Monitoring system for small sized photovoltaic power plants

This paper presents a monitoring system devoted to small sized photovoltaic (PV) power plants. The system is characterized by: a high level of integration; a low cost, when compared to the cost of the PV system to be monitored; and an easy installation in the majority of the PV plants with installed power of some kW. The system is able to collect, store, process and display electrical and meteorological parameters that are crucial when monitoring PV facilities. The identification of failures in the PV system and the elaboration of performance analysis of such facilities are other important characteristics of the developed system. The access to the information about the monitored facilities is achieved by using a web application, which was developed with a focus on the mobile devices. In addition, there is the possibility of an integration between the developed monitoring system and the central supervision system of Martifer Solar (a company focused on the development, operation and maintenance of PV systems).

A NEW DC UPS FOR DC POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM IN DATA CENTER

In recent years, the 380V DC and 48V DC distribution systems have been extensively studied for the latest data centers. It is widely believed that the 380V DC system is a very promising candidate because of its lower cable cost compared to the 48V DC system. However, previous studies have not adequately addressed the low reliability issue with the 380V DC systems due to large amount of series connected batteries. In this thesis, a quantitative comparison for the two systems has been presented in terms of efficiency, reliability and cost. A new multi-port DC UPS with both high voltage output and low voltage output is proposed. When utility ac is available, it delivers power to the load through its high voltage output and charges the battery through its low voltage output. When utility ac is off, it boosts the low battery voltage and delivers power to the load form the battery. Thus, the advantages of both systems are combined and the disadvantages of them are avoided. High efficiency is also achieved as only one converter is working in either situation. Details about the design and analysis of the new UPS are presented. For the main AC-DC part of the new UPS, a novel bridgeless three-level single-stage AC-DC converter is proposed. It eliminates the auxiliary circuit for balancing the capacitor voltages and the two bridge rectifier diodes in previous topology. Zero voltage switching, high power factor, and low component stresses are achieved with this topology. Compared to previous topologies, the proposed converter has a lower cost, higher reliability, and higher efficiency. The steady state operation of the converter is analyzed and a decoupled model is proposed for the converter. For the battery side converter as a part of the new UPS, a ZVS bidirectional DC-DC converter based on self-sustained oscillation control is proposed. Frequency control is used to ensure the ZVS operation of all four switches and phase shift control is employed to regulate the converter output power. Detailed analysis of the steady state operation and design of the converter are presented. Theoretical, simulation, and experimental results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed concepts.

Power Quality Evaluation of a Photovoltaic System on an Electric Grid

This paper focuses on tests of photovoltaic systems in order to address two case studies with silicon monocrystalline and silicon polycrystalline panels, respectively. The first case is an identification of the three parameters of the single-diode equivalent circuit for modelling photovoltaic systems with conclusion about the inevitably age degradation. A comparison between experimental observed and computed I-V and V-P characteristics curves is carried out at standard test conditions. The second case is an experimental observation on a photovoltaic system connected to an electric grid in what regards the quality of the energy injected into the grid. A measuring of the harmonic content in the voltage and in the current waveforms at the terminals of the photovoltaic system is carried out in order to conclude about the conformity with the Standard EN 50160 and the IEEE 519-1992, respectively.

Electromagnetic Emissions from Wireless Power Transfer System

In this paper, the measurement and analysis of the electromagnetic radiated emissions from the wireless power transfer system is reported. The aim is to evaluate the level of the electromagnetic field produced by the magnetic resonance wireless power transfer system. Due to the advances of the wireless power transfer technology, it becomes feasible to apply the wireless power transfer in the electric vehicles charging. Among the existent wireless power transfer technologies, the magnetic resonant coupling is proven to be the most suitable for this task. Because of strong electromagnetic field generated by wireless power transfer system the electromagnetic compatibility has become an important issue.

Electric Vehicle Battery Charger: Wireless Power Transfer System Controlled by Magnetic Core Reactor

This paper presents a control process and frequency adjustment based on the magnetic core reactor for electric vehicle battery charger. Since few decades ago, there have been significant developments in technologies used in wireless power transfer systems, namely in battery charger. In the wireless power transfer systems is essential that the frequency of the primary circuit be equal to the frequency of the secondary circuit so there is the maximum energy transfer. The magnetic core reactor allows controlling the frequencies on both sides of the transmission and reception circuits. Also, the assembly diagrams and test results are presented.

HVDC Power Transmission Simulation for Offshore Wind System with Three-Level Converter

An integrated mathematical model for the simulation of an offshore wind system performance is presented in this paper. The mathematical model considers an offshore variable-speed turbine in deep water equipped with a permanent magnet synchronous generator using multiple point full-power clamped three-level converter, converting the energy of a variable frequency source in injected energy into the electric network with constant frequency, through a HVDC transmission submarine cable. The mathematical model for the drive train is a concentrate two mass model which incorporates the dynamic for the blades of the wind turbine, tower and generator due to the need to emulate the effects of the wind and the floating motion. Controller strategy considered is a proportional integral one. Also, pulse width modulation using space vector modulation supplemented with sliding mode is used for trigger the transistors of the converter. Finally, a case study is presented to access the system performance.

Optimization of the power electronics system associated with ocean wave electric generators

The present thesis is focused on wave energy, which is a particular kind of ocean energy, and is based on the activity carried out during the EU project SEA TITAN. The main scope of this work is the design of a power electronic section for an innovative wave energy extraction system based on a switched-reluctance machine. In the first chapter, the general features of marine wave energy harvesting are treated. The concept of Wave Energy Converter (WEC) is introduced as well as the mathematical description of the waves, their characterization and measurement, the WEC classification, the operating principles and the standardization framework. Also, detailed considerations on the environmental impact are presented. The SEA TITAN project is briefly described. The second chapter is dedicated to the technical issues of the SEA TITAN project, such as the operating principle, the performance optimization carried out in the project, the main innovations as well as interesting demonstrations on the behavior of the generator and its control. In the third chapter, the power electronics converters of SEA TITAN are described, and the design choices, procedures and calculations are shown, with a further insight into the application given by analyzing the MATLAB Simulink model of the system and its control scheme. Experimental tests are reported in the fourth chapter, with graphs and illustrations of the power electronic apparatus interfaced with the real machine. Finally, the conclusion in the fifth chapter offers a global overview of the project and opens further development pathways.

Measurement and simulation of conducted disturbances on DC power grids of a HVDC system with an active DC/DC converter

With the increasing of the distributed generation, DC microgrids have become more and more common in the electrical network. To connect devices in a microgrid, converter are necessary, but they are also source of disturbances due to their functioning. In this thesis, measurement and simulation of conducted emissions, within the frequency range 2-150kHz, of a DC/DC buck converter are studied.

Fleet Management System for Search and Rescue Operations

Over one million people lost their lives in the last twenty years from natural disasters like wildfires, earthquakes and man-made disasters. In such scenarios the usage of a fleet of robots aims at the parallelization of the workload and thus increasing speed and capabilities to complete time sensitive missions. This work focuses on the development of a dynamic fleet management system, which consists in the management of multiple agents cooperating in order to accomplish tasks. We presented a Mixed Integer Programming problem for the management and planning of mission’s tasks. The problem was solved using both an exact and a heuristic approach. The latter is based on the idea of solving iteratively smaller instances of the complete problem. Alongside, a fast and efficient algorithm for estimation of travel times between tasks is proposed. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed heuristic approach is able to generate quality solutions, within specific time limits, compared to the exact one.

Transmission Of Intra-cellular Genetic Information: A System Proposal.

One of the great challenges of the scientific community on theories of genetic information, genetic communication and genetic coding is to determine a mathematical structure related to DNA sequences. In this paper we propose a model of an intra-cellular transmission system of genetic information similar to a model of a power and bandwidth efficient digital communication system in order to identify a mathematical structure in DNA sequences where such sequences are biologically relevant. The model of a transmission system of genetic information is concerned with the identification, reproduction and mathematical classification of the nucleotide sequence of single stranded DNA by the genetic encoder. Hence, a genetic encoder is devised where labelings and cyclic codes are established. The establishment of the algebraic structure of the corresponding codes alphabets, mappings, labelings, primitive polynomials (p(x)) and code generator polynomials (g(x)) are quite important in characterizing error-correcting codes subclasses of G-linear codes. These latter codes are useful for the identification, reproduction and mathematical classification of DNA sequences. The characterization of this model may contribute to the development of a methodology that can be applied in mutational analysis and polymorphisms, production of new drugs and genetic improvement, among other things, resulting in the reduction of time and laboratory costs.

Energy system contributions to the special judo fitness test

Purpose: This study investigated the energy system contributions of judo athletes to the Special Judo Fitness Test (SJFT). Methods: Fourteen male judo athletes performed the SJFT, which comprised three periods of judo activity (A = 15 s, B and C = 30 s) interspersed with 10 s rest intervals. During this test, one athlete threw two others positioned 6 m from each other using the ippon-seoi-nage technique. The fractions of the aerobic, anaerobic alactic and anaerobic lactic systems were calculated based on oxygen uptake, the fast component of excess postexercise oxygen uptake, and changes in net blood lactate, respectively. The contribution of the three energy systems was compared using a repeated measures analysis of variance and Bonferroni's multiple comparisons test. Compound symmetry, or sphericity, was determined by Mauchly's test. A level of significance of 5% (P < .05) was adopted in all analyses. Results: The alactic energy system presented a higher (F = 20.9; P < .001; power observed = 1.0) contribution (86.8 +/- 23.6 kJ; 42.3 +/- 5.9%) during the test when compared with both aerobic (57.1 +/- 11.3 kJ; 28.2 +/- 2.9%) and lactic (58.9 +/- 12.1 kJ; 29.5 +/- 6.2%) energy systems (P < .001 for both comparisons). Conclusions: The higher alactic contribution seems to be a consequence of the high-intensity efforts performed during the test, and its intermittent nature. Thus, when using the SJFT, coaches are evaluating mainly their athletes' anaerobic alactic system, which can be considered to be the most predominant system contributing to the actions (techniques) performed in the match.

Unconventional metallic behavior and superconductivity in the K-Mo-O system

Transport properties and magnetization measurements of the K(x)MoO(2-delta) (0 <= x <= 0.25) compound are reported. The compound crystallizes in the oxygen deficient MoO(2) monoclinic structure with potassium atoms occupying interstitial positions. An unconventional metallic behavior with power-law temperature dependence is related to a magnetic ordering. Superconducting transition with small volume fraction is also observed near 7 K for a sample with low potassium composition.

Crowbar System in Doubly Fed Induction Wind Generators

In the last 15 years, the use of doubly fed induction machines in modern variable-speed wind turbines has increased rapidly. This development has been driven by the cost reduction as well as the low-loss generation of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT). According to new grid code requirements, wind turbines must remain connected to the grid during grid disturbances. Moreover, they must also contribute to voltage support during and after grid faults. The crowbar system is essential to avoid the disconnection of the doubly fed induction wind generators from the network during faults. The insertion of the crowbar in the rotor circuits for a short period of time enables a more efficient terminal voltage control. As a general rule, the activation and the deactivation of the crowbar system is based only on the DC-link voltage level of the back-to-back converters. In this context, the authors discuss the critical rotor speed to analyze the instability of doubly fed induction generators during grid faults.

Beam-energy and system-size dependence of dynamical net charge fluctuations

We present measurements of net charge fluctuations in Au+Au collisions at s(NN)=19.6, 62.4, 130, and 200 GeV, Cu+Cu collisions at s(NN)=62.4 and 200 GeV, and p+p collisions at s=200 GeV using the dynamical net charge fluctuations measure nu(+-,dyn). We observe that the dynamical fluctuations are nonzero at all energies and exhibit a modest dependence on beam energy. A weak system size dependence is also observed. We examine the collision centrality dependence of the net charge fluctuations and find that dynamical net charge fluctuations violate 1/N(ch) scaling but display approximate 1/N(part) scaling. We also study the azimuthal and rapidity dependence of the net charge correlation strength and observe strong dependence on the azimuthal angular range and pseudorapidity widths integrated to measure the correlation.

The CoRoT-7 planetary system: two orbiting super-Earths

We report on an intensive observational campaign carried out with HARPS at the 3.6 m telescope at La Silla on the star CoRoT-7. Additional simultaneous photometric measurements carried out with the Euler Swiss telescope have demonstrated that the observed radial velocity variations are dominated by rotational modulation from cool spots on the stellar surface. Several approaches were used to extract the radial velocity signal of the planet(s) from the stellar activity signal. First, a simple pre-whitening procedure was employed to find and subsequently remove periodic signals from the complex frequency structure of the radial velocity data. The dominant frequency in the power spectrum was found at 23 days, which corresponds to the rotation period of CoRoT-7. The 0.8535 day period of CoRoT-7b planetary candidate was detected with an amplitude of 3.3 m s(-1). Most other frequencies, some with amplitudes larger than the CoRoT-7b signal, are most likely associated with activity. A second approach used harmonic decomposition of the rotational period and up to the first three harmonics to filter out the activity signal from radial velocity variations caused by orbiting planets. After correcting the radial velocity data for activity, two periodic signals are detected: the CoRoT-7b transit period and a second one with a period of 3.69 days and an amplitude of 4 m s(-1). This second signal was also found in the pre-whitening analysis. We attribute the second signal to a second, more remote planet CoRoT-7c. The orbital solution of both planets is compatible with circular orbits. The mass of CoRoT-7b is 4.8 +/- 0.8 (M(circle plus)) and that of CoRoT-7c is 8.4 +/- 0.9 (M(circle plus)), assuming both planets are on coplanar orbits. We also investigated the false positive scenario of a blend by a faint stellar binary, and this may be rejected by the stability of the bisector on a nightly scale. According to their masses both planets belong to the super-Earth planet category. The average density of CoRoT-7b is rho = 5.6 +/- 1.3 g cm(-3), similar to the Earth. The CoRoT-7 planetary system provides us with the first insight into the physical nature of short period super-Earth planets recently detected by radial velocity surveys. These planets may be denser than Neptune and therefore likely made of rocks like the Earth, or a mix of water ice and rocks.