Impact of wind and solar power plants on the reliability of the IPS

One of the most promising areas in the development of the electric power industry is generally regarded to lie in expanding the share of renewable energy sources (RES) in the electric energy balance of power systems in the form of wind and solar power plants (WPP and SPP), the saving of organic fuel (coal, gas, fuel oil) and the reduction of environmentally harmful emissions into the atmosphere considered to be their most important advantages. However, the impact of RES on the controllability of the modes of operation of electric power systems and on the reliability of the IPS operation remains quite unexplored.Currently, the global energy industry uses 318 million kW of WPP and about 142.4 million kW of SPP, of which the major West European countries account for about 227 million kW, or 49.3%. On average, wind and solar power plants account for almost 30% of the total generating capacity in Western Europe, with Denmark having the largest share of WPP (47%) and Germany having the highest share of SPP (18.6%). However, an uncontrolled growth in the share of WPP and SPP in the structure of generating capacities of power systems begins to manifest itself in a sharp decline in the reliability of the power industry due to the fact that a number of negative properties of WPP and SPP have not been taken into account (at least, to a sufficient extent), which manifested themselves in practice in a system accident in the UK power system that occurred on August 09, 2019, when, as a result of an "ordinary" short circuit, a system accident occurred, with up to 1.1 million consumers with a total load of 1690 MW disconnected from the power supply system for a period of 15 to 45 minutes. This is estimated to have resulted in economic losses for consumers amounting to 12.3–15.0 million USD.The reason for this is that the high sensitivity of WPP, SPP, CCGT and gas piston units to voltage and frequency drops is not properly considered in conditions of insufficient capacity of the rotating (mobile) generation reserve. Damage can be prevented by increasing the rotating reserve within the available reserve of the power system, which will require an increase in funds for maintaining the same due to additional fuel consumption. The ratio of reduction of probable damage to consumers and the cost of additional fuel consumption for maintenance of a required rotating reserve in the power system allows to economically substantiate the strategy and scale of introduction of renewable energy sources to the power industry.

The Capacity of the Road Network: Data Collection and Statistical Analysis of Traffic Characteristics

The possibilities of collecting the necessary information using multi-touch cameras and ways to improve road traffic data collection are considered. An increase in the number of vehicles leads to traffic jams, which in turn leads to an increase in travel time, additional fuel consumption and other negative consequences. To solve this problem, it is necessary to have a reliable information collection system and apply modern effective methods of processing the collected information. The technology considered in the article allows taking into account pedestrians crossing the intersection. The purpose of this article is to determine the most important traffic characteristics that affect the traffic capacity of the intersection, in other words, the actual number of passing cars. Throughput is taken as a dependent variable. Based on the results of the regression analysis, a model was developed to predict the intersection throughput taking into account the most important traffic characteristics. Besides, this model is based on the fuzzy logic method and using the Fuzzy TECH 5.81d Professional Edition computer program.

The Use of Multi-Sensor Video Surveillance System to Assess the Capacity of the Road Network

Currently, in many cities around the world there is a significant increase in the number of vehicles, which leads to an aggravation of problems and contradictions in the road and transport system. This is especially true of traffic congestion, since the presence of the congestion leads to a number of negative consequences: an increase in travel time, additional fuel consumption and vehicle wear, stress and irritation of drivers and passengers, environmental poisoning and others. To solve the problem of congestion, it is necessary to have a reliable system for collecting information about the situation on the roads and a well-developed method for analyzing the collected information. The paper discusses the possibilities of collecting the required information using multi-touch video cameras and ways to improve them. A distinctive feature of this study is the registration of pedestrians crossing the road at the intersection. The aim of the work is to develop methods for collecting information using road sensor video surveillance systems in a traffic congestion and data processing using statistical methods such as: multiple regression analysis, cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling methods and others. The tasks were set: 1) to identify the most significant factors affecting the intensity of movement of vehicles at intersections in a congestion; 2) divide congestion into clusters with the identification of their characteristics; 3) to give a visual representation of multidimensional statistical information obtained with the help of multi-touch road video cameras.

Improving Fuel Economy Estimates on a Chassis Dynamometer Using Air Conditioner Correction Factors

Carmakers, regulatory agencies, and consumers share an interest in accurately determining a vehicle’s fuel efficiency under operating conditions that match the expected use. Previous studies have shown that a vehicle’s air conditioning (A/C) system is the most energy-intensive non-propulsive system and significantly reduces fuel economy. This study aims to design and validate a new method of improving fuel economy estimates obtained on non-climate-controlled chassis dynamometers, as such laboratories are limited to measuring fuel economy with the A/C system deactivated. The methodology proposed herein uses a chassis dynamometer to measure the fuel economy penalty caused by the A/C system at different steady-state conditions. The hypothesis is that these penalties can be imposed accordingly for a given drive cycle to obtain an additional fuel consumption due to A/C. To validate the proposed methodology, a vehicle was outfitted with a data acquisition system and was driven 50 times around a predefined route using varying A/C settings. The proposed method was then used to estimate the additional fuel consumption due to A/C usage for each of the runs. Comparing the calculated and actual fuel economies showed an average error of 1.924%. It was concluded that the proposed methodology is a viable alternative to existing procedures.

Under Pressure Compensation for Wheel Radius Based on Wheel Speed

Tire under-pressure will increase vehicle’s rolling resistance, additional fuel consumption and possibility of tire wear, which will magnify the possibility of a flat tire when vehicle drives at a high speed. In addition, an under-pressure tire will cause a smaller wheel radius, which influences wheel speed calculation in Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) and reduces the control robustness. In this paper, an under pressure compensation algorithm for wheel radius based on ABS wheel speed is proposed, which can improve the accuracy of ABS control and indirectly give early warning of a single under-pressure tire as well. Finally it has been validated by vehicle experiments.

Energy and Emissions Impacts of Operating Higher-Productivity Vehicles

The American Transportation Research Institute and Cummins, Inc. teamed up to investigate the energy and emissions impacts from operating commercial vehicles at weights equal to or greater than existing federal limits. Six vehicle configurations and four gross vehicle weights (GVWs) were modeled over a representative route to estimate fuel usage and corresponding tailpipe emissions. The results provide a comparative estimate of the potential energy and emission impacts from operating different vehicle configurations at various weights. When six configurations were modeled over a representative route with the Cummins, Inc., vehicle mission simulation model and a simplified algorithm to estimate emissions, fuel consumption and emissions generally decreased for each ton-mile of freight transported when compared with two standard configuration vehicles at 80,000 lb GVW. With the exception of one configuration, decreases in fuel consumption and emissions per ton-mile were 4% to 19% at 100,000 lb GVW, 15% to 22% at 120,000 lb GVW, and 27% at 140,000 lb GVW. The lone exception was for the heaviest vehicle, which experienced an increase in fuel consumption and emissions per ton-mile at a GVW of 100,000 lb when compared with the two standard configurations. At this weight, the added payload weight was insufficient to offset the additional fuel consumption demands of the heavier vehicle. Other than this exception, operating higher-productivity vehicles to accommodate higher GVWs can be expected to decrease fuel consumption and emissions on a ton-mile basis when compared with standard configuration vehicles at 80,000 lb GVW.

Thermoeconomic Analysis of a Dual-Purpose Power and Desalination Plant

Thermoeconomic analysis techniques are very convenient tools to be applied in the analysis of highly complex systems as it is proved in this paper. A thermoeconomic analysis has been applied to an actual dual-purpose power and desalination plant considering the dual plant as a whole system. Probably due to its complexity, this type of plants are usually analyzed separately, considering the power and the desalination plant as two independent systems, thus neglecting component interactions and avoiding the potential energy saving derived from the combined analysis. The most important aim of this paper consists on checking the validity of thermoeconomic analysis when applied to actual complex energy systems. Thus, this paper contains some of the most important results of a research work [1] in which a critical analysis of thermoeconomic applications when applied to actual complex energy systems, as a dual plant is. The paper is focused on (a) the thermoeconomic diagnosis of the plant operation, in which the interactions between the plant components have been studied and quantified in terms of additional fuel consumption, efficiency variation, and so on; (b) the optimization of the plant by maximizing the installation benefit, which is a consequence of the thermoeconomic cost analysis..