Financial assessment of solar PV system in residential sector of Malaysia

Energy usage and its respective become a controversial issue in the modern world. Energy is considered as one of the indispensable factors for continuous development and economic growth. One of the main sources of energy is fossil fuels which is limited; therefore, it is necessary to use another sources for energy such as renewable energy. One of the most useful source of renewable energy is solar energy. The energy generated from solar is clean and natural without contaminating noise, harmful emission and waste products. Malaysia is situated at the equatorial region with a high amount of solar radiation. It has a promising potential to establish large scale solar power installations. Among the wide range types of different buildings, residential buildings are considered as one of the biggest energy consuming sector in the world. The aim of this study is to investigate the financial potential of solar PV systems in residential buildings in Malaysia. To achieve the aim of study, at the first step number and capacity of each component of suitable PV system was estimated. Then with using retail price information of each component that gathered from local manufacturers or exporters in Malaysia, the cost of each component of solar PV system and the price of whole system was estimated. Then the annualized life cycle costs of the system were calculated. At the Last stage of the study, the payback period of initial investment, net present value (NPV), and Internal rate of return (IRR) of the project were determined

An Evolutionary Model for Operation of Hydropower Reservoirs

In this study, an optimization model is developed for monthly operation of a multi-purpose hydropower reservoirs using genetic algorithm. The real value encoding approach is used considering alternative representation, selection, crossover, and mutation schemes. The constraints are handled using the Multiplicative Penalty Method (MPM) function, in order to evaluate the objective function in deferent conditions. The reliability of water allocation to different demands and hydropower generation are evaluated using an economic objective function which has been calculated based on the actual value of water and energy of Karoon-I Reservoir in southwestern part of Iran. The results of this study have shown the importance of selecting a suitable mutation operator for reducing the computational run time of the optimization model. The robustness and efficiency of genetic algorithm in developing the operation policies for a multi-purpose hydropower reservoir is discussed in the paper

RESERVOIR OPERATING RULES GENERATED BY DETERMINISTIC AND STOCHASTIC OPTIMIZATION

The development of reservoir operating rules by deterministic and stochastic optimization is investigated in this study. The deterministic model (DPR) consists of an algorithm that cycles through a dynamic program, a regression analysis and a simulation. In this model, the correlation between the general operating rules and the optimal deterministic operation is being increased by going through an iterative process. The stochastic model (SDP) is a stochastic dynamic program which requires a discrete lag-one Markov process as the streamflow descriptor. The optimization models are preceded by a comprehensive statistical analysis of streamflow series and are followed by a real-time reservoir operation simulation model. Several tests and comparisons are performed for annual and monthly time steps to evaluate the models. Single and multiple reservoir systems are considered; different streamflow characteristics and reservoir sizes are employed. Statistical analyses to evaluate the general operating rules are performed. The results of the evaluations show the significant value of the deterministic model proposed in this study for the operation of reservoir of different sizes and the effectiveness of the stochastic model for the operation of small reservoirs

Engineering Education Considering Environmental Issues: Development of Holistic (Ecological) Paradigm

The education of engineers, who are aware of today’s challenges and future opportunities, plays an important role in economical and social development of different societies. The current engineering education system tries to increase professional engineering knowledge in related fields and does not consider the side effects of engineering activities which commonly impact the environment. This thinking structure, called the Newtonian paradigm is vertical thinking based on linear and sequential phenomena. In the Newtonian paradigm, the engineering education program is developed on the basis of maximum usage of available environmental opportunities and control of natural events. In time, the undesirable effects of this engineering paradigm on the environment become visible and also some signs of un-sustainability in engineering systems appear to make some problems in the long time performance of these systems. These impacts force the engineering education system to develop engineering knowledge and pay more attention to the environment. The holistic paradigm has been developed in response to these requirements. The holistic paradigm is based on parallel and non-linear phenomena. In this paradigm in addition to increasing professional knowledge, engineers are made familiar with the interactions between engineering activities and the environment. This way the maximum profit will be obtained from available opportunities and also the engineering activity impacts are minimized. In this paper the paradigm shift trend and its future vision in engineering education and its effects on the development

A Conflict Resolution Model for Water Allocation and River Water Quality Management

In this study, a conflict resolution methodology for water quality management in a river system is presented. The proposed model maximizes an objective function based on the Nash product which includes different utility functions related to the water quality deviations from the standard limits. Simulation and optimization models are proposed to determine operating policies for river water quality management, based on evaluation of system performance to derive the most appropriate diffusing strategy for different stakeholders. The proposed model includes an integrated GA–based optimization and a water quality simulation model. Sustainability measures of system performance, termed "reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability", are calculated for each water withdrawal sector and combined into a Nash product as an objective function. The model is applied to the Karkheh River system in the southern part of Iran. The utility functions are based on the acceptable risk of the allocated water quality by different sectors, especially by the Environmental Protection Organization. The results of the proposed model show that the waste load allocation policies can significantly reduce the number and duration of deviations from the standard quality limit

Flood Damage Estimation

Estimated damage for both deterministic and probabilistic approaches using FDE model developed by Karamouz et al. (2016).<div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Karamouz, M., Fereshtehpour, M., Ahmadvand, F., & Zahmatkesh, Z. (2016). Coastal flood damage estimator: An alternative to FEMA’s HAZUS platform. <i>Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering</i>, <i>142</i>(6), 04016016.<br></div

Deterministic and Probabilistic Flood risk assessment

<div><br><div>Flood modeling, as an important part of coastal hazard assessment, is highly influenced by topography dataset and specifically ground elevation. Lower resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are usually used because of their availability and less computational burden. However, inherent errors in these DEMs propagate into flood risk analysis through spatial modeling. This study aims to explore the DEM resolution effects on coastal flood risk assessments. For this purpose, deterministic and probabilistic approaches are employed. Flood inundation modeling is carried out using hydrologically connected bathtub method. Given the high resolution Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) DEM, different resolution maps are obtained used resampling techniques and incorporated into an error analysis framework along with USGS national elevation dataset (NED) DEMs. The probabilistic framework is developed by simulating the spatial variability of elevation errors compared to LiDAR DEM through a Monte Carlo based method called sequential Gaussian simulation. The proposed methodology is applied to the lower Manhattan in New York City. By integrating the flood model into the developed framework, this approach results in flood inundation probability at each grid cells. In this study, using the concept of accuracy-efficiency tradeoffs, a framework for selecting a suitable spatial resolution for probabilistic flood risk assessment has been suggested. The results show that by exercising a range of options presented in this paper, a broader insight into mapping resolution can be made for making better flood assessment, evacuation zones, and mitigation plans depending upon the data availability in a region for flood preparedness.<br></div></div

Development of a Reliability Based Dynamic Model of Urban Water Supply System: A Case Study

Dramatic population growth in urban areas with limited water resources with adequate quality and quantity especially in arid and semi-arid areas have resulted in increasing tensions in a reliable water supply. Growth and change of a comprehensive water supply system makes the complex relationship among system\u27s components more sensitive to the operating policies. All changing factors and variables should be considered in system operation in order to provide an understanding of system performance over time to provide reliable urban water supply schemes toward its improvement. In this study, systems dynamic modeling approach is used to simulate the system behavior through time at an integrated fashion. The simplified water supply system of Tehran metropolitan area, the capital of Iran, has been considered as the case study of this paper. The considered water supply system consists of several components which are connected with complicated interactions to satisfy water demands such as drinking water, agricultural farming and industrial requirements as well as many other possible needs. Reliability of this system is evaluated. The results of the developed model can be used as an indicator of the system\u27s state to decide about the implementation of system rehabilitation and reconstruction projects

Reliability Assessment of the Water Supply Systems under Uncertain Future Extreme Climate Conditions

Increase in global mean temperature and changes in rainfall amount, pattern, and distribution over the world are all indicative of climate change events. These changes alter the hydroclimatic condition of regions as well as the availability of water resources. In this study, the data generated by 14 general circulation models (GCMs) developed under the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) A1B, A2, and B2 are downscaled and utilized to evaluate climate change impact on the hydroclimatic system of the Karaj River basin located in central Iran. The precipitation and temperature of the study region are downscaled using the change factor approach (CFA). The study analyzes future climate data, extreme changes of future climatic conditions of precipitation, and temperature. The Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning (HBV) model developed by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) is used to simulate streamflow under extreme climate change conditions. Two different sources of uncertainty are investigated in this study. First, the model parameters uncertainty is analyzed with the Monte Carlo procedure, and then different datasets of GCMs projection are investigated under the climate of the twentieth-century climate simulation (20C3M). Results show the GCMs projections range can almost capture the historical records during the 1980s through 2000 for the Karaj basin. By applying the HBV model, considerable range of streamflow changes in the future can be projected that will affect the operation scheme of Karaj Reservoir. In this study, the system dynamics (SD) modeling approach is used to simulate the system behavior through time in an integrated fashion and evaluate its overall reliability in supplying water. The results of this study show that the runoff will decrease in the future under the climate change impact. This will result in more than 50% decrease in reliability of the Karaj Reservoir system under the extreme conditions. As a result, this research predicts that the Karaj Reservoir system will face more than 50% decrease in its reliability under the extreme conditions. Consequently, meeting the increasing water demands would be difficult and application of demand management strategies will be unavoidable