0000000000084188
AUTHOR
L. Mineo
New High Voltage Interconnections with Islands in the Mediterranean Sea: Malta and Sicily. Analysis of the Effects on Renewable Energy Sources Integration and Benefits for the Electricity Market
The present paper shows the benefits coming from the operation of the recent electrical high voltage (HV) interconnections between Sicily, Malta and mainland Italy. These new interconnections allow zonal prices of electricity considerably lower than in the past, ensuring greater flexibility to the system and a better integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES). After briefly illustrating the two high-voltage electrical systems (Sicily and Malta), and having provided a description of the interconnection cable with Malta and its protection devices, the authors hypothesized two modes of operation (Sicily-Malta system islanded or interconnected to the rest of Europe). For the first case (isla…
Safety Concerns on Ground Fault Application Transfer Phenomenon in HV Installations
When a fault to ground occurs in HV/MV substations supplied by a combined overhead-cable line, most of the fault current can be transferred and injected into the soil several kilometers far away from the fault location. This phenomenon is called "fault application transfer" and mostly concerns transition stations, where cables are connected to the overhead line. If the transition station is a dead-end steel pole structure, usually accessible to the general public, the local ground electrode could be inadequate to maintain ground potential rise within safety limits. Hence, dangerous touch and step voltages may appear at exposed locations. In the paper results of various computer simulations …
A Method to Evaluate Voltages to Earth During an Earth Fault in an HV Network in a System of Interconnected Earth Electrodes of MV/LV Substations
An easy and swift method to evaluate, in a system of interconnected earth electrodes, earth potentials on earthing systems of medium-voltage/low-voltage (MV/LV) substations, in an event of single-line-to-earth fault inside a high-voltage/medium- voltage (HV/MV) station, is presented. The advantage of the method is the simplicity of the mathematical model for solving complex systems of any size with a sufficient accuracy for practical purposes. This paper shows the results of simulations, performed on networks with different extensions and characteristics, organized in easy-to-read graphs and tables. A comparison of these results with the values obtained according to the procedure explained …
Efficient modeling of a combined overhead cable line for grounding-system analysis
Simple compact models for combined overhead-cable lines supplying a substation are presented as an extension of a previous paper for grounding system analysis. The overhead line section can be equipped with uniform or combined ground wires, whereas the cable line section can consist of coated metal sheathed cables, with/without intermediate grounding, or uncoated metal sheathed cables in continuous contact with the earth. Besides the calculation of the earth current at the faulted substation, the proposed modeling method allows the evaluation of the leakage current at the transition station, where cables are connected to the overhead line, as well as at critical overhead line towers. In thi…
A statistic approach of cables ageing in MV lines on thermal and electrical combined stress
The paper introduces a methodology that through a probabilistic characterisation of load for MV network, and implementing a life model for combined electric and thermal stresses, simulates the process of ageing of the insulating materials evaluating the expected life time of the cable. Such evaluation is necessary to the possibility of assuming less restrictive thermal overloading limits on electrical cables, with the consequential increase on reserve that cables could offer. A numerical example is reported to better explain the methodology
New Energy Corridors in the Euro-Mediterranean Area: The Pivotal Role of Sicily
The present paper deals with the new opportunities deriving from the interconnections of the European and North African transmission systems. In order to achieve a single international market for electricity exchanges, interconnections between networks in different countries are becoming increasingly important and Sicily, for its geographical position in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, will undoubtedly play an important role as an electrical bridge between Europe and the North Africa in the near future. The paper, presenting the actual electro-energetic context of Tunisia, reports the new important interconnection already realized in South Italy (in particular in Sicily) and describe t…
A multi-agent system reinforcement learning based optimal power flow for islanded microgrids
In this paper, a distributed intelligence algorithm is used to manage the optimal power flow problem in islanded microgrids. The methodology provides a suboptimal solution although the error is limited to a few percent as compared to a centralized approach. The solution algorithm is multi-agent based. According to the method, couples of agents communicate with each other only if the buses where they are located are electrically connected. The overall prizing system required for learning uses a feedback from an approximated model of the network. Based on the latter, a distributed reiforcement learning algorithm is implemented to minimize the joule losses while meeting operational constraints…
A simple operation strategy of battery storage systems under dynamic electricity pricing: An Italian case study for a medium-scale public facility
In the electricity market, wholesale energy prices depend on the balance between energy production and load demand. In the last few years, electricity market has become more and more flexible as many utilities have started to replace the fixed retail prices schemes with prices changing during the day. Dynamic pricing, also known as Real-Time Pricing (RTP), reflects the trend of the wholesale market and allows to reduce the volatility of the wholesale prices, also contributing to a reduction of demand peaks. Electricity customers take advantage of dynamic pricing by shifting their consumption according to the real-time prices or by using Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) to shift electri…
On the Interconnections of HV–MV Stations to Global Grounding Systems
The interconnection of grounding systems of HV-MV stations via the armors of medium voltage cables, is herein analyzed to verify the effects on touch voltages in ground-fault conditions. The major contributions of this paper are two: the analysis of the impact of an HV ground-fault on a global grounding system (GGS), and the analysis of the parameters that may affect safety due to the interconnection between HV-MV stations and the GGS. The authors have analyzed cases when the connection of an HV-MV station to a GGS improves safety, and then may introduce hazards under ground-fault conditions. Two main issues are herein discussed: 1) the transfer of dangerous voltages to substations, due to …
Interconnections criteria of grounding grids in global grounding systems
A Global Grounding System is defined as the combination of local grounding systems, obtained by their interconnection, which ensures, thanks to their proximity, that no dangerous touch voltages can arise. The interconnection of grounding systems via the armors of the MV cables, between secondary substations and HV/MV stations is herein analyzed to verify the effects on touch voltages in ground-fault conditions. In particular, two main issues are discussed: 1) the transfer of dangerous voltages to secondary substations, due to ground-faults occurring at the HV/MV station; 2) the reduction in the magnitude of the ground potential rise due to ground-fault conditions at secondary substations, t…
Transparency in transactive energy at distribution level
A recent report from the German Energy Agency analyzes the possible introduction of the blockchain technology in energy transactions in power distribution. The issue deserves attention since the extensive digitalization of business models puts new challenges to utilities in the power sector. The German decision makers in the energy field claim that blockchain appears as a close perspective and, at the same time, the Gartner hypecycle puts this technology at the peak of inflated expectations in 2016. Diffuse perception however provides hints for further investigation on the topic. This paper provides insight into the problem of peer-to-peer energy exchange from a technical perspective, provi…
Energy Management Systems and tertiary regulation in hierarchical control architectures for islanded microgrids
In this paper, the structure of the highest level of a hierarchical control architecture for micro-grids is proposed. Such structure includes two sub-levels: the Energy Management System, EMS, and the tertiary regulation. The first devoted to energy resources allocation in each time slot based on marginal production costs, the latter aiming at finding the match between production and consumption satisfying the constraints set by the EMS level about the energy production in each time slot. Neglecting the efficiency of the different energy generation systems as well as that of the infrastructure for electrical energy distribution, the problem dealt with by the EMS sub-level is linear and can …