Real-Time Simulation of energy Management in a Domestic Consumer

Recent and future changes in power systems, mainly in the smart grid operation context, are related to a high complexity of power networks operation. This leads to more complex communications and to higher network elements monitoring and control levels, both from network’s and consumers’ standpoint. The present work focuses on a real scenario of the LASIE laboratory, located at the Polytechnic of Porto. Laboratory systems are managed by the SCADA House Intelligent Management (SHIM), already developed by the authors based on a SCADA system. The SHIM capacities have been recently improved by including real-time simulation from Opal RT. This makes possible the integration of Matlab®/Simulink® real-time simulation models. The main goal of the present paper is to compare the advantages of the resulting improved system, while managing the energy consumption of a domestic consumer.

Energy Management in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Crosslayer,Channel Adaptive Approach Towards Performance Optimization

The proliferation of wireless sensor networks in a large spectrum of applications had been spurered by the rapid advances in MEMS(micro-electro mechanical systems )based sensor technology coupled with low power,Low cost digital signal processors and radio frequency circuits.A sensor network is composed of thousands of low cost and portable devices bearing large sensing computing and wireless communication capabilities. This large collection of tiny sensors can form a robust data computing and communication distributed system for automated information gathering and distributed sensing.The main attractive feature is that such a sensor network can be deployed in remote areas.Since the sensor node is battery powered,all the sensor nodes should collaborate together to form a fault tolerant network so as toprovide an efficient utilization of precious network resources like wireless channel,memory and battery capacity.The most crucial constraint is the energy consumption which has become the prime challenge for the design of long lived sensor nodes.

Hybrid Power System Modelling - Simulation and Energy Management Unit Development

Weltweit leben mehr als 2 Milliarden Menschen in ländlichen Gebieten. Als Konzept für die elektrische Energieversorgung solcher Gebiete kommen dezentrale elektrische Energieversorgungseinheiten zum Einsatz, die lokal verfügbare erneuerbare Ressourcen nutzen. Stand der Technik bilden Einheiten, die auf PV-Diesel-Batterie System basieren. Die verwendeten Versorgungsskonzepte in Hybridsystemen sind durch den Einsatz von Batterien als Energiespeicher meist wenig zuverlässig und teuer. Diese Energiespeicher sind sehr aufwendig zu überwachen und schwerig zu entsorgen. Den Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit bildet die Entwicklung eines neuen Hybridsystems mit einem Wasserreservoir als Energiespeicher. Dieses Konzept eignet sich für Bergregionen in Entwicklungsländern wie Nepal, wo z.B. neben der solaren Strahlung kleine Flüsse in großer Anzahl vorhanden sind. Das Hybridsystem verfügt über einen Synchrongenerator, der die Netzgrößen Frequenz und Spannung vorgibt und zusätzlich unterstützen PV und Windkraftanlage die Versorgung. Die Wasserkraftanlage soll den Anteil der erneuerbaren Energienutzung erhöhen. Die Erweiterung des Systems um ein Dieselaggregat soll die Zuverlässigkeit der Versorgung erhöhen. Das Hybridsystem inkl. der Batterien wird modelliert und simuliert. Anschließend werden die Simulations- und Messergebnisse verglichen, um eine Validierung des Modells zu erreichen. Die Regelungsstruktur ist aufgrund der hohen Anzahl an Systemen und Parametern sehr komplex. Sie wird mit dem Simulationstool Matlab/Simulink nachgebildet. Das Verhalten des Gesamtsystems wird unter verschiedene Lasten und unterschiedlichen meteorologischen Gegebenheiten untersucht. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit ist die Entwicklung einer modularen Energiemanagementeinheit, die auf Basis der erneuerbaren Energieversorgung aufgebaut wird. Dabei stellt die Netzfrequenz eine wichtige Eingangsgröße für die Regelung dar. Sie gibt über die Wirkleistungsstatik die Leistungsänderung im Netz wider. Über diese Angabe und die meteorologischen Daten kann eine optimale wirtschaftliche Aufteilung der Energieversorgung berechnet und eine zuverlässige Versorgung gewährleistet werden. Abschließend wurde die entwickelte Energiemanagementeinheit hardwaretechnisch aufgebaut, sowie Sensoren, Anzeige- und Eingabeeinheit in die Hardware integriert. Die Algorithmen werden in einer höheren Programmiersprache umgesetzt. Die Simulationen unter verschiedenen meteorologischen und netztechnischen Gegebenheiten mit dem entwickelten Model eines Hybridsystems für die elektrische Energieversorgung haben gezeigt, dass das verwendete Konzept mit einem Wasserreservoir als Energiespeicher ökologisch und ökonomisch eine geeignete Lösung für Entwicklungsländer sein kann. Die hardwaretechnische Umsetzung des entwickelten Modells einer Energiemanagementeinheit hat seine sichere Funktion bei der praktischen Anwendung in einem Hybridsystem bestätigen können.

A model of intelligent building energy management for the indoor environment

People's interaction with the indoor environment plays a significant role in energy consumption in buildings. Mismatching and delaying occupants' feedback on the indoor environment to the building energy management system is the major barrier to the efficient energy management of buildings. There is an increasing trend towards the application of digital technology to support control systems in order to achieve energy efficiency in buildings. This article introduces a holistic, integrated, building energy management model called `smart sensor, optimum decision and intelligent control' (SMODIC). The model takes into account occupants' responses to the indoor environments in the control system. The model of optimal decision-making based on multiple criteria of indoor environments has been integrated into the whole system. The SMODIC model combines information technology and people centric concepts to achieve energy savings in buildings.

Sub-agent elements for control methods in multi-agent energy management system

Increased penetration of generation and decentralised control are considered to be feasible and effective solution for reducing cost and emissions and hence efficiency associated with power generation and distribution. Distributed generation in combination with the multi-agent technology are perfect candidates for this solution. Pro-active and autonomous nature of multi-agent systems can provide an effective platform for decentralised control whilst improving reliability and flexibility of the grid.

Cost function for sub-agent elements in multi-agent energy management system

Distributed generation plays a key role in reducing CO2 emissions and losses in transmission of power. However, due to the nature of renewable resources, distributed generation requires suitable control strategies to assure reliability and optimality for the grid. Multi-agent systems are perfect candidates for providing distributed control of distributed generation stations as well as providing reliability and flexibility for the grid integration. The proposed multi-agent energy management system consists of single-type agents who control one or more gird entities, which are represented as generic sub-agent elements. The agent applies one control algorithm across all elements and uses a cost function to evaluate the suitability of the element as a supplier. The behavior set by the agent's user defines which parameters of an element have greater weight in the cost function, which allows the user to specify the preference on suppliers dynamically. This study shows the ability of the multi-agent energy management system to select suppliers according to the selection behavior given by the user. The optimality of the supplier for the required demand is ensured by the cost function based on the parameters of the element.

Energy Management and Control for Islanded Microgrid Using Multi-Agents

This paper presents a multi-agent system for real-time operation of simulated microgrid using the Smart-Grid Test Bed at Washington State University. The multi-agent system (MAS) was developed in JADE (Java Agent DEvelopment Framework) which is a Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA) compliant open source multi-agent platform. The proposed operational strategy is mainly focused on using an appropriate energy management and control strategies to improve the operation of an islanded microgrid, formed by photovoltaic (PV) solar energy, batteries and resistive and rotating machines loads. The focus is on resource management and to avoid impact on loads from abrupt variations or interruption that changes the operating conditions. The management and control of the PV system is performed in JADE, while the microgrid model is simulated in RSCAD/RTDS (Real-Time Digital Simulator). Finally, the outcome of simulation studies demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed multi-agent approach for real-time operation of a microgrid.

Desenvolvimento de um sistema de gerenciamento de energia (EMS - Energy Management System) para a rede elétrica inteligente (Smart Grid)

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Elétrica - FEIS

Open multi-technology building energy management system

Energy Efficiency is one of the goals of the Smart Building initiatives. This paper presents an Open Energy Management System which consists of an ontology-based multi-technology platform and a wireless transducer network using 6LoWPAN communication technology. The system allows the integration of several building automation protocols and eases the development of different kind of services to make use of them. The system has been implemented and tested in the Energy Efficiency Research Facility at CeDInt-UPM.

Energy Management and Optimization for Video Decoders based on Functional-oriented Reconfiguration

In recent years, the increasing sophistication of embedded multimedia systems and wireless communication technologies has promoted a widespread utilization of video streaming applications. It has been reported in 2013 that youngsters, aged between 13 and 24, spend around 16.7 hours a week watching online video through social media, business websites, and video streaming sites. Video applications have already been blended into people daily life. Traditionally, video streaming research has focused on performance improvement, namely throughput increase and response time reduction. However, most mobile devices are battery-powered, a technology that grows at a much slower pace than either multimedia or hardware developments. Since battery developments cannot satisfy expanding power demand of mobile devices, research interests on video applications technology has attracted more attention to achieve energy-efficient designs. How to efficiently use the limited battery energy budget becomes a major research challenge. In addition, next generation video standards impel to diversification and personalization. Therefore, it is desirable to have mechanisms to implement energy optimizations with greater flexibility and scalability. In this context, the main goal of this dissertation is to find an energy management and optimization mechanism to reduce the energy consumption of video decoders based on the idea of functional-oriented reconfiguration. System battery life is prolonged as the result of a trade-off between energy consumption and video quality. Functional-oriented reconfiguration takes advantage of the similarities among standards to build video decoders reconnecting existing functional units. If a feedback channel from the decoder to the encoder is available, the former can signal the latter changes in either the encoding parameters or the encoding algorithms for energy-saving adaption. The proposed energy optimization and management mechanism is carried out at the decoder end. This mechanism consists of an energy-aware manager, implemented as an additional block of the reconfiguration engine, an energy estimator, integrated into the decoder, and, if available, a feedback channel connected to the encoder end. The energy-aware manager checks the battery level, selects the new decoder description and signals to build a new decoder to the reconfiguration engine. It is worth noting that the analysis of the energy consumption is fundamental for the success of the energy management and optimization mechanism. In this thesis, an energy estimation method driven by platform event monitoring is proposed. In addition, an event filter is suggested to automate the selection of the most appropriate events that affect the energy consumption. At last, a detailed study on the influence of the training data on the model accuracy is presented. The modeling methodology of the energy estimator has been evaluated on different underlying platforms, single-core and multi-core, with different characteristics of workload. All the results show a good accuracy and low on-line computation overhead. The required modifications on the reconfiguration engine to implement the energy-aware manager have been assessed under different scenarios. The results indicate a possibility to lengthen the battery lifetime of the system in two different use-cases.

Draft environmental impact statement on the Energy Transportation Systems Inc. coal slurry pipeline transportation project /

Cover title : Environmental impact statement energy transportation system, inc.

Front end development for building automation systems using JavaScript Frameworks

Automation technologies are widely acclaimed to have the potential to significantly reduce energy consumption and energy-related costs in buildings. However, despite the abundance of commercially available technologies, automation in domestic environments keep on meeting commercial failures. The main reason for this is the development process that is used to build the automation applications, which tend to focus more on technical aspects rather than on the needs and limitations of the users. An instance of this problem is the complex and poorly designed home automation front-ends that deter customers from investing in a home automation product. On the other hand, developing a usable and interactive interface is a complicated task for developers due to the multidisciplinary challenges that need to be identified and solved. In this context, the current research work investigates the different design problems associated with developing a home automation interface as well as the existing design solutions that are applied to these problems. The Qualitative Data Analysis approach was used for collecting data from research papers and the open coding process was used to cluster the findings. From the analysis of the data collected, requirements for designing the interface were derived. A home energy management functionality for a Web-based home automation front-end was developed as a proof-of-concept and a user evaluation was used to assess the usability of the interface. The results of the evaluation showed that this holistic approach to designing interfaces improved its usability which increases the chances of its commercial success.

The exploration of potato-associated bacteria in the Central Andean Highlands and their application in integrated crop management systems

Potato is the most important food crop after wheat and rice. A changing climate, coupled with a heightened consumer awareness of how food is produced and legislative changes governing the usage of agrochemicals, means that alternative more integrated and sustainable approaches are needed for crop management practices. Bioprospecting in the Central Andean Highlands resulted in the isolation and in vitro screening of 600 bacterial isolates. The best performing isolates, under in vitro conditions, were field trialled in their home countries. Six of the isolates, Pseudomonas sp. R41805 (Bolivia), Pseudomonas palleroniana R43631 (Peru), Bacillus sp. R47065, R47131, Paenibacillus sp. B3a R49541, and Bacillus simplex M3-4 R49538 (Ecuador), showed significant increase in the yield of potato. Using – omic technologies (i.e. volatilomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic), the influence of microbial isolates on plant defence responses was determined. Volatile organic compounds of bacterial isolates were identified using GC/MS. RT-qPCR analysis revealed the significant expression of Ethylene Response Factor 3 (ERF3) and the results of this study suggest that the dual inoculation of potato with Pseudomonas sp. R41805 and Rhizophagus irregularis MUCL 41833 may play a part in the activation of plant defence system via ERF3. The proteomic analysis by 2-DE study has shown that priming by Pseudomonas sp. R41805 can induce the expression of proteins related to photosynthesis and protein folding in in vitro potato plantlets. The metabolomics study has shown that the total glycoalkaloid (TGA) content of greenhouse-grown potato tubers following inoculation with Pseudomonas sp. R41805 did not exceed the acceptable safety limit (200 mg kg-1 FW). As a result of this study, a number of bacteria have been identified with commercial potential that may offer sustainable alternatives in both Andean and European agricultural settings.