Debate

This is a work in progress. The idea is that a number of topics are selected that are relevant to the subject material, beyond the scope of lectures. Students are assigned to groups and then told which side of the debate they are on. Some sides/opinions are more popular but, like a lawyer, the idea is to present the best case/argument possible, independent of their own beliefs

Impacts on the Electrical System Economics from Critical Design Factors of Wave Energy Converters and Arrays

It is expected that ultimately, like offshore wind farms, electrical systems will make up to a quarter of the overall Capex of wave farms. This is a significant element of cost and consideration must be taken in the design of both individual wave energy converters (WECs) and arrays of WECs to ensure that these costs can be minimised. In a worst case scenario design decisions could increase the cost of the electrical system by several orders and ultimately make the technology uncompetitive. This paper outlines the impacts on the cost of the electrical system arising from design factors of WECs and WEC arrays or wave farms. The paper uses a cost model to examine the impact to the cost of WEC array electrical systems caused by changing of key design factors. The design factors examined include WEC unit rating, capacity factor, interface to the electrical network, array spacing, export voltage, array design, site selection, export distance, and WEC dynamic response. All of these design factors have an impact on the economics of the electrical system and hence the economics of the wave farm as a whole. The paper concludes that there are some critical design choices which should be avoided if a cost-effective wave farm is to be established. It is also concluded that some design choices could ultimately reduce the overall Capex of WEC arrays enhancing their competiveness

Harmonic distortion caused by EV battery chargers in the distribution systems network and its remedy

An effective way to minimise harmonic pollution in power systems is by careful design of the equipment connected to them. It is important for designers of equipment associated with emerging technologies to be aware of the potential impact of their designs on power system quality. One such upcoming technology is electric vehicle (EV) battery charging which may contribute to high harmonic distortion in the power system during the charging period. The literature notes total harmonic distortion of up to 50%. These findings are the impetus behind the present paper, where an EV battery charger has been designed, with an inherent power quality control feature. A parallel power circuit topology has been proposed on an existing ferroresonant charger, which ensures that the THD of the input current remains within the acceptable harmonic distortion limits of the distribution system. The design and control of the battery charger are elaborated upon in the paper and simulation results are presented which confirm the performance of the charger

The development of a psychometric test aimed at aligning students to a range of professional roles

Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), working as part of the PREFER project, a European commission funded project, have developed a psychometric test in order to better align engineering students to three distinct professional roles within industry. This paper reports on the development process of the test, which took place between February and August of 2018

A Discussion of Anti-islanding Protection Schemes Incorporated in a Inverter Based DG

The discussion in this paper is about the local anti-islanding protection techniques that are incorporated in a inverter based DG. The most widely used passive and active techniques along with their suitability to reduce the Non-detection zone (NDZ) are explained here. The most recent work using wavelet transform which actually reduces the NDZ to zero is also introduced in the last section of the paper

The Domestic and Export Market for Large Scale Wave Energy in Ireland and the Economics of Export Transmission

Ireland is on track to meet its 2020 renewable energy targets with over 2 GW of onshore wind installed in the all island market as of 2013, and a multiple of this capacity in various stages of planning and development. It is currently unclear how much of this potential capacity will ultimately be installed but it has become clear that the wind industry in Ireland will change focus to export opportunities post 2020. This presents some interesting challenges for wave energy in Ireland. There is some early activity in the installation of wave farms off the west coast of Ireland and it is evident that the potential resource is extremely large. This wave resource is concentrated on the west coast of Ireland, remote of domestic load centres and export markets. To fully exploit this resource the wave energy industry may ultimately depend on the export market opportunity due to limited domestic demand. This paper examines the domestic potential for wave energy penetration and the benefits this may bring. It is concluded that there is a potential domestic market for wave energy in Ireland with the right conditions, although this market may be limited. Ultimately it is concluded that large scale wave energy may require a transmission route to an export market and this will be challenging and expensive, requiring the use o

Undergraduate Engineers\u27 Preference for a Range of Professional Roles

This paper reports on a personal preference test which aligns students to a range of professional roles based on their attitudes towards performing particular tasks. The 10-item test was administered to 109 first-year engineering students at TU Dublin, Ireland and 159 third-year engineering students at KU Leuven, Belgium in September of the 2018/19 academic year. The test had two purposes: • to align students to three professional engineering roles based on their preference for performing certain tasks; • to allow students to reflect on an initially tacit model of professional roles. In this paper only the first purpose is considered, followed by an evaluation of the reliability of the test. Preliminary results indicate that the majority of students at TU Dublin and at KU Leuven wish to work in roles which involve the development of radically new products and services, while a much smaller proportion of students wish to work with product and process optimisation. The data also indicates that, in general, students have less favourable attitudes towards working in client-centred roles. These findings present a unique challenge for engineering educators and employers alike in Ireland and Belgium, as industries in these nations shift towards services and away from manufacture. So too do the skills requirements to work effectively in the modern engineering sector

Protection of DVR against short circuit faults at the load side

An additional control scheme has been proposed in this paper for a dynamic voltage restorer (DVR), to protect it against load short circuit conditions. When overcurrents occur in the distribution system, under the proposed scheme the DVR reverses its injected voltage polarity so as to minimise the current flow. The detection method is based on impedance measurement feedback. The advantage of the scheme is that no additional over current device or protection is required for the DVR and it is easy to implement. The proposed control scheme has been validated through simulation