Remote electricity actuation and monitoring mote

This work presents the design and evaluation of the REAM (Remote Electricity Actuation and Monitoring) node based around the modular Tyndall Mote platform. The REAM node enables the user to remotely actuate power to a mains power extension board while sampling the current, voltage, power and power factor of the attached load. The node contains a current transformer interfaced to an Energy Metering IC which continuously samples current and voltage. These values are periodically read from the part by a PIC24 microcontroller, which calculates the RMS current and voltage, power factor and overall power. The resultant values can then be queried wirelessly employing the Tyndall 802.15.4 compliant wireless module.

Quantifying the value of improved wind energy forecasts in a pool-based electricity market

This work illustrates the influence of wind forecast errors on system costs, wind curtailment and generator dispatch in a system with high wind penetration. Realistic wind forecasts of different specified accuracy levels are created using an auto-regressive moving average model and these are then used in the creation of day-ahead unit commitment schedules. The schedules are generated for a model of the 2020 Irish electricity system with 33% wind penetration using both stochastic and deterministic approaches. Improvements in wind forecast accuracy are demonstrated to deliver: (i) clear savings in total system costs for deterministic and, to a lesser extent, stochastic scheduling; (ii) a decrease in the level of wind curtailment, with close agreement between stochastic and deterministic scheduling; and (iii) a decrease in the dispatch of open cycle gas turbine generation, evident with deterministic, and to a lesser extent, with stochastic scheduling.