Development of a methodology for assessing the adequacy of electric power systems

This study presents the results of a research into the developing a methodology for assessing the adequacy of advanced electric power systems characterized by the integration of various innovative technologies,which complicates their analysis.The methodology development is aimed at solving two main problems:(1)increase the adequacy of modeling the processes that occur in the electric power system and (2)enhance the computational efficiency of the adequacy assessment methodology.This study proposes a new mathematical model to minimize the power shortage and enhance the adequacy of modeling the processes.The model considers quadratic power transmission losses and network coefficients.The computational efficiency of the adequacy assessment methodology is enhanced using efficient random-number generators to form the calculated states of electric power systems and machine learning methods to assess power shortages and other reliability characteristics in the calculated states.

Distributed Model Predictive Load Frequency Control of Multi-area Power System with DFIGs

Reliable load frequency control LFC is crucial to the operation and design of modern electric power systems. Considering the LFC problem of a four-Area interconnected power system with wind turbines, this paper presents a distributed model predictive control DMPC based on coordination scheme. The proposed algorithm solves a series of local optimization problems to minimize a performance objective for each control area. The generation rate constraints GRCs, load disturbance changes, and the wind speed constraints are considered. Furthermore, the DMPC algorithm may reduce the impact of the randomness and intermittence of wind turbine effectively. A performance comparison between the proposed controller with and without the participation of the wind turbines is carried out. Analysis and simulation results show possible improvements on closed-loop performance, and computational burden with the physical constraints. © 2014 Chinese Association of Automation.

NEWLY-DEVELOPED AND CHEAP NANOCRYSTALLINE Fe-Cu-Nb-Mo-Si-B ALLOYS FOR SWITCHING MODE POWER SUPPLY

The synthetical soft magnetic properties were reported for newly-developed nanocrystalline Fe73.5Cu1Nb0.9 Mo2.1Si13.5B9 and Fe73.5Cu1Nb0.5 Mo2.5Si13.5B9 alloys. The levels of high-frequency losses of the new alloys are P3/100k=612 and 670 kWm-3, P2/200k=880 and 973kWm-3, P2/500k=4300 and 4600 kWm-3, P0.5/1000k=860 and 920 kWm-3, respectively. They are significantly lower than those of the superior power Mn-Zn ferrite H7c4. The dependence of core loss on frequency and amplitude flux density has been analyzed. The practical applications of the new alloys to switching mode power supplies with the output power of 1 and 2kW were reported.

Optimal Placement of Phasor Measurement Units Using a Modified Canonical Genetic Algorithm for Observability Analysis

This paper proposes a method for optimal placement of synchronized PMUs （phasor measurement units） in electrical power systems using a MCGA （modified canonical genetic algorithm）, which the goal is to determine the minimum number of PMUs, as well as the optimal location of these units to ensure the complete topological observability of the system. In case of more than one solution, a strategy of analysis of the design matrix rank is applied to determine the solution with the lower number of critical measurements. In the proposed method of placement, modifications are made in the crossover and mutation genetic operators, as well as in the formation of the subpopulation, and are considered restrictive hypotheses in the search space to improve the performance in solving the optimization problem. Simulations are performed using the IEEE 14-bus, IEEE 30-bus and New England 39-bus test systems. The proposed method is applied on the IEEE 118-bus test system considering the presence of observable zones formed by conventional measurements.

Availability. Based Wind Farm Design

The paper develops a methodology for the optimal sizing of a generic wind farms, focusing primarily on reliability aspects, besides the traditional economic ones. A specific objective function is proposed in order to select the better wind farm configuration, based upon the profits related to the economic trading in the deregulated electric market and the costs due to investment, operation ＆ management, and to system unavailability. This objective function is accurately investigated as a function of the turbines number in order to derive the most convenient alternative, which implies also the optimal choice of the single wind generators size. The ranking coming out from this assessment is then compared with that one established in terms of expected load not supplied. A compromise choice, between the best alternatives provided by the two criteria has finally adopted. A simple numerical application is reported in the last part of the paper for testing the validity of the proposed approach. Also uncertainty aspects in the basic input parameters are taken into account and possible way of dealing with them is briefly illustrated.

Smart Grid Wide-Area Transmission System Visualization

The installation of vast quantities of additional new sensing and communication equipment, in conjunction with building the computing infrastructure to store and manage data gathered by this equipment, has been the fi rst step in the creation of what is generically referred to as the "smart grid" for the electric transmission system. With this enormous capital investment in equipment having been made, attention is now focused on developing methods to analyze and visualize this large data set. The most direct use of this large set of new data will be in data visualization. This paper presents a survey of some visualization techniques that have been deployed by the electric power industry for visualizing data over the past several years. These techniques include pie charts, animation, contouring, time-varying graphs, geographic-based displays, image blending, and data aggregation techniques. The paper then emphasizes a newer concept of using word-sized graphics called sparklines as an extremely eff ective method of showing large amounts of timevarying data.

Towards a (More) Electronic Transmission and Distribution (eT&D)

The challenges and the path towards a(more)electronic transmission and distribution(eT&D)is presented in this paper.The challenges are first identified together with key stakeholders in the drive for grid modernization.A fundamental question is then asked about the investment priority.Six basic characteristics are reviewed,leading to the composition of structured microgrids as the basic functional cell of a modern grid.One example of fractal radial structure and one fractal meshed structure are presented.The likely evolution path is then proposed together with basic technology sets.Specific foundation technologies are discussed in detail,including adiabatic power conversion,3MC technology,medium voltage conversion,distribution-level electronic power transformer and FACTs hardware integration,and back-to-back converters as a universal interconnect element.The rapidly emerging on-wire sensing technology is also discussed.It is pointed out that the distribution-level large electronic power transformer will provide a key component to enable hybrid ac/dc grid flow control and ancillary support for a flexible electronic transmission and distribution(eT&D)systems.