Matching Items (12)
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- All Subjects: Renewable energy sources
- All Subjects: Electric insulators and insulation
- All Subjects: Power Electronics
- Creators: Karady, George G.
- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Description
This research work describes the design of a fault current limiter (FCL) using digital logic and a microcontroller based data acquisition system for an ultra fast pilot protection system. These systems have been designed according to the requirements of the Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) system (or loop), a 1 MW green energy hub. The FREEDM loop merges advanced power electronics technology with information tech-nology to form an efficient power grid that can be integrated with the existing power system. With the addition of loads to the FREEDM system, the level of fault current rises because of increased energy flow to supply the loads, and this requires the design of a limiter which can limit this current to a level which the existing switchgear can interrupt. The FCL limits the fault current to around three times the rated current. Fast switching Insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) with its gate control logic implements a switching strategy which enables this operation. A complete simulation of the system was built on Simulink and it was verified that the FCL limits the fault current to 1000 A compared to more than 3000 A fault current in the non-existence of a FCL. This setting is made user-defined. In FREEDM system, there is a need to interrupt a fault faster or make intelligent deci-sions relating to fault events, to ensure maximum availability of power to the loads connected to the system. This necessitates fast acquisition of data which is performed by the designed data acquisition system. The microcontroller acquires the data from a current transformer (CT). Mea-surements are made at different points in the FREEDM system and merged together, to input it to the intelligent protection algorithm that has been developed by another student on the project. The algorithm will generate a tripping signal in the event of a fault. The developed hardware and the programmed software to accomplish data acquisition and transmission are presented here. The designed FCL ensures that the existing switchgear equipments need not be replaced thus aiding future power system expansion. The developed data acquisition system enables fast fault sensing in protection schemes improving its reliability.
ContributorsThirumalai, Arvind (Author) / Karady, George G. (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Hedman, Kory (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
In the future electrical distribution system, it can be predicted that local power generators such as photovoltaic panels or wind turbines will play an important role in local distribution network. The local energy generation and local energy storage device can cause indeterminable power flow, and this could cause severe protection problems to existing simple overcurrent coordinated distribution protection system. An accurate, fast and reliable protection system based on pilot protection concept is proposed in this thesis. A comprehensive protection design specialized for the FREEDM system - the intelligent fault management (IFM) is presented in detail. In IFM, the pilot-differential protective method is employed as primary protection while the overcurrent protective method is employed as a backup protection. The IFM has been implemented by a real time monitoring program on LabVIEW. A complete sensitivity and selectivity analysis based on simulation is performed to evaluate the protection program performance under various system operating conditions. Followed by the sensitivity analysis, a case study of multiple-terminal model is presented with the possible challenges and potential limitation of the proposed protection system. Furthermore, a micro controller based on a protection system as hardware implementation is studied on a scaled physical test bed. The communication block and signal processing block are accomplished to establish cooperation between the micro-controller hardware and the IFM program. Various fault cases are tested. The result obtained shows that the proposed protection system successfully identifies faults on the test bed and the response time is approximately 1 cycle which is fast compared to the existing commercial protection systems and satisfies the FREEDM system requirement. In the end, an advanced system with faster, dedicated communication media is accomplished. By verifying with the virtual FREEDM system on RTDS, the correctness and the advantages of the proposed method are verified. An ultra fast protection system response time of 4ms is achieved, which is the fastest protection system for a distribution level electrical system.
ContributorsLiu, Xing (Author) / Karady, George G. (Thesis advisor) / Farmer, Richard (Committee member) / Ayyannar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Recent literature indicates potential benefits in microchannel cooling if an inlet orifice is used to suppress pressure oscillations that develop under two-phase conditions. This study investigates the costs and benefits of using an adjustable microchannel inlet orifice. The focus is on orifice effect during steady-state boiling and critical heat flux (CHF) in the channels using R134a in a pumped refrigerant loop (PRL). To change orifice size, a dam controlled with a micrometer was placed in front of 31 parallel microchannels. Each channel had a hydraulic diameter of 0.235 mm and a length of 1.33 cm. For steady state two-phase conditions, mass fluxes of 300 kg m-2 s-1 and 600 kg m-2 s-1were investigated. For orifice sizes with a hydraulic diameter to unrestricted hydraulic diameter (Dh:Dh,ur) ratio less than 35 percent, oscillations were reduced and wall temperatures fell up to 1.5 °C. Critical heat flux data were obtained for 7 orifice sizes with mass fluxes from 186 kg m-2 s-1 to 847 kg m-2 s-1. For all mass fluxes and inlet conditions tested, CHF values for a Dh:Dh,ur ratio of 1.8 percent became increasingly lower (up to 37 W cm-2 less) than those obtained with larger orifices. An optimum orifice size with Dh:Dh,ur of 35 percent emerged, offering up to 5 W cm-2 increase in CHF over unrestricted conditions at the highest mass flux tested, 847 kg m-2 s-1. These improvements in cooling ability with inlet orifices in place under both steady-state and impending CHF conditions are modest, leading to the conclusion that inlet orifices are only mildly effective at improving heat transfer coefficients. Stability of the PRL used for experimentation was also studied and improved. A vapor compression cycle's (VCC) proportional, integral, and derivative controller was found to adversely affect stability within the PRL and cause premature CHF. Replacing the VCC with an ice water heat sink maintained steady pumped loop system pressures and mass flow rates. The ice water heat sink was shown to have energy cost savings over the use of a directly coupled VCC for removing heat from the PRL.
ContributorsOdom, Brent A (Author) / Phelan, Patrick E (Thesis advisor) / Herrmann, Marcus (Committee member) / Trimble, Steve (Committee member) / Tasooji, Amaneh (Committee member) / Holcomb, Don (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Polymeric materials containing nanometer (nm) size particles are being introduced to provide compact shapes for low and medium voltage insulation equipment. The nanocomposites may provide superior electrical performance when compared with those available currently, such as lower dielectric losses and increased dielectric strength, tracking and erosion resistance, and surface hydrophobicity. All of the above mentioned benefits can be achieved at a lower filler concentration (< 10%) than conventional microfillers (40-60%). Also, the uniform shapes of nanofillers provide a better electrical stress distribution as compared to irregular shaped microcomposites which can have high internal electric stress, which could be a problem for devices with active electrical parts. Improvement in electrical performance due to addition of nanofillers in an epoxy matrix has been evaluated in this work. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was done on the epoxy samples to confirm uniform dispersion of nano-sized fillers as good filler dispersion is essential to realize the above stated benefits. Dielectric spectroscopy experiments were conducted over a wide range of frequencies as a function of temperature to understand the role of space charge and interfaces in these materials. The experiment results demonstrate significant reduction in dielectric losses in samples containing nanofillers. High voltage experiments such as corona resistance tests were conducted over 500 hours to monitor degradation in the samples due to corona. These tests revealed improvements in partial discharge endurance of nanocomposite samples. These improvements could not be adequately explained using a macroscopic quantity such as thermal conductivity. Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) showed higher weight loss initiation temperatures for nanofilled samples which is in agreement with the corona resistance experimental results. Theoretical models have also been developed in this work to complement the results of the corona resistance experiment and the TGA analysis. Degradation model was developed to map the erosion path using Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm. A thermal model was developed to calculate the localized temperature distribution in the micro and nano-filled samples using the PDE toolbox in MATLAB. Both the models highlight the fact that improvement in nanocomposites is not limited to the filler concentrations that were tested experimentally.
ContributorsIyer, Ganpathy (Author) / Gorur, Ravi S (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Richert, Ranko (Committee member) / Karady, George G. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Power generation in remote isolated places is a tough problem. Presently, a common source for remote generation is diesel. However, diesel generation is costly and environmental unfriendly. It is promising to replace the diesel generation with some clean and economical generation sources. The concept of renewable generation offers a solution to remote generation. This thesis focuses on evaluation of renewable generation penetration in the remote isolated grid. A small town named Coober Pedy in South Australia is set as an example. The first task is to build the stochastic models of solar irradiation and wind speed based on the local historical data. With the stochastic models, generation fluctuations and generation planning are further discussed. Fluctuation analysis gives an evaluation of storage unit size and costs. Generation planning aims at finding the relationships between penetration level and costs under constraint of energy sufficiency. The results of this study provide the best penetration level that makes the minimum energy costs. In the case of Coober Pedy, cases of wind and photovoltaic penetrations are studied. The additional renewable sources and suspended diesel generation change the electricity costs. Results show that in remote isolated grid, compared to diesel generation, renewable generation can lower the energy costs.
ContributorsZhu, Yujia (Author) / Holbert, Keith E. (Thesis advisor) / Karady, George G. (Committee member) / Tylavsky, Daniel J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This thesis provides a cost to benefit analysis of the proposed next generation of distribution systems- the Future Renewable Electric Energy Distribution Management (FREEDM) system. With the increasing penetration of renewable energy sources onto the grid, it becomes necessary to have an infrastructure that allows for easy integration of these resources coupled with features like enhanced reliability of the system and fast pro-tection from faults. The Solid State Transformer (SST) and the Fault Isolation Device (FID) make for the core of the FREEDM system and have huge investment costs.
Some key features of the FREEDM system include improved power flow control, compact design and unity power factor operation. Customers may observe a reduction in the electricity bill by a certain fraction for using renewable sources of generation. There is also a possibility of huge subsidies given to encourage use of renewable energy. This thesis is an attempt to quantify the benefits offered by the FREEDM system in monetary terms and to calculate the time in years required to gain a return on investments made. The elevated cost of FIDs needs to be justified by the advantages they offer. The result of different rates of interest and how they influence the payback period is also studied. The payback periods calculated are observed for viability. A comparison is made between the active power losses on a certain distribution feeder that makes use of distribution level magnetic transformers versus one that makes use of SSTs. The reduction in the annual active power losses in the case of the feeder using SSTs is translated onto annual savings in terms of cost when compared to the conventional case with magnetic transformers. Since the FREEDM system encourages operation at unity power factor, the need for installing capacitor banks for improving the power factor is eliminated and this re-flects in savings in terms of cost. The FREEDM system offers enhanced reliability when compared to a conventional system. The payback periods observed support the concept of introducing the FREEDM system.
Some key features of the FREEDM system include improved power flow control, compact design and unity power factor operation. Customers may observe a reduction in the electricity bill by a certain fraction for using renewable sources of generation. There is also a possibility of huge subsidies given to encourage use of renewable energy. This thesis is an attempt to quantify the benefits offered by the FREEDM system in monetary terms and to calculate the time in years required to gain a return on investments made. The elevated cost of FIDs needs to be justified by the advantages they offer. The result of different rates of interest and how they influence the payback period is also studied. The payback periods calculated are observed for viability. A comparison is made between the active power losses on a certain distribution feeder that makes use of distribution level magnetic transformers versus one that makes use of SSTs. The reduction in the annual active power losses in the case of the feeder using SSTs is translated onto annual savings in terms of cost when compared to the conventional case with magnetic transformers. Since the FREEDM system encourages operation at unity power factor, the need for installing capacitor banks for improving the power factor is eliminated and this re-flects in savings in terms of cost. The FREEDM system offers enhanced reliability when compared to a conventional system. The payback periods observed support the concept of introducing the FREEDM system.
ContributorsRaman, Apurva (Author) / Heydt, Gerald (Thesis advisor) / Karady, George G. (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This research primarily deals with the design and validation of the protection system for a large scale meshed distribution system. The large scale system simulation (LSSS) is a system level PSCAD model which is used to validate component models for different time-scale platforms, to provide a virtual testing platform for the Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) system. It is also used to validate the cases of power system protection, renewable energy integration and storage, and load profiles. The protection of the FREEDM system against any abnormal condition is one of the important tasks. The addition of distributed generation and power electronic based solid state transformer adds to the complexity of the protection. The FREEDM loop system has a fault current limiter and in addition, the Solid State Transformer (SST) limits the fault current at 2.0 per unit. Former students at ASU have developed the protection scheme using fiber-optic cable. However, during the NSF-FREEDM site visit, the National Science Foundation (NSF) team regarded the system incompatible for the long distances. Hence, a new protection scheme with a wireless scheme is presented in this thesis. The use of wireless communication is extended to protect the large scale meshed distributed generation from any fault. The trip signal generated by the pilot protection system is used to trigger the FID (fault isolation device) which is an electronic circuit breaker operation (switched off/opening the FIDs). The trip signal must be received and accepted by the SST, and it must block the SST operation immediately. A comprehensive protection system for the large scale meshed distribution system has been developed in PSCAD with the ability to quickly detect the faults. The validation of the protection system is performed by building a hardware model using commercial relays at the ASU power laboratory.
ContributorsSharma, Nitish (Author) / Karady, George G. (Thesis advisor) / Holbert, Keith E. (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This thesis focuses on the influence of a grounded back electrode on the breakdown characteristics. The back electrode is an electrode which attaches at the back side of solid insulation. Insulation with grounded back electrode is a common type of insulation which is adopted in many high voltage power devices. While most of the power equipment work under AC voltage, most of the research on back electrode is focused on the DC voltage. Therefore, it is necessary to deeply investigate the influence of the back electrode under AC applied voltage. To investigate the influence of back electrode, the research is separated into two phases, which are the experiment phase and the electric field analysis phase. In the experiments, the breakdown voltages for both with and without back electrode are obtained. The experimental results indicate that the grounded back electrode does have impact on the breakdown characteristics. Then with the breakdown voltage, based on real experiment model, the electric field is analyzed using computer software. From the field simulation result, it is found that the back electrode also influences the electric field distribution. The inter relationship between the electric field and breakdown voltage is the key to explain all the results and phenomena observed during the experiment. Additionally, the influence of insulation barrier on breakdown is also investigated. Compared to the case without ground electrode, inserting a barrier into the gap can more significantly improve breakdown voltage.
ContributorsLiu, Jiajun (Author) / Karady, George G. (Thesis advisor) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Holbert, Keith E. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
A new photovoltaic (PV) array power converter circuit is presented. The salient features of this inverter are: transformerless topology, grounded PV array, and only film capacitors. The motivations are to reduce cost, eliminate leakage ground currents, and improve reliability. The use of Silicon Carbide (SiC) transistors is the key enabling technology for this particular circuit to attain good efficiency.
Traditionally, grid connected PV inverters required a transformer for isolation and safety. The disadvantage of high frequency transformer based inverters is complexity and cost. Transformerless inverters have become more popular recently, although they can be challenging to implement because of possible high frequency currents through the PV array's stay capacitance to earth ground. Conventional PV inverters also typically utilize electrolytic capacitors for bulk power buffering. However such capacitors can be prone to decreased reliability.
The solution proposed here to solve these problems is a bi directional buck boost converter combined with half bridge inverters. This configuration enables grounding of the array's negative terminal and passive power decoupling with only film capacitors.
Several aspects of the proposed converter are discussed. First a literature review is presented on the issues to be addressed. The proposed circuit is then presented and examined in detail. This includes theory of operation, component selection, and control systems. An efficiency analysis is also conducted. Simulation results are then presented that show correct functionality. A hardware prototype is built and experiment results also prove the concept. Finally some further developments are mentioned.
As a summary of the research a new topology and control technique were developed. The resultant circuit is a high performance transformerless PV inverter with upwards of 97% efficiency.
Traditionally, grid connected PV inverters required a transformer for isolation and safety. The disadvantage of high frequency transformer based inverters is complexity and cost. Transformerless inverters have become more popular recently, although they can be challenging to implement because of possible high frequency currents through the PV array's stay capacitance to earth ground. Conventional PV inverters also typically utilize electrolytic capacitors for bulk power buffering. However such capacitors can be prone to decreased reliability.
The solution proposed here to solve these problems is a bi directional buck boost converter combined with half bridge inverters. This configuration enables grounding of the array's negative terminal and passive power decoupling with only film capacitors.
Several aspects of the proposed converter are discussed. First a literature review is presented on the issues to be addressed. The proposed circuit is then presented and examined in detail. This includes theory of operation, component selection, and control systems. An efficiency analysis is also conducted. Simulation results are then presented that show correct functionality. A hardware prototype is built and experiment results also prove the concept. Finally some further developments are mentioned.
As a summary of the research a new topology and control technique were developed. The resultant circuit is a high performance transformerless PV inverter with upwards of 97% efficiency.
ContributorsBreazeale, Lloyd C (Author) / Ayyanar, Raja (Thesis advisor) / Karady, George G. (Committee member) / Tylavsky, Daniel (Committee member) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
In sub transmission systems, many more raptor deaths have been recorded near metal poles rather than wood poles. The metal pole, which is reliable in structure but also grounded, may increase the risk of electrocution when raptors perch on the insulator. This thesis focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of the raptor guard to prevent both debilitating and lethal electrocutions to local wildlife in 69 kV sub transmission systems. First, the two-dimensional (2D) finite difference methods (FDM) were proposed to solve the Poisson and Laplace equations, which describe the electric field. Second, the verification of the FDM algorithm was made based on a parallel-plate capacitor model. Then, the potential and the electric field were simulated by the raptor-insulator model to evaluate the possibility of flashover and leakage current under various conceivable scenarios. Third, several dielectric performance experiments were implemented to gain insight into the physical property of the raptor guard developed by the Salt River Project (SRP) as an example. The proposed initial-tracking-voltage and time-to-track experiments tested the ability of the guard, which is designed to prevent the tracking phenomenon under a contaminated situation such as rain, fog, and snow. A data acquisition also collected the leakage current data for the comparison of maximum raptor tolerance. Furthermore, the puncture voltage of this guard material was performed by the dielectric breakdown voltage experiment in an oil-covered container. With the combination of the model simulation and the experiments in this research, the raptor guard was proven to be practical and beneficial in sub transmission system.
ContributorsShen, Zui (Author) / Gorur, Ravi (Thesis advisor) / Karady, George G. (Committee member) / Holbert, Keith E. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016