Energy Efficiency Opportunities and Savings Potential for Electric Motor and Its Impact on GHG Emissions Reduction

Motors are the single largest users of electric power, consuming over half of all electricity and more than 60% of that used in the industrial sector.  The use of energy-efficient motor technologies offers utilities the possibility of achieving substantial energy savings and reduction of GHG emissions. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review about energy efficiency opportunities and savings potential for electric motor. This paper compiles latest literatures in terms of journal articles, conference proceedings, web materials, reports, books, handbooks on electrical motor energy use, and opportunities for energy efficiency as well as energy savings strategies. Besides, present status of the efficient motor technology, market potential have been presented in this paper. Also, different energy savings strategies such as rewinding, use of variable speed drive (VSD), and capacitor bank to improve the power factor to reduce their energy uses have also been reviewed. Furthermore, cost parameters to carry out economic analysis and payback period for different energy savings strategies have been shown as well.DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v3i4.359

Barriers to Energy Access in the Urban Poor Areas of Dhaka, Bangladesh: Analysis of Present Situation and Recommendations

Energy is a crucial input to promote socioeconomic development. In Bangladesh, about 96 million people (59%) do not have access to electricity and 143 million people (88%) still depend on biomass for cooking. The urban poor living in slum areas with lack of access to clean and modern sources of energy have not been addressed comprehensively. The main objective of this study is to identify the barriers faced by the urban poor in the slum areas of Dhaka in accessing different fuels and provide specific recommendations to overcome the barriers to enable energy access. The study is mainly based on field survey covering 185 households of the four major slum areas of Dhaka, literature review, and stakeholder interviews. Many barriers have been identified through this research where urban poor face problems in accessing legal energy services due to illegal settlement, lack of explicit policy on energy and housing, lack of dedicated institution, the pervasive role of Mastaans, poor infrastructure and lack of monitoring and evaluating system. Barriers specific recommendations are also suggested based on the experiences from the field visit and the best practices outside Bangladesh are also identified. Keywords: Urban poor; Energy access; Energy policy; Slums; Dhaka JEL Classifications: C83; G28; R2

Integration of Large-Scale Electric Vehicles into Utility Grid: An Efficient Approach for Impact Analysis and Power Quality Assessment

Electric vehicles (EVs) have received massive consideration in the automotive industries due to their improved performance, efficiency and capability to minimize global warming and carbon emission impacts. The utilization of EVs has several potential benefits, such as increased use of renewable energy, less dependency on fossil-fuel-based power generations and energy-storage capability. Although EVs can significantly mitigate global carbon emissions, it is challenging to maintain power balance during charging on-peak hours. Thus, it mandates a comprehensive impact analysis of high-level electric vehicle penetration in utility grids. This paper investigates the impacts of large-scale EV penetration on low voltage distribution, considering the charging time, charging method and characteristics. Several charging scenarios are considered for EVs’ integration into the utility grid regarding power demand, voltage profile, power quality and system adequacy. A lookup-table-based charging approach for EVs is proposed for impact analysis, while considering a large-scale integration. It is observed that the bus voltage and line current are affected during high-level charging and discharging of the EVs. The residential grid voltage sag increases by about 1.96% to 1.77%, 2.21%, 1.96 to 1.521% and 1.93% in four EV-charging profiles, respectively. The finding of this work can be adopted in designing optimal charging/discharging of EVs to minimize the impacts on bus voltage and line current

Enhancement of Solar PV Hosting Capacity in a Remote Industrial Microgrid: A Methodical Techno-Economic Approach

To meet the zero-carbon electricity generation target as part of the sustainable development goals (SDG7), remote industrial microgrids worldwide are considering the uptake of more and more renewable energy resources, especially solar PV systems. Estimating the grid PV hosting capacity plays an essential role in designing and planning such microgrids. PV hosting capacity assessment determines the maximum PV capacity suitable for the grid and the appropriate electrical location for PV placement. This research reveals that conventional static criteria to assess the PV hosting capacity fail to ensure the grid’s operational robustness. It hence demands a reduction in the theoretical hosting capacity estimation to ensure grid compatible post-fault voltage and frequency recovery. Energy storage technologies, particularly fast-responsive batteries, can potentially prevent such undesirable scenarios; nevertheless, careful integration is required to ensure an affordable cost of energy. This study proposes a novel methodical techno-economic approach for an off-grid remote industrial microgrid to enhance the PV hosting capacity by integrating battery energy storage considering grid disturbance and recovery scenarios. The method has been validated in an industrial microgrid with a 2.6 MW peak demand in a ready-made garment (RMG) factory having a distinctive demand pattern and unique constraints in remote Bangladesh. According to the analysis, integrating 2.5 MW of PV capacity and a 1.2 MVA battery bank to offset existing diesel and grid consumption would result in an energy cost of BDT 14.60 per kWh (USD 0.1719 per kWh). For high PV penetration scenarios, the application of this method offers higher system robustness, and the financial analysis indicates that the industries would not only benefit from positive environmental impact but also make an economic profit

The Effects of Non-Uniformly-Aged Photovoltaic Array on Mismatch Power Loss: A Practical Investigation towards Novel Hybrid Array Configurations

One of the most important causes of a reduction in power generation in PV panels is the non-uniform aging of photovoltaic (PV) modules. The increase in the current–voltage (I–V) mismatch among the array modules is the primary cause of this kind of degradation. There have been several array configurations investigated over the years to reduce mismatch power loss (MPL) caused by shadowing, but there have not been any experimental studies that have specifically examined the impact of various hybrid array topologies taking PV module aging into consideration. This research examines the influence of the non-uniform aging scenario on the performance of solar PV modules with various interconnection strategies. Experiments have been carried out on a 4 × 10, 400 W array with 12 possible configurations, including three proposed configurations (LD-TCT, SP-LD, and LD-SP), to detect the electrical characteristics of a PV system. Finally, the performances of different module configurations are analyzed where the newly proposed configurations (SP-LD and LD-SP) show 15.80% and 15.94% higher recoverable energy (RE), respectively, than the most-adopted configuration (SP). Moreover, among the twelve configurations, the SP configuration shows the highest percentage of MPL, which is about 17.96%, whereas LD-SP shows the lowest MPL at about 4.88%

The effects of non-uniformly-aged photovoltaic array on mismatch power loss : A practical investigation towards novel hybrid array configurations

One of the most important causes of a reduction in power generation in PV panels is the non-uniform aging of photovoltaic (PV) modules. The increase in the current–voltage (I–V) mismatch among the array modules is the primary cause of this kind of degradation. There have been several array configurations investigated over the years to reduce mismatch power loss (MPL) caused by shadowing, but there have not been any experimental studies that have specifically examined the impact of various hybrid array topologies taking PV module aging into consideration. This research examines the influence of the non-uniform aging scenario on the performance of solar PV modules with various interconnection strategies. Experiments have been carried out on a 4 × 10, 400 W array with 12 possible configurations, including three proposed configurations (LD-TCT, SP-LD, and LD-SP), to detect the electrical characteristics of a PV system. Finally, the performances of different module configurations are analyzed where the newly proposed configurations (SP-LD and LD-SP) show 15.80% and 15.94% higher recoverable energy (RE), respectively, than the most-adopted configuration (SP). Moreover, among the twelve configurations, the SP configuration shows the highest percentage of MPL, which is about 17.96%, whereas LD-SP shows the lowest MPL at about 4.88%

Techno-economic and carbon emission assessment of a large-scale floating solar pv system for sustainable energy generation in support of malaysia’s renewable energy roadmap

Energy generation from renewable sources is a global trend due to the carbon emissions generated by fossil fuels, which cause serious harm to the ecosystem. As per the long-term goals of the ASEAN countries, the Malaysian government established a target of 31% renewable energy generation by 2025 to facilitate ongoing carbon emission reductions. To reach the goal, a large-scale solar auction is one of the most impactful initiatives among the four potential strategies taken by the government. To assist the Malaysian government’s large-scale solar policy as detailed in the national renewable energy roadmap, this article investigated the techno-economic and feasibility aspects of a 10 MW floating solar PV system at UMP Lake. The PVsyst 7.3 software was used to develop and compute energy production and loss estimation. The plant is anticipated to produce 17,960 MWh of energy annually at a levelized cost of energy of USD 0.052/kWh. The facility requires USD 8.94 million in capital costs that would be recovered within a payback period of 9.5 years from the date of operation. The plant is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 11,135.2 tons annually. The proposed facility would ensure optimal usage of UMP Lake and contribute to the Malaysian government’s efforts toward sustainable growth

Development of a PV/Battery Micro-Grid for a Data Center in Bangladesh: Resilience and Sustainability Analysis

Energy resiliency plays an important role in the proper functioning of data centers as they heavily rely on an uninterrupted power supply to ensure smooth operation. In the case of a power outage, the data center’s operation might be hampered, which results in system downtime, data, and economic loss. This issue is severe in developing countries where power supply infrastructures are inadequate and conventional. Microgrids can be an effective solution in this regard. Although several studies developed microgrids to observe the energy resilience benefit for some critical facilities, critical facilities like data centers are often overlooked. In addition, sustainability analysis of a microgrid is also scarce in the present literature. Therefore, one new resilience and sustainability indicator has been developed and implemented in this analysis to fill this gap. For this, new indicators, such as the resilience cost index (RCI) and renewable energy penetration (REP), were used in this study. This study used HOMER version 3.13.3 and REopt software to simulate a robust photovoltaic (PV) and battery microgrid for a hypothetical data center in Bangladesh. A random (48 h) outage was assigned to witness the adaptability of the modelled micro-grid. The suitable size of PV and battery was found to be 249,219 kW and 398,547 kWh, respectively. The system’s USD 18,079,948 net present value (NPV) demonstrates the economic potential of utilizing PV and battery microgrids for data centers. The RCI of the system is found to be 35%, while the REP is 87%. The energy consumption saving of the system is USD 21,822,076. The system emits 652% less CO2 than the grid. The result of this system is also compared with a diesel-based system. After comparison, it is found that the developed PV/battery microgrid provides better environmental and economical service than the diesel generator. During blackouts, the system keeps the data center powered up without interruption while improving energy resilience and lowering carbon emissions. The outcome of this current analysis can serve as a blueprint for other microgrid projects in Bangladesh and other developing countries. By integrating PV/battery microgrids, data centers can cut costs, reduce emissions, and optimize energy use. This will make data centers less reliant on grid services and more flexible to forthcoming development

Model Antiseptic Control Scheme to Torque Ripple Mitigation for DC-DC Converter-Based BLDC Motor Drives

Although brushless direct current motor (BLDCM) drives are becoming more popular in industrial and commercial applications, there are still significant difficulties and unresolved research issues that must be addressed. In BLDCM drives, commutation current ripple (CCR) and diode freewheeling during non-commutation zone (NCZ) are the major challenges. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes a novel PWM-Model Antiseptic Control (PWM-MAC) technique to alleviate the freewheeling of the diode. The proposed PWM technique is used to alleviate the diode freewheeling in the NCZ, whereas the DCLV circuit is utilized to obtain variable DC-link voltage to address the CCR in the CZ. The MATLAB/Simulink results are included along with experimental results obtained from a laboratory prototype of 325 W. The proposed module reduces the current ripple by 31.7% and corresponding torque ripples are suppressed by approximately 32.5%. This evidences the performance of the proposed control technique

Model Antiseptic Control Scheme to Torque Ripple Mitigation for DC-DC Converter-Based BLDC Motor Drives

Although brushless direct current motor (BLDCM) drives are becoming more popular in industrial and commercial applications, there are still significant difficulties and unresolved research issues that must be addressed. In BLDCM drives, commutation current ripple (CCR) and diode freewheeling during non-commutation zone (NCZ) are the major challenges. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes a novel PWM-Model Antiseptic Control (PWM-MAC) technique to alleviate the freewheeling of the diode. The proposed PWM technique is used to alleviate the diode freewheeling in the NCZ, whereas the DCLV circuit is utilized to obtain variable DC-link voltage to address the CCR in the CZ. The MATLAB/Simulink results are included along with experimental results obtained from a laboratory prototype of 325 W. The proposed module reduces the current ripple by 31.7% and corresponding torque ripples are suppressed by approximately 32.5%. This evidences the performance of the proposed control technique