Matching Items (5)
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- All Subjects: Renewable energy sources
- Creators: Hedman, Kory
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
This thesis pursues a method to deregulate the electric distribution system and provide support to distributed renewable generation. A locational marginal price is used to determine prices across a distribution network in real-time. The real-time pricing may provide benefits such as a reduced electricity bill, decreased peak demand, and lower emissions. This distribution locational marginal price (D-LMP) determines the cost of electricity at each node in the electrical network. The D-LMP is comprised of the cost of energy, cost of losses, and a renewable energy premium. The renewable premium is an adjustable function to compensate `green' distributed generation. A D-LMP is derived and formulated from the PJM model, as well as several alternative formulations. The logistics and infrastructure an implementation is briefly discussed. This study also takes advantage of the D-LMP real-time pricing to implement distributed storage technology. A storage schedule optimization is developed using linear programming. Day-ahead LMPs and historical load data are used to determine a predictive optimization. A test bed is created to represent a practical electric distribution system. Historical load, solar, and LMP data are used in the test bed to create a realistic environment. A power flow and tabulation of the D-LMPs was conducted for twelve test cases. The test cases included various penetrations of solar photovoltaics (PV), system networking, and the inclusion of storage technology. Tables of the D-LMPs and network voltages are presented in this work. The final costs are summed and the basic economics are examined. The use of a D-LMP can lower costs across a system when advanced technologies are used. Storage improves system costs, decreases losses, improves system load factor, and bolsters voltage. Solar energy provides many of these same attributes at lower penetrations, but high penetrations have a detrimental effect on the system. System networking also increases these positive effects. The D-LMP has a positive impact on residential customer cost, while greatly increasing the costs for the industrial sector. The D-LMP appears to have many positive impacts on the distribution system but proper cost allocation needs further development.
ContributorsKiefer, Brian Daniel (Author) / Heydt, Gerald T (Thesis advisor) / Shunk, Dan (Committee member) / Hedman, Kory (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Due to economic and environmental reasons, several states in the United States of America have a mandated renewable portfolio standard which requires that a certain percentage of the load served has to be met by renewable resources of energy such as solar, wind and biomass. Renewable resources provide energy at a low variable cost and produce less greenhouse gases as compared to conventional generators. However, some of the complex issues with renewable resource integration are due to their intermittent and non-dispatchable characteristics. Furthermore, most renewable resources are location constrained and are usually located in regions with insufficient transmission facilities. In order to deal with the challenges presented by renewable resources as compared to conventional resources, the transmission network expansion planning procedures need to be modified. New high voltage lines need to be constructed to connect the remote renewable resources to the existing transmission network to serve the load centers. Moreover, the existing transmission facilities may need to be reinforced to accommodate the large scale penetration of renewable resource. This thesis proposes a methodology for transmission expansion planning with large-scale integration of renewable resources, mainly solar and wind generation. An optimization model is used to determine the lines to be constructed or upgraded for several scenarios of varying levels of renewable resource penetration. The various scenarios to be considered are obtained from a production cost model that analyses the effects that renewable resources have on the transmission network over the planning horizon. A realistic test bed was created using the data for solar and wind resource penetration in the state of Arizona. The results of the production cost model and the optimization model were subjected to tests to ensure that the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) mandated N-1 contingency criterion is satisfied. Furthermore, a cost versus benefit analysis was performed to ensure that the proposed transmission plan is economically beneficial.
ContributorsHariharan, Sruthi (Author) / Vittal, Vijay (Thesis advisor) / Heydt, Gerald (Committee member) / Hedman, Kory (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This thesis concerns with the impact of renewable generation resources on the power system stability. The rapidly increasing integration of renewable energy sources into the grid can change the way power systems operate and respond to system disturbances. This is because the available inertia from synchronous machines, which helps in damping system oscillations, gets reduced as an increase in renewables like wind and solar photovoltaics is accompanied by a decrease in conventional generators. This aspect of high penetration of renewables has the potential to affect the rotor angle stability and small signal stability of power systems. The system with increased renewables is mathematically modeled to rep-resent wind and solar resources. Transient and small signal stability studies are performed for various operating cases. The main conclusion drawn from the different studies is that increased renewable penetration causes a few instability problems, most of which are either localized and do not adversely affect the over-all system stability. It is also found that the critical inter-area modes of oscillations are sufficiently damped.
ContributorsSingh, Iknoor (Author) / Vittal, Vijay (Thesis advisor) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Hedman, Kory (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The power system is the largest man-made physical network in the world. Performing analysis of a large bulk system is computationally complex, especially when the study involves engineering, economic and environmental considerations. For instance, running a unit-commitment (UC) over a large system involves a huge number of constraints and integer variables. One way to reduce the computational expense is to perform the analysis on a small equivalent (reduced) model instead on the original (full) model.
The research reported here focuses on improving the network reduction methods so that the calculated results obtained from the reduced model better approximate the performance of the original model. An optimization-based Ward reduction (OP-Ward) and two new generator placement methods in network reduction are introduced and numerical test results on large systems provide proof of concept.
In addition to dc-type reductions (ignoring reactive power, resistance elements in the network, etc.), the new methods applicable to ac domain are introduced. For conventional reduction methods (Ward-type methods, REI-type methods), eliminating external generator buses (PV buses) is a tough problem, because it is difficult to accurately approximate the external reactive support in the reduced model. Recently, the holomorphic embedding (HE) based load-flow method (HELM) was proposed, which theoretically guarantees convergence given that the power flow equations are structure in accordance with Stahl’s theory requirements. In this work, a holomorphic embedding based network reduction (HE reduction) method is proposed which takes advantage of the HELM technique. Test results shows that the HE reduction method can approximate the original system performance very accurately even when the operating condition changes.
The research reported here focuses on improving the network reduction methods so that the calculated results obtained from the reduced model better approximate the performance of the original model. An optimization-based Ward reduction (OP-Ward) and two new generator placement methods in network reduction are introduced and numerical test results on large systems provide proof of concept.
In addition to dc-type reductions (ignoring reactive power, resistance elements in the network, etc.), the new methods applicable to ac domain are introduced. For conventional reduction methods (Ward-type methods, REI-type methods), eliminating external generator buses (PV buses) is a tough problem, because it is difficult to accurately approximate the external reactive support in the reduced model. Recently, the holomorphic embedding (HE) based load-flow method (HELM) was proposed, which theoretically guarantees convergence given that the power flow equations are structure in accordance with Stahl’s theory requirements. In this work, a holomorphic embedding based network reduction (HE reduction) method is proposed which takes advantage of the HELM technique. Test results shows that the HE reduction method can approximate the original system performance very accurately even when the operating condition changes.
ContributorsZhu, Yujia (Author) / Tylavsky, Daniel John (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Hedman, Kory (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017