Power and Energy Commons^™

Small Wind Turbines In Turbulent (Urban) Environments: A Consideration Of Normal And Weibull Distributions For Power Prediction, Keith Sunderland, Thomas Woolmington, Jonathan Blackledge, Michael Conlon

Articles

The urban terrain and the associated morphological complexities therein, present significant challenges for the deployment of small wind turbines. In particular, a considerable amount of uncertainty is attributable to the lack of understanding concerning how turbulence within urban environments affects turbine productivity. Current wind turbine power output measurements (particularly for small/micro wind turbines) are based on an average wind speed over an observation period; with limited accountability of the variability of wind speed within the observation time frame. This paper however, presents two models that can instead accurately consider such wind speed variation and how it affects the turbine, based …

Grid-Tie Arrangements For Micro-Generation Under En50438; An Irish Evaluation, Liam Murphy

Conference papers

This paper explores the significance of EN50438 as the standard governing the grid-connection of micro-generation to the distribution network. In the context of micro-generation, EN50438 therefore governs the inverter requirement associated with the majority of micro-generation. Another consideration presented in this research is findings and analysis related to the manufacturers stated efficiency of a grid-tied inverter connected to a Photovoltaic (PV) array in Dublin City Centre, Ireland.

Assessing The Benefits Of Compressed Air Energy Storage On The 2020 Irish Power System, Brendan Cleary, Aidan Duffy, Alan O'Connor, Michael Conlon, Vasilis Fthenakis

Conference Papers

Power systems have evolved as countries implement energy policies focusing on energy efficiency and increased share of renewable energy sources (RES). At the forefront is non-dispatchable generation such as wind and solar. Traditionally power systems were designed for fully dispatchable generating plant. However, these powers systems are under additional pressure due to the variable operational characteristics of RES. Consequently, capital investments in grid reinforcement, interconnection, additional gas generators and smart grid initiatives have been proposed and implemented. Moreover, an increased interest in energy storage technologies has evolved due to their various economic and operational benefits to power systems. Current compressed …

Solar Photovoltaic Water Pumping For Multiple Use Systems (Mus) In Nepal, Fintan Mcloughlin, Aidan Duffy, Michael Conlon

Conference Papers

This paper investigates the performance of five solar photovoltaic (PV) Multiple Use Systems (MUS) used for water pumping. The solar MUS’s provide water for drinking, cleaning and micro-irrigation for some of the poorest communities in Nepal. In the absence of data logging, the performance of each system is investigated based on a series of rules of thumb to determine the predicted, expected and estimated demand and supply of water to small rural communities. The systems are compared based on their technical and economic performance and how this relates to local environmental, physical and socioeconomic characteristics at each location.

Maximising Value Of Electrical Networks For Wave Energy Converter Arrays, Fergus Sharkey, Elva Bannon, Michael Conlon, Kevin Gaughan

Articles

Currently there are the beginnings of a commercial wave energy industry and the ultimate ambition will be to deploy Wave Energy Converters (WECs) in arrays, or wave farms, in a similar fashion to offshore wind. These arrays will require electrical networks to collect and export the generated electrical power to shore and onto the electrical grid. For large scale wind farms the inter-array and export electrical networks can represent more than 20% of the project’s capital expenditure. Submarine power cables account for a large proportion of this cost. The same is expected to be the same for WEC arrays.

This …

Urban Deployment Of Small Wind Turbines: Power, Performance And Turbulence, Keith Sunderland, Thomas Woolmington, Michael Conlon, Jonathan Blackledge

Conference papers

The urban terrain and the associated topographical complexities therein, present significant challenges to the deployment of small wind turbines. In particular, a considerable amount of uncertainty is attributable to the lack of understanding concerning how turbulence within urban environments affects turbine productivity. This paper considers how the industry standard metric, turbulence intensity (TI), in conjunction with the power characteristic of a 2.5kW wind turbine, can be employed to estimate turbine power performance. The research presented here considers the potential productivity of a wind turbine installation at two sites in (urban and suburban) Dublin, Ireland where the prevalent turbulence at both …

Impacts On The Electrical System Economics From Critical Design Factors Of Wave Energy Converters And Arrays, Fergus Sharkey, Michael Conlon, Kevin Gaughan

Conference papers

It is expected that ultimately, like offshore wind farms, electrical systems will make up to a quarter of the overall Capex of wave farms. This is a significant element of cost and consideration must be taken in the design of both individual wave energy converters (WECs) and arrays of WECs to ensure that these costs can be minimised. In a worst case scenario design decisions could increase the cost of the electrical system by several orders and ultimately make the technology uncompetitive.

This paper outlines the impacts on the cost of the electrical system arising from design factors of WECs …

The Domestic And Export Market For Large Scale Wave Energy In Ireland And The Economics Of Export Transmission, Fergus Sharkey, Kevin Honer, Michael Conlon, Kevin Gaughan, Emma Robinson

Conference papers

Ireland is on track to meet its 2020 renewable energy targets with over 2 GW of onshore wind installed in the all island market as of 2013, and a multiple of this capacity in various stages of planning and development. It is currently unclear how much of this potential capacity will ultimately be installed but it has become clear that the wind industry in Ireland will change focus to export opportunities post 2020. This presents some interesting challenges for wave energy in Ireland.

There is some early activity in the installation of wave farms off the west coast of Ireland …

Resource-Induced Voltage Flicker For Wave Energy Converters – Assessment Tools, Fergus Sharkey, Joe Macenri, Elva Bannon, Michael Conlon, Kevin Gaughan

Articles

For wave energy converters, the input resource has a typical period of 5–20 s depending on the site location and dominant seastates. Wave energy converters generally produce mechanical power twice per wave cycle and therefore depending on the storage available, the electrical power output has half the period of the input resource. These regular power changes induce a voltage change at the point of connection (POC) which is proportional to the amplitude of the power change and at the same frequency. Therefore the coupling of the input resource to the output power of a wave energy converter will cause voltage …

Heating Effects Through Harmonic Distortion On Electric Cables In The Built Environment, Kevin O'Connell

Doctoral

Under ideal circumstances, electric power supply voltage and current waveforms should be sinusoidal. However, this is very seldom the case in the built environment, due to the proliferation of non-linear loads. Examples of non-linear loads are those containing switched mode power supplies, reactors and electronic rectifiers/inverters. Common devices such as personal computers, fluorescent lighting, electric motors, variable speed drives, transformers and reactors and virtually all other electronic equipment are examples of non-linear loads. Non-linear loads are the norm in the built environment rather than the exception. Such loads produce complex current and voltage waves and simple spectral analysis of these …

Evaluation Of Time Series Techniques To Characterise Domestic Electricity Demand, Fintan Mcloughlin, Aidan Duffy, Michael Conlon

Articles

This paper discusses time series approaches, often used by Transmission System Operators (TSOs) to forecast system demand, and applies them at an individual dwelling level. In particular, two techniques, Fourier transforms and Gaussian processes were evaluated and used to characterise individual household electricity demand. The performance of the characterisation approaches were evaluated based on Pearson correlation coefficient, descriptive statistics and paired sample t-tests for electrical parameters: Total Electricity Consumption, Maximum Demand, Load Factor and Time of Use of maximum electricity demand. Finally, a number of time series tests were carried out to ensure certain properties remained between the original and …

Development And Implementation Of A Simplified Residential Energy Asset Rating Model, Daire Reilly, Aidan Duffy, David Willis, Michael Conlon

Other resources

In accordance with national and European policies, the provision of financial assistance to residential energy consumers has led to a greater awareness of and interest in energy retrofit technologies. However, at present Irish energy consumers have no appropriate advice on the future performance of retrofit options available to them. This is a significant limitation to decision making and technology uptake, since this group need to know whether their investment is likely to be worthwhile.

The asset rating methodology developed for the certification of energy performance of buildings is the current industry standard of prediction of energy demand and post retrofit …

An Evaluation Of Seawater Pumped Hydro Storage For Regulating The Export Of Wind Energy To The National Grid, Eoin D. Mclean

Dissertations

Hydroelectric power generation has been in use for a very long time. From the earliest watermills to the current large scale Hydro power plants, this is a technology that is proven to be reliable and commercially viable. The use of wind energy to provide mechanical power for the purpose of turning a rotor is also not a new concept.Four years ago TCD Professor of Applied Physics Igor Shvets conceived the idea of solving Ireland’s energy crisis by taking these two proven renewable technologies and combining them. (McGreevey, 2012) The spirit of Ireland initiative seeks to resolve the biggest issues facing …

An Investigation Into Energy Consumption And Existing Energy Management Practices In A Dublin Sports Centre, Colin J. Conway

Dissertations

Rising energy costs are a concern to all businesses but especially to those who have a large energy demand. Sports centres with swimming pools have large requirements for heat and electricity in order to maintain thermal comfort within the pool and surrounding areas.

Sports centres which were built in the 1970s were designed at a time when energy was cheap and many of today’s control strategies and energy efficiency measures were unavailable.

This project is an investigation into the electrical and thermal consumption of the Tallaght Sports Complex. The Tallaght Sports Complex was built in the 1970s and is lacking …

Economic Challenges And Optimisation Of Ocean Energy Electrical Systems, Fergus Sharkey

Books/Book chapters

No abstract provided.