Search results for "electricity generation"
showing 10 items of 133 documents
A renewable energy mix to supply small islands. A comparative study applied to Balearic Islands and Fiji
2019
Abstract Power plants supplied by renewables are expanding around the world, increasing the sustainability of the energy sector. In this context, small islands are heavily reliant on fossil fuels. However, this paper shows that the same problem can be found also in small islands belonging to developed countries. To increase the energy sustainability of small islands, the authors assembled a simplified mathematical approach to evaluate the potential electricity production, exploiting the local available energy sources: solar, wind and sea wave. The mathematical model requires few information in input, such as climatic data about the local energy sources and technical features on the selected…
The Energy Market Impact of Climate Change on Electricity Generation in Europe
2018
In this paper, the policy trend in Europe towards the emission reduction target in the energy sector, as planned from the Paris Agreement, is analyzed. Although renewable energy sources are improving their share, the large use of coal as primary fuel and the uncertainty about nuclear production makes the transition hard. It's well known that future emission patterns from energy generation influence the climate change trend, but as shown in the following, there is also a reverse interrelation, due to the different environmental conditions caused by climate change affecting all generation technologies. Furthermore, energy prices, which derive from this changed framework likewise will influenc…
Improved primary regulation for minimum energy losses in islanded microgrids
2017
In this paper, an improved primary regulation is proposed for grid forming units supplying islanded microgrids. A minimum losses Optimal Power Flow is run off-line to devise the operating set points composing the primary regulation curve. In this way, after load perturbations, generators can reach an optimized operating point for a given and unique minimum losses energy flows distribution. The idea is to skip the hierarchical control architecture and provide a feasible and optimized operating point. A case study over 24 hours shows the effectiveness of this new approach as well as the improved operation quality of the system.
Energy Management Systems and tertiary regulation in hierarchical control architectures for islanded microgrids
2015
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 …
Coupling salinity gradient heat engines with power generation systems and industrial processes
2022
Abstract This chapter presents some potential applications of salinity gradient power-heat engines (SGP-HEs) in power generation systems and industrial processes, where low-temperature waste heat flows could be available. In order to show this concept, five case studies are proposed. In the first case study, a thermoelectric power plant is considered. The analysis evaluates the possibility to convert the low-grade heat content of flue gases into additional electricity via SGP-HEs. In the second case study, an SGP-HE is coupled with an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) plant to enhance the amount of electricity produced from a medium-temperature waste heat flow released by an industrial process. I…
Technical and economical feasibility of biomass use for power generation in Sicily
2012
Biomass can provide a reliable support for production ofbiofuels while contributing to sustainable management of natural resources. Many countries, including Italy, have introduced important incentive schemes to support the use of biomass for electricity, heat and transportation. This has raised considerable interest towards the use of biomass for energy generation purposes. Nonetheless, the design and installation ofbiomass-fuelled power plants present several critical issues, such as choice and availability of biomass, choice of technology, power plant localization and logistics. The case study tackled in this paper evaluates the economies originated by a 1MW el Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC…
Privacy-Preserving Overgrid: Secure Data Collection for the Smart Grid
2020
In this paper, we present a privacy-preserving scheme for Overgrid, a fully distributed peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture designed to automatically control and implement distributed Demand Response (DR) schemes in a community of smart buildings with energy generation and storage capabilities. To monitor the power consumption of the buildings, while respecting the privacy of the users, we extend our previous Overgrid algorithms to provide privacy preserving data aggregation (PP-Overgrid). This new technique combines a distributed data aggregation scheme with the Secure Multi-Party Computation paradigm. First, we use the energy profiles of hundreds of buildings, classifying the amount of &ldquo
Solar-assisted heat pumps systems for domestic hot water production in small energy communities
2021
Abstract The paper investigates the energy performances of several configurations of solar-assisted heat pumps equipped with photovoltaic (PV) and photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) panels as well as solar thermal collectors for domestic hot water production. The systems are sized to serve small aggregates of users assumed as micro energy communities in low housing density context in the South of Italy. Electricity storages are also considered to smooth the interaction with the electric grid. Several indices are defined and calculated to guide toward a correct sizing, to check users’ satisfaction and to assess primary energy savings. The results show how the energy consumption from the analysed sys…
TRITIUM - A Real-Time Tritium Monitor System for Water Quality Surveillance
2018
In this work the development results of the TRITIUM project is presented. The main objective of the project is the construction of a near real-time monitor for low activity tritium in water, aimed at in-situ surveillance and radiological protection of river water in the vicinity of nuclear power plants. The European Council Directive 2013/51/Euratom requires that the maximum level of tritium in water for human consumption to be lower than 100 Bq/L. Tritium levels in the cooling water of nuclear power plants in normal operation are much higher than the levels caused by the natural and cosmogenic components, and may easily surmount the limit required by the Directive. The current liquid-scint…
Study of Mode Competition in the Third Harmonic Gyrotron with Inclusion of the Electron Velocity Spread and the Beam Width
2018
Influence of the electron velocity spread and the beam width on the mode competition and efficiency is investigated in the 1.185- THz third harmonic gyrotron to be used in dynamical nuclear polarization - nuclear magnetic resonance (DNP-NMR) spectrometer.