Shun-Yu Chan

Bio: Shun-Yu Chan is an academic researcher from Cheng Shiu University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Power factor & Smart grid. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 13 publications receiving 222 citations.

Development of a smart power meter for AMI based on ZigBee communication

Abstract: Many governments deploy ubiquitous IT project, which aims to combine the latest wireless network and wide-band technologies etc to accomplish a ubiquitous wireless communication network The ubiquitous wireless communication network can be utilized for the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Therefore, this paper tries to use the new wireless communication technologies to design and implement a ZigBee-based smart power meter An outage recording system is also designed and embedded into the smart meter The microcontroller of Microchip dsPIC30F series is used to develop the proposed smart power meter A ZigBee system is then deigned and integrated into the proposed power meter, and used to transmit the detailed power consumption data and outage event data to rear-end processing system The proposed smart power meter cannot only be used for power consumption data collection but also for outage event data recording The proposed system has great potential to be used to build the area-based AMI Experimental results demonstrate the validity of the proposed system Besides, the application of ZigBee communication in power area may, expectedly, lead to make a definite contribution to ubiquitous IT project

Development of an automatic reliability calculation system for advanced metering infrastructure

Abstract: The installation of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is looked upon as a bridge to the construction of smart grids; especially, while most of the power meters are still mechanical ones without digitization. An AMI consists of smart power meter, communication technology, meter data management, and associated software and hardware. After AMI has been implemented, many advanced functions e.g. automatic and accurate reliability calculation systems can be achieved. Therefore, this paper tries to develop an automatic reliability system for AMI. A ZigBee-based smart power meter with outage recording function is designed first. The ZigBee-based power meters are used to transmit the detailed power consumption data and outage event data to rear-end processing system periodically. According to the detailed and accurate data stored in the rear-end database, an automatic and accurate reliability calculation system can be designed sequentially. The customer interruption costs can also be estimated by the proposed system. Experimental results show that the proposed system has great potential to be integrated into AMI to improve the accuracy of reliability calculation.

Design and implementation of a RFID-based power meter and outage recording system

Abstract: Radio frequency identification (RFID) system is looked upon as one of the top ten important technologies in the 20th century. In the upcoming years, the public area applications are the key issue in developing RFID. Power system is innately bulky, wide-spreading, and is, definitely, an extremely important application area of RFID. In the power area, the RFID can be implemented on apparatus management, procedure control, power consumption management and personnel access control. Additionally, RFID can be applied extensively to customers. By integrating RFID into a power meter and outage recorder, the power consumption data and power reliability information of customers can be fully collected and recorded. This paper tries to design and implement a RFID-based power meter and outage recording system. The microcontroller of Microchip dsPIC30F series is used to develop a small-scale power meter and outage recorder. The proposed RFID system is then embedded into the power meter and records the power data in tag. Due to the uniqueness of RFID tag, the power consumption data and outage information of customers can all be recorded and then be identified in the rear-end processing system. Experimental results show the validity of the proposed system.

RFID-based autonomous mobile car

Abstract: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system is looked upon as one of the top ten important technologies in the 20th century. Industrial automation application is one of the key issues in developing RFID. Therefore, this paper designs and implements a RFID-based autonomous mobile car for more extensively application of RFID systems. The microcontroller of Microchip PIC18F4550 is used to control the autonomous mobile car and to communicate with RFID reader. By storing the moving control commands such as turn right, turn left, speed up and speed down etc. into the RFID tags beforehand and sticking the tags on the tracks, the autonomous mobile car can then read the moving control commands from the tags and accomplish the proper actions. Due to the convenience and non-contact characteristic of RFID systems, the proposed mobile car has great potential to be used for industrial automation, goods transportation, data transmission, and unmanned medical nursing etc. in the future. Experimental results demonstrate the validity of the proposed mobile car.

Artificial-lighting sources for plant growth

Abstract: This study examines the use of artificial-lighting sources for indoor photosynthesis and proposes a novel indoor plant-lighting scheme in which red LEDs, blue LEDs and CCFLs are combined to work as effective light sources. The lighting combinations confirmed in this study have been proven effective in improving the growth uniformity of Anoectochilus Formosanus Hayata. Furthermore, the study has also demonstrated that lowered growth racks contribute to higher yield per unit area.

A Survey on Smart Grid CommunicationInfrastructures: Motivations, Requirements andChallenges

Abstract: A communication infrastructure is an essential part to the success of the emerging smart grid. A scalable and pervasive communication infrastructure is crucial in both construction and operation of a smart grid. In this paper, we present the background and motivation of communication infrastructures in smart grid systems. We also summarize major requirements that smart grid communications must meet. From the experience of several industrial trials on smart grid with communication infrastructures, we expect that the traditional carbon fuel based power plants can cooperate with emerging distributed renewable energy such as wind, solar, etc, to reduce the carbon fuel consumption and consequent green house gas such as carbon dioxide emission. The consumers can minimize their expense on energy by adjusting their intelligent home appliance operations to avoid the peak hours and utilize the renewable energy instead. We further explore the challenges for a communication infrastructure as the part of a complex smart grid system. Since a smart grid system might have over millions of consumers and devices, the demand of its reliability and security is extremely critical. Through a communication infrastructure, a smart grid can improve power reliability and quality to eliminate electricity blackout. Security is a challenging issue since the on-going smart grid systems facing increasing vulnerabilities as more and more automation, remote monitoring/controlling and supervision entities are interconnected.

A Survey on Smart Grid Communication Infrastructures: Motivations, Requirements and Challenges

Abstract: A communication infrastructure is an essential part to the success of the emerging smart grid. A scalable and pervasive communication infrastructure is crucial in both construction and operation of a smart grid. In this paper, we present the background and motivation of communication infrastructures in smart grid systems. We also summarize major requirements that smart grid communications must meet. From the experience of several industrial trials on smart grid with communication infrastructures, we expect that the traditional carbon fuel based power plants can cooperate with emerging distributed renewable energy such as wind, solar, etc, to reduce the carbon fuel consumption and consequent green house gas such as carbon dioxide emission. The consumers can minimize their expense on energy by adjusting their intelligent home appliance operations to avoid the peak hours and utilize the renewable energy instead. We further explore the challenges for a communication infrastructure as the part of a complex smart grid system. Since a smart grid system might have over millions of consumers and devices, the demand of its reliability and security is extremely critical. Through a communication infrastructure, a smart grid can improve power reliability and quality to eliminate electricity blackout. Security is a challenging issue since the on-going smart grid systems facing increasing vulnerabilities as more and more automation, remote monitoring/controlling and supervision entities are interconnected.

Secure Information Aggregation for Smart Grids Using Homomorphic Encryption

Abstract: In this paper, we present a distributed incremental data aggregation approach, in which data aggregation is performed at all smart meters involved in routing the data from the source meter to the collector unit. With a carefully constructed aggregation tree, the aggregation route covers the entire local neighborhood or any arbitrary set of designated nodes with minimum overhead. To protect user privacy, homomorphic encryption is used to secure the data en route. Therefore, all the meters participate in the aggregation, without seeing any intermediate or final result. In this way, our approach supports efficient data aggregation in smart grids, while fully protecting user privacy. This approach is especially suitable for smart grids with repetitive routine data aggregation tasks.

Wireless Sensor Networks for Cost-Efficient Residential Energy Management in the Smart Grid

Abstract: Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) will play a key role in the extension of the smart grid towards residential premises, and enable various demand and energy management applications. Efficient demand-supply balance and reducing electricity expenses and carbon emissions will be the immediate benefits of these applications. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of an in-home energy management (iHEM) application. The performance of iHEM is compared with an optimization-based residential energy management (OREM) scheme whose objective is to minimize the energy expenses of the consumers. We show that iHEM decreases energy expenses, reduces the contribution of the consumers to the peak load, reduces the carbon emissions of the household, and its savings are close to OREM. On the other hand, iHEM application is more flexible as it allows communication between the controller and the consumer utilizing the wireless sensor home area network (WSHAN). We evaluate the performance of iHEM under the presence of local energy generation capability, prioritized appliances, and for real-time pricing. We show that iHEM reduces the expenses of the consumers for each case. Furthermore, we show that packet delivery ratio, delay, and jitter of the WSHAN improve as the packet size of the monitoring applications, that also utilize the WSHAN, decreases.

Prosumer based energy management and sharing in smart grid

Abstract: There is huge expectation from smart power grid to provide sustainable energy services using bi-directional flow of data and power enabled by advanced information, communication and control infrastructure. An important element of such a smart grid is prosumers i.e. the consumers who also produce and share surplus energy with grid and other users. Prosumers are not only an important stakeholder of the future smart grids but also have a vital role in peak demand management. Therefore, it is needed to investigate and review the Prosumers based Energy Management and Sharing (PEMS) along with associated challenges. It will help in understanding and analyzing the impact of prosumers in future smart grids. In order to achieve these objectives, this paper presents a comprehensive review of PEMS in smart grid environment and associated impact on power system reliability and energy sustainability. The process of energy sharing among prosumers involves two key elements: information and communication technologies and optimization techniques. These two elements have been discussed in detail to cover the PEMS implementation requirements. The relevant communications technologies presented in the paper include wired, wireless, short and long range options while linear and nonlinear optimization techniques, in context of PEMS, are described. Various technologies, methodologies and mechanisms adopted for PEMS are comprehensively discussed in order to enhance readers’ intuition. Challenges and issues faced by prosumer communities and energy sharing have also been elaborated in detail.