Study of nuisance tripping of residual current circuit breakers with electronic loads

[EN] Residual current circuit breakers (RCCBs) are often used to provide protection against indirect contacts in a grounded electrical installation. However, there are situations where the use of RCCBs presents certain problems. In circuits that feed electronic loads usually occur nuisance trips of RCCBs. This article discusses the reasons of the nuisance tripping of RCCBs in this type of circuits based in previous cases studied by the author and some tests performed in a power flexible laboratory. A theoretical circuit used to explain the phenomena is also presented.This research work has been made possible with the support of the GV/2015/068-Ayudas para la realización de proyectos de I+D para grupos de investigación emergentes.Escrivá-Escrivá, G. (2016). Study of nuisance tripping of residual current circuit breakers with electronic loads. Journal of Electrical Engineering and Electronic Technology. 4(4):1-15. https://doi.org/10.4172/2325-9833.C1.005S1154

Design and Development of a New Control System for Improving Energy Efficiency and Demand Response

Escrivá-Escrivá, G. (2020). Design and Development of a New Control System for Improving Energy Efficiency and Demand Response. Journal of Construction Research. 2(1):37-49. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/170292S37492

Nuevas herramientas para facilitar la respuesta activa de consumidores en mercados eléctricos liberalizados: implementación y retribución

En la nueva situación en la que se encuentran los mercados eléctricos, inmersos en distintos procesos de liberalización, toma especial importancia la competitividad dentro del sector del suministro eléctrico. Dicha competitividad debe considerar todos los mecanismos posibles para conseguir una gestión óptima de los mismos, tanto técnica como económica. Dentro de estos mercados, la participación activa del consumidor se define como uno de los objetivos fundamentales para conseguir un funcionamiento adecuado de los mercados desregulados. Es en este ámbito donde se enmarca la participación activa o respuesta de la demanda, entendiéndose como toda acción por parte del consumidor que conlleve su participación en los procesos de obtención y reacción a los precios. Desde hace años, década de los 70, se han ido definiendo distintos programas de participación activa de la demanda, aunque no se han obtenido los resultados esperados. Muchas son las razones, de entre las que se destacan aspectos técnicos, se debe disponer de sistemas que permitan la obtención y tratamiento de la información necesaria para gestionarlos, y aspectos logísticos tanto de definición de productos claros y atractivos para el consumidor como de definición de un mecanismo que permita remunerar de forma objetiva la respuesta del consumidor frente a señales del sistema. La presente tesis se centra en el diseño e implementación de herramientas que faciliten la respuesta activa de la demanda en el funcionamiento de los sistemas eléctricos. Para ello, se realizan distintas acciones, el diseño e implementación de un sistema de gestión integral de energía eléctrica que facilite y permita dicha respuesta activa de la demanda. Asi, tras analizar las limitaciones que para este nuevo objetivo presentan los sistemas de control existentes, se plantea un nuevo sistema que permite disponer de un espacio común entre todos los participantes del programa y aporta las funcionalidades adicionales necesarias para la integración.Escrivá Escrivá, G. (2009). Nuevas herramientas para facilitar la respuesta activa de consumidores en mercados eléctricos liberalizados: implementación y retribución [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/8317Palanci

Simulation Model for Energy Integration of Distributed Resources in Buildings

"(c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works."In the last few years, several problems have been evidenced in the electricity sector for example: increasing energy demand, overloaded power grids, transport losses in energy, resource shortages and greenhouse gas emissions in their generation. In response to these problems, several solutions have been proposed, one of them is the distributed generation with clean technologies, where each industry, building, housing, etc., is capable of generate energy to supply your own demand. The objective of this research is to present a simulation model for the integration of distributed resources in buildings, that is able to predict the energy contribution of each technology in a distributed resource's system in a building, using as inputs: the local climate (solar radiation, wind speed, etc.,), building electricity demand, contracted electrical power, and the size of the available distributed resources. The main advantage of this model is that it allows simulations of various scenarios and in different parts of the world.Serrano, X.; Escrivá-Escrivá, G. (2015). Simulation Model for Energy Integration of Distributed Resources in Buildings. IEEE Latin America Transactions. 13(1):166-171. doi:10.1109/TLA.2015.7040644S16617113

Application of an energy management and control system to assess the potential of different control strategies in HVAC systems

[EN] The significant and continuous increment in the global electricity consumption is asking for energy saving strategies. Efficient control for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems (HVAC) is the most cost-effective way to minimize the use of energy in buildings. In this framework, an energy management and control system (EMCS) has been developed to schedule electricity end-uses in the campus of the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (UPV), Spain. This paper presents an evaluation performed by using the EMCS of different control strategies for HVAC split systems. It analyzed the effect of different schedules for a common air-conditioning device and demand response strategies are tested in several situations. The economic saving is calculated taking into account the electricity contract clauses. Finally, a test is made for the control of a group of similar devices in order to reduce the maximum peak power in consumption and to obtain a flexible load shape with the HVAC loads. The studies are then extrapolated to a larger system, the whole University campus, for which energy and economic savings are quantified. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V.This research work has been possible with the support of Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (Spain) by the grant #CE 19990032.Escrivá-Escrivá, G.; Segura Heras, I.; Alcázar-Ortega, M. (2010). Application of an energy management and control system to assess the potential of different control strategies in HVAC systems. Energy and Buildings. 42(11):2258-2267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2010.07.023S22582267421

PSO Tuning of a Second Order Sliding Mode Controller to Adjust Active Standard Power Levels on a Single-Phase Voltage Source Inverter

[EN] Electricity management in non-conventional energy systems requires advanced control algorithms to produce and distribute electricity efficiently. Various countries worldwide have promoted policies to manage electricity from power inverters under typical voltage, current, and power values. This paper proposes a DQ control for active power regulation on a single-phase voltage source inverter (SPVSI) using a Second Order Sliding Mode Control (SMC-2). The SMC-2 tunning is performed by a metaheuristics algorithm like the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to adjust the SMC-2 parameters. PSO appropriately tuns the SMC-2 through MATLAB, where the results showed lower Integral of Absolute Error value (IAE) and Integral of Square Error value (ISE) as performance indexes.This paper belongs to the project IEA.JCG.20.01 from Universidad de las Americas-EcuadorGonzales-Zurita, O.; Clairand, J.; Escrivá-Escrivá, G. (2022). PSO Tuning of a Second Order Sliding Mode Controller to Adjust Active Standard Power Levels on a Single-Phase Voltage Source Inverter. IEEE. 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1109/PESGM48719.2022.99170551

Electrical consumption forecast using actual data of building end-use decomposition

The calculation of electricity consumption forecast a few days ahead is a complex issue and studies about this matter are continually being performed. Advances in this field enable obtaining consumption forecasts increasingly accurate. These consumption forecasts aim to improve the knowledge of the facilities, the planning and control of consumption and the measurement and verification of energy saving measures, among others. In this study the authors present several advances related to consumption forecast using end-use (EU) approach. In the disaggregation of the total consumption process, the correlation between energy and external variables, such as mean temperature, degree days or daylight, is studied. Additionally, an extrapolation method to obtain a total consumption forecast from forecasted EUs consumption that cover approximately 60% of total consumption is developed. With this procedure, total consumption forecasts with high accuracy can be obtained. The higher accuracy in each end-use, the better results are obtained in the total consumption forecast. For this reason, the study is focused in the end-uses disaggregation and its forecast calculation. The entire methodology is illustrated and contrasted using the consumption of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV).This research work has been possible with the support of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia through grant CE19990032.Escrivá Escrivá, G.; Roldán Blay, C.; Álvarez Bel, CM. (2014). Electrical consumption forecast using actual data of building end-use decomposition. Energy and Buildings. 82:73-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.07.024S73818

A Study on DC Limit Parameters in RCD Operation Using Capacitor

[EN] Residual-current devices (RCDs) are used to protect humans from electrical shocks. This study explores the DC limit parameters of RCDs using the capacitor. To find out the possible parameters, a common signal from the RCD in AC waveform is analyzed using a digital oscilloscope for reference. This signal is then transformed into a DC signal using a common circuit of a full-bridge rectifier, capacitor, and a voltage regulator. Finally, the signal is characterized using an oscilloscope and multimeter. The result of this work is I-V characteristic of the DC measurement obtained from the RCD. It shows two possible parameters. First is a voltage gap of 1 V which representing input current with a range from 0.4 to 64.3 mA. Second is an increasing speed of 1.06 V/s on average. These parameters could be used to overcome the nuisance trips of common RCDs.The work and publications are supported by the Faculty of Science and Technology, UniversitasAirlangga with a Young Lecturer's Research Fund Program. This article would not have been completed without the support of all the team members. Many thanks for all of the team members, as well as other colleagues for their suggestions and indirect assistance.Sutanto, E.; Ain, K.; Aziz, M.; Escrivá-Escrivá, G. (2019). A Study on DC Limit Parameters in RCD Operation Using Capacitor. Journal of Engineering Science and Technology Review (Online). 12(4):7-14. https://doi.org/10.25103/jestr.124.02S71412

Evaluation and assessment of demand response potential applied to the meat industry

Demand response has proven to be a useful mechanism that produces important benefits for both the customer and the power system. In the context of an increasingly competitive electricity market, where prices are constantly rising and the presence of renewable energy resources is gaining prominence, this paper analyzes the flexibility potential of customers in the meat industry, based on the management of the most energy consuming process in this type of segment: cooling production and distribution. The effectiveness of the proposed actions has been successfully tested and validated in an active factory that produces cured ham in Spain, where savings of about 5% in the total annual cost of electricity have been assessed, together with power reductions in the range of 50% of the total peak demand of the studied facilities. Such results demonstrate the efficacy of these techniques, and they open the door to an innovative perspective on the evaluation of flexibility among customers which are traditionally considered rigid, providing a novel approach to the management of customer infrastructures in order to exploit their flexibility in electricity markets.This work was supported by the Spanish Government (Ministerio Ciencia e Innovacion, MICINN) under Research Project ENE2007-67771-C02-01&02/CON.Alcázar Ortega, M.; Álvarez Bel, CM.; Escrivá Escrivá, G.; Domijan, A. (2012). Evaluation and assessment of demand response potential applied to the meat industry. Applied Energy. 92:84-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.10.040S84919

Improving the benefits of demand response participation in facilities with distributed energy resources

[EN] Demand response has proven to be a distributed energy resource of great potential over the last decades for electrical systems operation. However, small or medium size facilities generally have a very limited ability to participate in demand response programs. When a facility includes several generation resources, energy storage systems, or even demand flexibility, the decision-making becomes considerably harder because of the amount of variables to be considered. This paper presents a method to facilitate end users' decision-making in demand response participation. The method consists of an algorithm that uses demand and generation forecasts and costs of the available resources. Depending on the energy to be reduced in a program, the algorithm obtains the optimal schedule and facilitates decision making, helping end users to decide when and how to participate. With this method, end users' capability to participate in these programs is clearly increased. In addition, the method is contrasted by simulations based on real programs developed at the Campus de Vera of the Universitat Politècnica de València. The simulations carried out show that the developed method allows end users to take advantage of the potential of their facilities to provide demand response services and obtain the maximum possible benefit.[EN] La resposta a la demanda ha demostrat ser un recurs d'energia distribuïda de gran potencial en les últimes dècades per a l'operació de sistemes elèctrics. No obstant això, les instal·lacions xicotetes o mitjanes generalment tenen una capacitat molt limitada per a participar en programes de resposta a la demanda. Quan una instal·lació inclou diversos recursos de generació, sistemes d'emmagatzematge d'energia o fins i tot flexibilitat de la demanda, la presa de decisions es torna considerablement més difícil a causa de la quantitat de variables que han de considerar-se. Aquest article presenta un mètode per a facilitar la presa de decisions dels usuaris finals en la participació en la resposta a la demanda. El mètode consisteix en un algorisme que utilitza els pronòstics de demanda i generació i els costos dels recursos disponibles. Depenent de l'energia que haja de reduir-se en un programa, l'algorisme obté el programa òptim i facilita la presa de decisions, ajudant els usuaris finals a decidir quan i com participar. Amb aquest mètode, la capacitat dels usuaris finals per a participar en aquests programes s'incrementa clarament. A més, el mètode es contrasta mitjançant simulacions basades en programes reals desenvolupats al Campus de Vera de la Universitat Politècnica de València. Les simulacions realitzades mostren que el mètode desenvolupat permet als usuaris finals aprofitar el potencial de les seues instal·lacions per a proporcionar serveis de resposta a la demanda i obtindre el màxim benefici possible.[ES] La respuesta a la demanda ha demostrado ser un recurso de energía distribuida de gran potencial en las últimas décadas para la operación de sistemas eléctricos. Sin embargo, las instalaciones pequeñas o medianas generalmente tienen una capacidad muy limitada para participar en programas de respuesta a la demanda. Cuando una instalación incluye varios recursos de generación, sistemas de almacenamiento de energía o incluso flexibilidad de la demanda, la toma de decisiones se vuelve considerablemente más difícil debido a la cantidad de variables que deben considerarse. Este artículo presenta un método para facilitar la toma de decisiones de los usuarios finales en la participación en la respuesta a la demanda. El método consiste en un algoritmo que utiliza los pronósticos de demanda y generación y los costes de los recursos disponibles. Dependiendo de la energía que deba reducirse en un programa, el algoritmo obtiene el programa óptimo y facilita la toma de decisiones, ayudando a los usuarios finales a decidir cuándo y cómo participar. Con este método, la capacidad de los usuarios finales para participar en estos programas se incrementa claramente. Además, el método se contrasta mediante simulaciones basadas en programas reales desarrollados en el Campus de Vera de la Universitat Politècnica de València. Las simulaciones realizadas muestran que el método desarrollado permite a los usuarios finales aprovechar el potencial de sus instalaciones para proporcionar servicios de respuesta a la demanda y obtener el máximo beneficio posible.This work has been possible thanks to the "Programa de Formacion del Profesorado Universitario (FPU). Convocatoria 2013. Estancias Breves". This study was carried out thanks to a grant within this program for a short stay at Brunel University London (Uxbridge, London). The authors want to acknowledge the Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte for this program and the Brunel University staff, especially Prof. Maria Kolokotroni, for hosting Carlos Roldan Blay and helping him during his research stay. In addition, this research work has been made possible with the support of the GV/2015/068-Ayudas para la realizacion de proyectos de I + D para grupos de investigacion emergentes.Roldán-Blay, C.; Escrivá-Escrivá, G.; Roldán-Porta, C. (2019). Improving the benefits of demand response participation in facilities with distributed energy resources. Energy. 169:710-718. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2018.12.102S71071816