Today, the electric power system faces new challenges from rapid developing technology and the growing concern about environmental problems. The future of the power system under these new challenges needs to be planned and studied. However, due to the high degree of computational complexity of the optimization problem, conducting a…
Today, the electric power system faces new challenges from rapid developing technology and the growing concern about environmental problems. The future of the power system under these new challenges needs to be planned and studied. However, due to the high degree of computational complexity of the optimization problem, conducting a system planning study which takes into account the market structure and environmental constraints on a large-scale power system is computationally taxing. To improve the execution time of large system simulations, such as the system planning study, two possible strategies are proposed in this thesis. The first one is to implement a relative new factorization method, known as the multifrontal method, to speed up the solution of the sparse linear matrix equations within the large system simulations. The performance of the multifrontal method implemented by UMFAPACK is compared with traditional LU factorization on a wide range of power-system matrices. The results show that the multifrontal method is superior to traditional LU factorization on relatively denser matrices found in other specialty areas, but has poor performance on the more sparse matrices that occur in power-system applications. This result suggests that multifrontal methods may not be an effective way to improve execution time for large system simulation and power system engineers should evaluate the performance of the multifrontal method before applying it to their applications. The second strategy is to develop a small dc equivalent of the large-scale network with satisfactory accuracy for the large-scale system simulations. In this thesis, a modified Ward equivalent is generated for a large-scale power system, such as the full Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) system. In this equivalent, all the generators in the full model are retained integrally. The accuracy of the modified Ward equivalent is validated and the equivalent is used to conduct the optimal generation investment planning study. By using the dc equivalent, the execution time for optimal generation investment planning is greatly reduced. Different scenarios are modeled to study the impact of fuel prices, environmental constraints and incentives for renewable energy on future investment and retirement in generation.
Leonard Hayflick studied the processes by which cells age during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the United States. In 1961 at the Wistar Institute in the US, Hayflick researched a phenomenon later called the Hayflick Limit, or the claim that normal human cells can only divide forty to sixty…
Leonard Hayflick studied the processes by which cells age during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the United States. In 1961 at the Wistar Institute in the US, Hayflick researched a phenomenon later called the Hayflick Limit, or the claim that normal human cells can only divide forty to sixty times before they cannot divide any further. Researchers later found that the cause of the Hayflick Limit is the shortening of telomeres, or portions of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that slowly degrade as cells replicate. Hayflick used his research on normal embryonic cells to develop a vaccine for polio, and from HayflickÕs published directions, scientists developed vaccines for rubella, rabies, adenovirus, measles, chickenpox and shingles.
Although best known for his work with the fruit fly, for which he earned a Nobel Prize and the title "The Father of Genetics," Thomas Hunt Morgan's contributions to biology reach far beyond genetics. His research explored questions in embryology, regeneration, evolution, and heredity, using a variety of approaches.
