Application of synchronous compensators in the GB transmission network to address protection challenges from increasing renewable generation

The GB transmission network is experiencing significant changes in its generation mix, with increasing volume of renewables and the decommissioning of large-scale thermal power plants. One of the main challenges resulting from these changes in the generation portfolio is the potential impact on the reliable operation of the existing protection schemes. Specifically, the likely decrease in the fault level may result in conventional protection schemes being slow/failing in detection faults, and the decrease of the system inertia would lead to a power system being more sensitive to disturbances, which may subsequently lead to undesired operation of Rate of Change of Frequency (RoCoF) – based Loss-of-Main (LOM) relays. Synchronous compensators are considered to have the potential to offer, among other benefits, a boost to system inertia and an increase of system fault level, which could facilitate the operation of protection systems in future energy scenarios. This paper presents the initial studies conducted under a project that has been initiated by a number of utility companies in the UK, focusing on the demonstration and deployment of the first synchronous compensator at a strategic point in the GB transmission system. The studies investigate the potential impacts of a GB transmission system with high penetration of non-synchronous generation on fault levels and system inertia, while contrasting the results with that of a system reinforced by synchronous compensation. The results of the inertia studies show that synchronous compensation could be used as a potential solution to limit system RoCoF following a disturbance, thereby reducing the risk of a cascading event as a result of the tripping of RoCoF relays. In the fault level studies, it was observed that while increasing the synchronous compensator rating, fault current and short circuit ratio increased, with a faster rate of increase the closer the synchronous compensator is to the fault. This observation suggests that synchronous compensators can also be used to minimise the risk of commutation failure of HVDC links, with the added likelihood of ensuring that the network protection operates correctly in low fault level scenarios

Potential solutions to the challenges of low inertia power systems with a case study concerning synchronous condensers

This paper will review the recent and on-going changes to the power system in Great Britain (GB). One of the main challenges resulting from these changes in generation mix is the assurance of frequency stability in a low inertia system, and the provision of adequate dynamic responses to frequency changes, while meeting the requirements of the energy trilemma. Specifically, the increase in penetration of non-synchronous generation increases the risk of undesired operation of protection devices and contributes to a shortage of dynamic immediate response to frequency changes. A range of potential solutions will be briefly reviewed in this paper including, demand side response (DSR), energy storage, synthetic inertia, and synchronous condensers. A case study concerned with evaluating the impact that synchronous compensation may have in a low inertia power system will be described in the paper. The paper will conclude with an outline of the avenues for further study towards addressing the challenge of frequency stability and system inertia in a future power system

PIN1 TREATMENT OF HEPATITIS C INFECTION FOR CURRENT OR FORMER SUBSTANCE ABUSERS IN A COMMUNITY SETTING

We report the use of PbS nanocrystals within a hybrid device that emits 1.2 mu m electroluminescence with an external quantum efficiency of 1.15% corresponding to an internal quantum efficiency of similar to 5%-12% thus demonstrating a viable, low-cost, highly efficient near infrared organic electroluminescent device. Direct generation of the excited state on the nanocrystal result in eliminating competing processes that have previously led to the low reported efficiencies in near-infrared light emitting devices. Furthermore, the emission wavelength can be tuned to cover a wide range of wavelengths including the 1.3-1.5 mu m region without significant change of the efficiency. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics

Solvent-Induced Reversal of Activities between Two Closely Related Heterogeneous Catalysts in the Aldol Reaction

The relative rates of the aldol reaction catalyzed by supported primary and secondary amines can be inverted by 2 orders of magnitude, depending on the use of hexane or water as a solvent. Our analyses suggest that this dramatic shift in the catalytic behavior of the supported amines does not involve differences in reaction mechanism, but is caused by activation of imine to enamine equilibria and stabilization of iminium species. The effects of solvent polarity and acidity were found to be important to the performance of the catalytic reaction. This study highlights the critical role of solvent in multicomponent heterogeneous catalytic processes

Substrate inhibition in the heterogeneous catalyzed aldol condensation: A mechanistic study of supported organocatalysts

In this study, we demonstrate how materials science can be combined with the established methods of organic chemistry to find mechanistic bottlenecks and redesign heterogeneous catalysts for improved performance. By using solid-state NMR, infrared spectroscopy, surface and kinetic analysis, we prove the existence of a substrate inhibition in the aldol condensation catalyzed by heterogeneous amines. We show that modifying the structure of the supported amines according to the proposed mechanism dramatically enhances the activity of the heterogeneous catalyst. We also provide evidence that the reaction benefits significantly from the surface chemistry of the silica support, which plays the role of a co-catalyst, giving activities up to two orders of magnitude larger than those of homogeneous amines. This study confirms that the optimization of a heterogeneous catalyst depends as much on obtaining organic mechanistic information as it does on controlling the structure of the support

Computational Treatment of Metalloproteins

Metalloproteins present a considerable challenge for modeling, especially when the starting point is far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Examples include formidable problems such as metalloprotein folding and structure prediction upon metal addition, removal, or even just replacement; metalloenzyme design, where stabilization of a transition state of the catalyzed reaction in the specific binding pocket around the metal needs to be achieved; docking to metal-containing sites and design of metalloenzyme inhibitors. Even more conservative computations, such as elucidations of the mechanisms and energetics of the reaction catalyzed by natural metalloenzymes, are often nontrivial. The reason is the vast span of time and length scales over which these proteins operate, and thus the resultant difficulties in estimating their energies and free energies. It is required to perform extensive sampling, properly treat the electronic structure of the bound metal or metals, and seamlessly merge the required techniques to assess energies and entropies, or their changes, for the entire system. Additionally, the machinery needs to be computationally affordable. Although a great advancement has been made over the years, including some of the seminal works resulting in the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry, many aforementioned exciting applications remain far from reach. We review the methodology on the forefront of the field, including several promising methods developed in our lab that bring us closer to the desired modern goals. We further highlight their performance by a few examples of applications

A Foreign Artist and a Russian War: Peter von Hess, a Case Study in Imperial Patronage and National Identity

A number of foreign artists received the earliest commissions to represent Napoleon’s Russian Campaign of 1812 for Russian emperors. My paper is a case study of a German artist who served the Russian Imperial court. Peter von Hess trained at the Academy in Munich and served both King Ludwig I of Bavaria and Otto I of Greece. In 1839, Emperor Nicholas I commissioned the artist to complete 12 monumental canvases for the Winter Palace representing key battles that followed Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. While earlier battle paintings and portraits commissioned by Alexander I dealt only with elite officers and the emperor, Hess’s paintings elevated the common Russian as the bearers of a great sacrifice and as the true defenders of Russia. This representational shift is the product of changing ideas concerning Russia’s involvement in several alliances from 1803 to 1815 that included Austria, England, Sweden, and Prussia. In addition, over the course of Nicholas I’s reign, the concepts of “autocracy, orthodoxy, nationality” crept into representations of the Russian experience of the Napoleonic wars

Unmasking a patent foramen ovale during recurrent paradoxical cerebral embolism

A patient with an acute ischemic stroke had an interatrial septal aneurysm shown by transesophageal echocardiography. Interatrial shunting, compatible with a patent foramen ovale, was observed on a follow-up study after a second stroke. This was seen in association with a right atrial thrombus. This case illustrates that an interatrial septal aneurysm serves as a marker for potential interatrial shunting, which can lead to paradoxical cerebral embolism