Feasibility Studies And System Performance Of 2 MW Solar PV Plant At UTeM

Photovoltaic (PV) is becoming increasingly important as one of the most promising source of renewable energy to tackle climate change challenge. Four PV systems were installed in UTeM, namely polycrystalline, thin film, HIT, and monocrystalline with total capacity of 23.88 kW. In this regard, this research aims to evaluate the complete electrical design of a 2 MW grid-connected solar PV plant located in UTeM, Melaka. To achieve this, a site survey was carried out to inspect the installation site condition as well as the distance to the possible interconnection point. In addition, meteorological parameters were obtained from Meteonorm software. The existing PV systems in UTeM were used to export actual meteorological data at the proposed site. Subsequently, the PV modules orientation, array sizing, and cable sizing were determined based on the data obtained. Inverters and transformers for this PV plant were proposed and studied. The research highlights the key factors that affect the performance of solar PV power systems. Furthermore, the performance ratio and specific yield of the proposed plant were calculated to verify the plant design validity. Economic viability was also analyzed based on the system performance. It take into account the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme. Financial models of the project were assessed and expressed as levelized cost of energy, simple pay back, internal rate of return, and present value of the net profit. The key findings suggest that the project has economic and environmental value which is socially beneficial to the community in Melaka state. The proposed solar PV plant is expected to generate an annual energy of approximately 2,395 MWh, with return on investment of 13.7%. Therefore, the proposed 2 MW solar PV power plant is technically and economically feasible

Variable structure based control strategy for treatment of HCV infection

Hepatitis C is such a harmful disease which can lead to serious health problems and it is caused by the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) which causes liver inflammation and sometimes liver cancer. In this work, the control treatment strategy for HCV infection has been proposed. The advanced nonlinear dynamical mathematical model of HCV that has two control inputs and three state variables such as virions, infected hepatocytes and uninfected hepatocytes are considered for controller design in this research work. Moreover, four nonlinear controllers such as the Fractional Order Terminal Sliding Mode Controller (FOTSMC), Integral Terminal Sliding Mode Controller (ITSMC), Double Integral Sliding Mode Controller (DISMC) and Integral Sliding Mode Controller (ISMC) have been proposed in this work for HCV infection control inside the human body. In order to control the amount of uninfected hepatocytes to its required maximum safe limit, controllers are designed for antiviral therapy in which the amount of virions and infected hepatocytes are tracked to zero. One control input is ribavirin which blocks virions production and the other is pegylated interferon (peg-IFN-a) that acts as reducing infected hepatocytes. By doing so, uninfected hepatocytes increase and achieve the required maximum safe limit. To prove the stability of the whole system, Lyapunov stability analysis is used in this work. Simulation results and comparative analysis are carried out by using MATLAB/Simulink. It can be depicted from the given results that the virions and infected hepatocytes are reduced to their required levels completely using FOTSMC and the Sustained Virologic Response (SVR) rate is also enhanced in it. It reduces the treatment period as compared to previous strategies introduced in the literature and also system behaves very nicely even in the presence of un-modeled disturbances

Variable Structure-Based Control for Dynamic Temperature Setpoint Regulation in Hospital Extreme Healthcare Zones

In critical healthcare units, such as operation theaters and intensive care units, healthcare workers require specific temperature environments at different stages of an operation, which depends upon the condition of the patient and the requirements of the surgical procedures. Therefore, the need for a dynamically controlled temperature environment and the availability of the required heating/cooling electric power is relatively more necessary for the provision of a better healthcare environment as compared to other commercial and residential buildings, where only comfortable room temperature is required. In order to establish a dynamic temperature zone, a setpoint regulator is required that can control the zone temperature with a fast dynamic response, little overshoot, and a low settling time. Thus, two zone temperature regulators have been proposed in this article, including double integral sliding mode control (DISMC) and integral terminal sliding mode control (ITSMC). A realistic scenario of a hospital operation theater is considered for evaluating their responses and performance to desired temperature setpoints. The performance analysis and superiority of the proposed controllers have been established by comparison with an already installed Johnson temperature controller (JTC) for various time spans and specific environmental conditions that require setpoints based on doctors’ and patients’ desires. The proposed controllers showed minimal overshoot and a fast settling response, making them ideal controllers for operation theater (OT) zone temperature control