Base load power plant

About: Base load power plant is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6121 publications have been published within this topic receiving 96788 citations.

A Systems Approach for a Stand-Alone Residential Fuel Cell Power Inverter Design

Abstract: Analysis of an experimentally measured daily load profile reveals that the residential power demand has a high percentage of low power duration over a day. In a stand-alone residential fuel cell power system, the power inverter designed for the peak power requirement will be operating at light loads, where its efficiency is lower, most of the time. Thus, improving the light-load efficiency will provide considerable hydrogen (energy) savings for the stand-alone residential power system. A solution to improve the power inverter efficiency at light loads is proposed. Both simulation and experimental results are given. Results show that the light-load efficiency can be improved by employing and uniquely controlling a parallel IGBT-MOSFET switch combination in a half-bridge inverter topology. It is also shown that substantial savings on hydrogen usage can be realized through the use of new inverter design in stand-alone operations.

Integration of intermittent resources with price-responsive loads

Abstract: This paper concerns the near-real time supply and demand balancing problem in the changing electric energy industry. In particular, potential dispatch problems in the presence of hard-to-control wind and solar power have emerged as the key industry concern. Our work evolves around the idea that the more predictive information about wind power output is known and the more carefully this information is included dynamically, the more effective integration of intermittent power will be. In this paper we recognize that a combination of predicted wind power and ahead-of-time knowledge of customers' willingness to adjust their consumption at a price could result in even more effective system-wide supply and demand balancing. We generalize our recent work which is based on the look-ahead model-predictive control approach to the wind power integration. A Markov model for predicting wind power is used to determine the optimal amount of wind power to be sent to the grid in order to balance demand while accounting for the limiting ramping rates of other power plants. As expected, utilizing the full wind power output is sub-optimal and different technologies will be needed to utilize this clean energy resource fully as it is made available. Different storage technologies as well as adaptive demand-side response are such key candidates. In this paper we generalize our recently proposed look-ahead model predictive dispatch to integrate the price-responsive demand. We show using the IEEE 14 bus example potential benefits from simultaneous dispatch of both conventional power plants characterized by their inherently limiting ramping rates and the price-responsive demand characterized by its demand function. A comparison is made to the dispatch without active demand-side adaptation.

An internet-inspired electricity grid

Abstract: Japan's plan to phase out its nearly 50 gigawatts of nuclear capacity over the next two to three decades has opened a window for renewable energy in the country. But swapping wind and solar power for that nuclear generation, which produced 30 percent of Japan's electricity prior to the 2011 Fukushima crisis, could also lead to major disruptions in energy supply, warns Rikiya Abe, a University of Tokyo professor. The problem, says Abe, who came to academia after working in the electrical generation industry for 30 years, is that Japan's grid-and indeed that of many developed countries-is set up to be centrally controlled. The utilities have to carefully regulate the grid's frequency and voltage by maintaining a fine balance between power generation and changing demand. A diverse group of large Japanese firms is starting to explore a solution-a gradual reorganization of the country's power system so that in the end it resembles the Internet, routers and all.

Energy storage system for supplying power to loads of a drilling rig

Abstract: A system for supplying power to a drilling rig has an engine/generator with an output line so as to transfer power therefrom, an energy storage system connected to the engine/generator, and a load connected to the energy storage system such that power from the energy storage system is directly transferred to the load and such that power from the engine/generator is electrically isolated from the load. The engine/generator has a capacity greater than an maximum power requirement of the load. The energy storage system can include at least one battery.

Dynamic operations and pricing of electric unmanned aerial vehicle systems and power networks

Abstract: The emergence of electric unmanned aerial vehicle (E-UAV) technologies, albeit somewhat futuristic, is anticipated to pose similar challenges to the system operation as those of electric vehicles (EVs). Notably, the charging of EVs en-route at charging stations has been recognized as a significant type of flexible load for power systems, which often imposes non-negligible impacts on the power system operator’s decisions on electricity prices. Meanwhile, the charging cost based on charging time and price is part of the trip cost for the users, which can affect the spatio-temporal assignment of E-UAV traffic to charging stations. This paper aims at investigating joint operations of coupled power and electric aviation transportation systems that are associated with en-route charging of E-UAVs in a centrally controlled and yet dynamic setting, i.e., with time-varying travel demand and power system base load. Dynamic E-UAV charging assignment is used as a tool to smooth the power system load. A joint pricing scheme is proposed and a cost minimization problem is formulated to achieve system optimality for such coupled systems. Numerical experiments are performed to test the proposed pricing scheme and demonstrate the benefits of the framework for joint operations.