud computing and DevSecOps stemming from civilian use, but also with increasing adoption for military applications, virtualization of infrastructure and containerization of software is currently a preferred approach to cloud computing. Containers provide a lightweight approach to packaging and orchestrating software components and services. Kubernetes is a tool for orchestrating and managing deployment, scaling and migration of such containers. In the NATO IST-168 RTG, the emphasis is on interoperability and interconnecting different nations’ Kubernetes clusters. The work described in this paper presents Norway’s contribution to the RTG