Matching Items (30)
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- All Subjects: energy
- All Subjects: Electric insulators and insulation
- Creators: Vittal, Vijay
- Creators: Wang, Robert
- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Description
Transmission expansion planning (TEP) is a complex decision making process that requires comprehensive analysis to determine the time, location, and number of electric power transmission facilities that are needed in the future power grid. This dissertation investigates the topic of solving TEP problems for large power systems. The dissertation can be divided into two parts. The first part of this dissertation focuses on developing a more accurate network model for TEP study. First, a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) based TEP model is proposed for solving multi-stage TEP problems. Compared with previous work, the proposed approach reduces the number of variables and constraints needed and improves the computational efficiency significantly. Second, the AC power flow model is applied to TEP models. Relaxations and reformulations are proposed to make the AC model based TEP problem solvable. Third, a convexified AC network model is proposed for TEP studies with reactive power and off-nominal bus voltage magnitudes included in the model. A MILP-based loss model and its relaxations are also investigated. The second part of this dissertation investigates the uncertainty modeling issues in the TEP problem. A two-stage stochastic TEP model is proposed and decomposition algorithms based on the L-shaped method and progressive hedging (PH) are developed to solve the stochastic model. Results indicate that the stochastic TEP model can give a more accurate estimation of the annual operating cost as compared to the deterministic TEP model which focuses only on the peak load.
ContributorsZhang, Hui (Author) / Vittal, Vijay (Thesis advisor) / Heydt, Gerald T (Thesis advisor) / Mittelmann, Hans D (Committee member) / Hedman, Kory W (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
At present, almost 70% of the electric energy in the United States is produced utilizing fossil fuels. Combustion of fossil fuels contributes CO2 to the atmosphere, potentially exacerbating the impact on global warming. To make the electric power system (EPS) more sustainable for the future, there has been an emphasis on scaling up generation of electric energy from wind and solar resources. These resources are renewable in nature and have pollution free operation. Various states in the US have set up different goals for achieving certain amount of electrical energy to be produced from renewable resources. The Southwestern region of the United States receives significant solar radiation throughout the year. High solar radiation makes concentrated solar power and solar PV the most suitable means of renewable energy production in this region. However, the majority of the projects that are presently being developed are either residential or utility owned solar PV plants. This research explores the impact of significant PV penetration on the steady state voltage profile of the electric power transmission system. This study also identifies the impact of PV penetration on the dynamic response of the transmission system such as rotor angle stability, frequency response and voltage response after a contingency. The light load case of spring 2010 and the peak load case of summer 2018 have been considered for analyzing the impact of PV. If the impact is found to be detrimental to the normal operation of the EPS, mitigation measures have been devised and presented in the thesis. Commercially available software tools/packages such as PSLF, PSS/E, DSA Tools have been used to analyze the power network and validate the results.
ContributorsPrakash, Nitin (Author) / Heydt, Gerald T. (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Thesis advisor) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Insulation aging monitoring is widely used to evaluate the operating condition of power equipment. One important monitoring method is detecting partial discharges (PD). PD is a localized breakdown of dielectric and its characteristics can give information about the insulation aging. Most existing test methods cannot identify different kinds of defects. Also, the practical application of PD detection in most existing test methods is restricted by weak PD signals and strong electric field disturbance from surroundings. In order to monitor aging situation in detail, types of PDs are important features to take into account. To classify different types of PDs, pulse sequence analysis (PSA) method is advocated to analyze PDs in the rod-plane model. This method can reflect cumulative effects of PDs, which are always ignored when only measuring PD value. It also shows uniform characteristics when different kinds of detecting system are utilized. Moreover, it does not need calibration. Analysis results from PSA show highly consistent distribution patterns for the same type of PDs and significant differences in the distribution patterns among types of PDs. Furthermore, a new method to detect PD signals using fiber bragg grating (FBG) based PD sensor is studied in this research. By using a piezoelectric ceramic transducer (PZT), small PD signals can be converted to pressure signal and then converted to an optical wavelength signal with FBG. The optical signal is isolated from the electric field; therefore its attenuation and anti-jamming performance will be better than traditional methods. Two sensors, one with resonant frequency of 42.7 kHz and the other 300 kHz, were used to explore the performance of this testing system. However, there were issues with the sensitivity of the sensors of these devices and the results have been communicated with the company. These devices could not give the results at the same level of accuracy as the conventional methods.
ContributorsCui, Longfei (Author) / Gorur, Ravi (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The past few decades have seen a consistent growth of distributed PV sources. Distributed PV, like other DG sources, can be located at or near load centers and provide benefits which traditional generation may lack. However, distribution systems were not designed to accommodate such power generation sources as these sources might lead to operational as well as power quality issues. A high penetration of distributed PV resources may lead to bi-directional power flow resulting in voltage swells, increased losses and overloading of conductors. Voltage unbalance is a concern in distribution systems and the effect of single-phase residential PV systems on voltage unbalance needs to be explored. Furthermore, the islanding of DGs presents a technical hurdle towards the seamless integration of DG sources with the electricity grid. The work done in this thesis explores two important aspects of grid inte-gration of distributed PV generation, namely, the impact on power quality and anti-islanding. A test distribution system, representing a realistic distribution feeder in Arizona is modeled to study both the aforementioned aspects. The im-pact of distributed PV on voltage profile, voltage unbalance and distribution sys-tem primary losses are studied using CYMDIST. Furthermore, a PSCAD model of the inverter with anti-island controls is developed and the efficacy of the anti-islanding techniques is studied. Based on the simulations, generalized conclusions are drawn and the problems/benefits are elucidated.
ContributorsMitra, Parag (Author) / Heydt, Gerald T (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Thesis advisor) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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
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
In the deregulated power system, locational marginal prices are used in transmission engineering predominantly as near real-time pricing signals. This work extends this concept to distribution engineering so that a distribution class locational marginal price might be used for real-time pricing and control of advanced control systems in distribution circuits. A formulation for the distribution locational marginal price signal is presented that is based on power flow sensitivities in a distribution system. A Jacobian-based sensitivity analysis has been developed for application in the distribution pricing method. Increasing deployment of distributed energy sources is being seen at the distribution level and this trend is expected to continue. To facilitate an optimal use of the distributed infrastructure, the control of the energy demand on a feeder node in the distribution system has been formulated as a multiobjective optimization problem and a solution algorithm has been developed. In multiobjective problems the Pareto optimality criterion is generally applied, and commonly used solution algorithms are decision-based and heuristic. In contrast, a mathematically-robust technique called normal boundary intersection has been modeled for use in this work, and the control variable is solved via separable programming. The Roy Billinton Test System (RBTS) has predominantly been used to demonstrate the application of the formulation in distribution system control. A parallel processing environment has been used to replicate the distributed nature of controls at many points in the distribution system. Interactions between the real-time prices in a distribution feeder and the nodal prices at the aggregated load bus have been investigated. The application of the formulations in an islanded operating condition has also been demonstrated. The DLMP formulation has been validated using the test bed systems and a practical framework for its application in distribution engineering has been presented. The multiobjective optimization yields excellent results and is found to be robust for finer time resolutions. The work shown in this report is applicable to, and has been researched under the aegis of the Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) center, which is a generation III National Science Foundation engineering research center headquartered at North Carolina State University.
ContributorsRanganathan Sathyanarayana, Bharadwaj (Author) / Heydt, Gerald T (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Zhang, Junshan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Electric utilities are exploring new technologies to cope up with the in-crease in electricity demand and power transfer capabilities of transmission lines. Compact transmission lines and high phase order systems are few of the techniques which enhance the power transfer capability of transmission lines without requiring any additional right-of-way. This research work investigates the impact of compacting high voltage transmission lines and high phase order systems on the surface electric field of composite insulators, a key factor deciding service performance of insulators. The electric field analysis was done using COULOMB 9.0, a 3D software package which uses a numerical analysis technique based on Boundary Element Method (BEM). 3D models of various types of standard transmission towers used for 230 kV, 345 kV and 500 kV level were modeled with different insulators con-figurations and number of circuits. Standard tower configuration models were compacted by reducing the clearance from live parts in steps of 10%. It was found that the standard tower configuration can be compacted to 30% without violating the minimum safety clearance mandated by NESC standards. The study shows that surface electric field on insulators for few of the compact structures exceeded the maximum allowable limit even if corona rings were installed. As a part of this study, a Gaussian process model based optimization pro-gram was developed to find the optimum corona ring dimensions to limit the electric field within stipulated values. The optimization program provides the dimen-sions of corona ring, its placement from the high voltage end for a given dry arc length of insulator and system voltage. JMP, a statistical computer package and AMPL, a computer language widely used form optimization was used for optimi-zation program. The results obtained from optimization program validated the industrial standards.
ContributorsMohan, Nihal (Author) / Gorur, Ravi S. (Thesis advisor) / Heydt, Gerald T. (Committee member) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Electric power systems are facing great challenges from environmental regulations, changes in demand due to new technologies like electric vehicle, as well as the integration of various renewable energy sources. These factors taken together require the development of new tools to help make policy and investment decisions for the future power grid. The requirements of a network equivalent to be used in such planning tools are very different from those assumed in the development of traditional equivalencing procedures. This dissertation is focused on the development, implementation and verification of two network equivalencing approaches on large power systems, such as the Eastern Interconnection. Traditional Ward-type equivalences are a class of equivalencing approaches but this class has some significant drawbacks. It is well known that Ward-type equivalents "smear" the injections of external generators over a large number of boundary buses. For newer long-term investment applications that take into account such things as greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations and generator availability, it is computationally impractical to model fractions of generators located at many buses. A modified-Ward equivalent is proposed to address this limitation such that the external generators are moved wholesale to some internal buses based on electrical distance. This proposed equivalencing procedure is designed so that the retained-line power flows in the equivalent match those in the unreduced (full) model exactly. During the reduction process, accommodations for special system elements are addressed, including static VAr compensators (SVCs), high voltage dc (HVDC) transmission lines, and phase angle regulators. Another network equivalencing approach based on the dc power flow assumptions and the power transfer distribution factors (PTDFs) is proposed. This method, rather than eliminate buses via Gauss-reduction, aggregates buses on a zonal basis. The bus aggregation approach proposed here is superior to the existing bus aggregation methods in that a) under the base case, the equivalent-system inter-zonal power flows exactly match those calculated using the full-network-model b) as the operating conditions change, errors in line flows are reduced using the proposed bus clustering algorithm c) this method is computationally more efficient than other bus aggregation methods proposed heretofore. A critical step in achieving accuracy with a bus aggregation approach is selecting which buses to cluster together and how many clusters are needed. Clustering in this context refers to the process of partitioning a network into subsets of buses. An efficient network clustering method is proposed based on the PTDFs and the data mining techniques. This method is applied to the EI topology using the "Saguaro" supercomputer at ASU, a resource with sufficient memory and computational capability for handling this 60,000-bus and 80,000-branch system. The network equivalents generated by the proposed approaches are verified and tested for different operating conditions and promising results have been observed.
ContributorsShi, Di (Author) / Tylavsky, Daniel J (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Hedman, Kory (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This thesis presents a new technique to develop an air-conditioner (A/C) compressor single phase induction motor model for use in an electro-magnetic transient program (EMTP) simulation tool. The method developed also has the capability to represent multiple units of the component in a specific three-phase distribution feeder and investigate the phenomenon of fault-induced delayed voltage recovery (FIDVR) and the cause of motor stalling. The system of differential equations representing the single phase induction motor model is developed and formulated. Implicit backward Euler method is applied to numerically integrate the stator currents that are to be drawn from the electric network. The angular position dependency of the rotor shaft is retained in the inductance matrix associated with the model to accurately capture the dynamics of the motor loads. The equivalent circuit of the new model is interfaced with the electric network in the EMTP. The dynamic response of the motor when subjected to faults at different points on voltage waveform has been studied using the EMTP simulator. The mechanism and the impacts of motor stalling need to be explored with multiple units of the detailed model connected to a realistic three-phase distribution system. The model developed can be utilized to assess and improve the product design of compressor motors by air-conditioner manufacturers. Another critical application of the model would be to examine the impacts of asymmetric transmission faults on distribution systems to investigate and develop mitigation measures for the FIDVR problem.
ContributorsLiu, Yuan (Author) / Vittal, Vijay (Thesis advisor) / Undrill, John (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012