Hybrid and Intelligent Energy Storage Systems in Standalone Photovoltaic Applications.

Remote systems such as communication relays or irrigation control installations cannot usually be powered by the electrical grid. One of the alternatives is to power these systems through solar panels, in what is known as standalone photovoltaic applications.Most of these systems need a continuous operation, but a standalone photovoltaic installation cannot be powered during the night. For this reason, they use batteries to store excess energy during the day. These storage systems have been traditionally based on Valve Regulated Lead Acid (VRLA) batteries, but some effects can alter their performance in terms of reliability, operation cost and maintenance. One of the key issues that alter the energy behavior of the photovoltaic off-grid systems is the Partial State of Charge (PSoC) effect: Batteries cannot be completely charged as manufacturers indicate due to the day-night cycle. This gets the battery into an intermediate state of charge that effectively reduces its capacity, even halving it in some cases. To mitigate the impact of these effects on the installation, batteries tend to be oversized with some security margins. These oversizing factors can be incredibly high and have a huge impact on the deployment and maintenance cost of the facility.The first part of this thesis highlights some of these key concepts, analyzing which of them are critical in specific design cases, modeling them into a simulation tool, and as an outcome, establishing optimal sizing regions for the installations. After the analysis, different ways of improving the performance of the installations are proposed. One idea to mitigate PSoC is to combine different storage technologies in a Hybrid Energy Storage Systems (HESS). HESSs have traditionally combined high energy density elements as batteries with high power density elements as ultracapacitors. An iteration of this idea is carried out throughout this thesis, where different types of batteries are combined. Each of them is best fitted to different power patterns in the application, such as daily cycles or emergency periods. It is possible to further increase the performance by using intelligent algorithms to improve the functionalities of the Battery Management Systems embedded in these applications. To this end, failure prediction and health estimation algorithms are proposed as contributions of this work. These new algorithms endow the HESS with tools to predict possible energy disruption events and to anticipate aging, and thus, act accordingly.<br /

The role of hydrogen and fuel cells in the global energy system

Hydrogen technologies have experienced cycles of excessive expectations followed by disillusion. Nonetheless, a growing body of evidence suggests these technologies form an attractive option for the deep decarb onisation of global energy systems, and that recent improvements in their cost and performance point towards economic viability as well. This paper is a comprehensive review of the potential role that hydrogen could play in the provision of electricity, h eat, industry, transport and energy storage in a low - carbon energy system, and an assessment of the status of hydrogen in being able to fulfil that potential. The picture that emerges is one of qualified promise: hydrogen is well established in certain nic hes such as forklift trucks, while mainstream applications are now forthcoming. Hydrogen vehicles are available commercially in several countries, and 225,000 fuel cell home heating systems have been sold. This represents a step change from the situation of only five years ago. This review shows that challenges around cost and performance remain, and considerable improvements are still required for hydrogen to become truly competitive. But such competitiveness in the medium - term future no longer seems an unrealistic prospect, which fully justifies the growing interest and policy support for these technologies around the world

Dataset for "Sequential Feature Selection for Power System Event Classification Utilizing Wide-Area PMU Data"

This dataset supports our paper 'Sequential Feature Selection for Power System Event Classification Utilizing Wide-Area PMU Data' submitted to Frontiers in Energy Researc

Consumption Profile Data

Relevant 24 hours data set for consumption profiles in a typical low voltage gri

Satellite-based Data Collection Architecture for Virtual Power Plant Management in Rural Areas

Smart grid is envisaged to be the next-generation electrical power grids and this is founded based on successfully building up smart grid communication networks that can support all identified smart grid functionalities. Despite a range of communication choices available, utilities still struggle with how to affordably and reliably extend their networks to 100% of their service territories, especially to remote locations. In all smart grid models, it is often emphasized that consumers play a vital role in electricity management of supply and demand, and are expected to be co-producers of electricity, so-called prosumers. As such, virtual power plants (VPPs) by interconnecting hundreds of prosumers are expected to be a new paradigm shift in smart grid systems to better utilize the distributed energy sources. However, efficient VPP management is of great challenge in rural areas that are beyond the reach of primary networks while requiring enormous data exchange. To provide connectivity in rural areas, this paper proposes a satellite-based smart grid communication architecture for the efficient VPP management that requires collecting data from prosumers forming the VPP. Also, a priority-based scheduling algorithm for different smart grid data types is proposed to improve the performance of delay-sensitive applications. Simulation results demonstrate that the satellite-based communications can be a viable solution as a mean of smart grid communications for VPPs

Strategies for an urban renewal in Rome: Massimina Co_Goal

Abstract The paper presents a research project about the regeneration of an informal neighbourhood in Rome. To address the complexity of the regeneration process, the project relies on a combined top down/bottom up strategy. The project envisions the implementation of a Public Call to promote a set of retrofitting actions for a defined number of private houses to be involved in a co-financed refurbishment program. Main goal of the Public Call is to foster the transition towards sustainable development, transforming the existing district into a low energy district and developing new community services implemented and managed by a local community company

From Throughput to Access Fees

This chapter critically evaluates how utilities will need to adjust their tariff structures to compete with new forms of energy production. The structure of these tariffs will be a critical determinant of the success or failure of utilities in the future. The authors assess existing and emerging tariff designs to address the advent of grid-connected substitutes such as distributed generation. The economic efficiency and equity implications of changing tariff designs are assessed based on existing and emerging technologies. The chapter concludes that utilities must be cautious in rapidly redesigning their business models or rebalancing their tariffs, as they attempt to recover revenue previously obtained through rising volumetric consumption. Importantly, adjusting tariffs to recover revenues in the short term may hasten the adoption of energy storage technologies, further undermining the financial stability of utilities in the long term.No Full Tex