Autonomy and Empowerment to be Creative and Engaged in a Collaborative Culture

This document is an Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP). The purpose of the OIP is to address a specific problem of practice (PoP) at a private career college in Ontario (the College). The PoP at the College is the need for instructors to have autonomy and empowerment to be creative and engaged in a collaborative culture. An organizational analysis at the College determined that the present functionalist theoretical organizational framework and its hierarchical structure inhibit collaboration. After a comprehensive review of scholarly literature, this OIP recommends that a postmodernist theoretical organizational framework and a follower-centric approach to leadership using the transformational and authentic leadership theories be implemented. To substantiate the robustness of the recommendation, peer-reviewed articles and published books on educational leadership are chosen as they are established literature; over 200 references are used. A 3-pronged solution comprising defined autonomy, a collaborative council, and a community of practice is suggested. Kotter’s (1996) change process, congruent with postmodernism as well as the transformational and authentic leadership approaches, will guide the implementation of the change intervention. An implementation plan is developed and monitoring and evaluation strategies are advanced. Face-to-face meetings including one-on-one interviews, considered rich media, along with surveys and focus groups, are utilized to ensure optimal stakeholder engagement. This OIP then presents a communication plan that will inform and raise the awareness of stakeholders of the need for change while actively engaging them in bringing the change to fruition. Keywords: leadership, autonomy, empowerment, collaboration, functionalism, postmodernis

Investigation to Improve the Control and Operation of a Three-phase Photovoltaic Grid-tie Inverter

Solar Energy or more precisely photovoltaic energy is one of the most promising sources of electricity for the future and it can be used as a distributed generator (DG) to play its role in ‘smart grids of the future’. Distributed PV (photovoltaic) generators can provide numerous potential benefits such as augmenting the capacity of distribution systems, deferring capital investments on distribution and transmission (T&D) systems and improving power quality and system reliability. The PV energy which possesses very special I-V and P-V characteristics has to be conditioned by a PV inverter before it can be consumed by an ac load and/or the grid. Technical improvements in maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and islanding detection are proposed for a three-phase photovoltaic grid tied inverter (GTI) keeping in mind the requirements of the international standards for connecting a DG to the utility grid. This PhD thesis will contain four major sections which are briefed below. A three phase GTI has been simulated using Matlab/Simulink to test the various control blocks and algorithms involved in the building of the power conditioning unit. A DS1104 dSpace DSP controlled, 5.625 kW three-phase GTI laboratory prototype has then been built. Various hardware components, including inverter switches, gate drivers, LCL filter, rectified dc source, boost circuit, transformer, 16A current protection circuit, additional sensing interface circuits and PWM level shifter have been designed and built within the laboratory. The software algorithm created in Simulink communicates directly with the built hardware via the graphical user interface that has been designed with dSPace Control Desk. Algorithms have been developed for the inverter in order to protect it from operating out of nominal frequency and voltage ranges. An algorithm has been developed iii to ensure the boost dc link voltage is controlled to 300V when dc voltage source varies between 150V and 265V. The Z-Source inverter (ZSI), with nine operating states that employs an extra shoot through (ST) state compared to the eight states (6 active and 2 zero states) in traditional VSI is one of the most recent boost topologies that has been proposed in the literature. A step by step design procedure of a ZSI has been developed. A topology comparison between Z-Source inverter and dc-dc boost with VSI is done using literature and simulations. Merits and demerits of the two topologies are summarised and the choice of the topology is justified. MPPT is a process by which maximum power from a PV panel or array is tracked and absorbed during a particular weather condition (insolation level and temperature). There are various MPPT techniques in the literature which are reviewed and a new MPPT approach based on the P&O (Perturb and Observe) method is proposed. The proposed technique is tested on the three phase GTI simulation, it is analysed and compared to the conventionally reviewed P&O MPPT approach. The issue of islanding of GTI’s has raised concerns of equipment and personal safety, for which reason the inverter has to detect and stop the inverter during loss of grid. Passive techniques can detect the grid failure quite well when there is a large power mismatch between the DG and the load but not when the mismatch is small. Active techniques can work well with lower levels of power mismatch but they degrade power quality by introducing disturbances into the power system. A novel wavelet based antiislanding technique is proposed and incorporated into the running hardware protection. This uses physical measurements to reduce the non-detection zone close to zero and keep the power quality of the inverter output unchanged. The developed algorithms have been validated in the laboratory prototype and yield very satisfactory performance

Small Scale Water Wheel Powered Generator for UTP Mosque

This project is about the study of the feasibility of water wheel generator system at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS mosque. To demonstrate the concept, the small scale water wheel prototype is constructed to test and analyse the feasibility of the water wheel generator. The water wheels utilize the flowing water from the upper part of the lake to the lower part, by capturing the potential energy of the water using the water wheel. This project can be divided into two main parts, first the mechanical part involve the design of the water wheel system and also small scale cascading. The second main part is the design of the electrical part and the selection of the most reliable and efficient DC generator to be attached to the water wheel body and the construction of the circuit which can store the generated power. The micro hydro system is an alternative method to reduce the usage and reliance on the grid power system which indirectly assists users to utilize the existing feature as a source of power generation

Impak pengorekan pasir sungai terhadap alam sekitar di Sungai Skudai, Johor

Pada amnya alam persekitaran tidak dapat dipisahkan daripada aspek pembangunan negara. Dalam mengejar pertumbuhan ekonomi dan pembangunan pesat, pelbagai perubahan alam sekitar telah dapat dilihat. Namun penekanan pembangunan yang berfokus kepada peningkatan ekonomi semata-mata telah mula menunjukkan kesan negatifnya. Walaupun pendekatan saintifik telah menunjukkan yang manusia boleh menguasai alam sekitar, tetapi ada ketikanya penyebab kepada pencemaran alam. Di antara pencemaran alam sekitar yang berlaku ialah pencemaran sungai

An LCL-Filter Design with Optimum Total Inductance and Capacitance

LCL-filter is among the best performing filters for grid-connected voltage source inverters. Designing of the filter parameters (grid-side and inverter-side inductors and capacitor), takes an iterative approach due to the coherence between the parameters and design requirements such as IEEE-519 Std for harmonic current limitations, reactive power compensation limit, and maximum allowable voltage drop across the filter to limit the switching losses. Most of the proposed LCL-filter optimization strategies emphasize on reducing the total inductance and losses of the filter while meeting the design requirements. There is less emphasis given on the capacitor selection and optimizing its value. Therefore, this paper proposes a method to compute the optimum capacitance requirement of the LCL-filter based on reactive power compensation of the filter rather than calculating it as a percentage of base capacitance of the filter as found in the literature. The proposed design methodology compared to the previously proposed designs is capable of reducing filter capacitance by 50% while meeting the harmonic limitation demanded by IEEE-519 Std and also considers the impact of the total inductance on reactive power compensation. Based on the proposed methodology an LCLfilter with minimum total inductance and capacitance is realized. Functionality of the proposed LCL-filter is verified and validated through simulations and experimental results

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

Environmental audit of industrial waste

In this industrialization era, an environmental audit is become more complex which is a very strict action are needed in minimize a wastage. Employing an environmental management system is a significant undertaking but an extremely worthwhile one for any organisation. Certification has developed a step by step guide to aid companies in implementing the standard during their journey to ISO 14001 certification. This report discussed on manageable and unmanageable wastage in different companies. These activities give an impact also consequences to environment and lead to poor organization management

Small Scale Water Wheel Powered Generator for UTP Mosque

This project is about the study of the feasibility of water wheel generator system at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS mosque. To demonstrate the concept, the small scale water wheel prototype is constructed to test and analyse the feasibility of the water wheel generator. The water wheels utilize the flowing water from the upper part of the lake to the lower part, by capturing the potential energy of the water using the water wheel. This project can be divided into two main parts, first the mechanical part involve the design of the water wheel system and also small scale cascading. The second main part is the design of the electrical part and the selection of the most reliable and efficient DC generator to be attached to the water wheel body and the construction of the circuit which can store the generated power. The micro hydro system is an alternative method to reduce the usage and reliance on the grid power system which indirectly assists users to utilize the existing feature as a source of power generation

Kajian masalah kewangan yang dihadapi kontraktor bumiputera semasa fasa pembinaan

The Malaysian government has introduced several policies in increasing the economic dominance of the Bumiputera in Malaysia. Among the government's actions in this matter is to give specific government contracts to Bumiputera contractors only. But unfortunately, some Bumiputera contractors fail to last long in the construction industry in Malaysia due to financial problems. Therefore, the objective of this study is to identify the financial problems often faced by Bumiputera contractors during the construction phase, examine the factors of strong capital absence when starting construction work among Bumiputera contractors and suggest appropriate methods in improving the financial performance of Bumiputera contractors in the construction industry. The methodology of this study is qualitative method with the use of interview as instrument for data collection. Meanwhile, the scope of this study involves three Bumiputera contractor firms based in the state of Johor. The data collected were analyzed using content analysis. The results of the study found that the main financial problem faced by Bumiputera Contractors is the low liquidity of the firm. In addition, the study also found that unqualified contractors are a major factor in the lack of strong capital when starting construction work. Therefore, several suggestions have been identified in improving the financial performance of Bumiputera Contractors including to segregate company accounts and personal accounts. It is hoped that this study can benefit Bumiputera Contractors as well as increase the achievement of Bumiputera in the construction industry in Malaysia