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Abstract In this paper, a reintegration-based multi-objective intentional controlled islanding (ICI) model is proposed to enhance resiliency of electrical power systems under catastrophic events. This remedial measure plan relies on a mixed-integer linear programming model with two objective functions including reintegration risk and total load shedding value. While ensuring that each island includes only coherent generators, the proposed multi-objective model solves the controlled islanding problem using lexicographic optimization approach. To ease the islands’ reintegration, charging reactive power, reliability, capacity, and power flow disruption of transmission lines are considered in the model. After implementation of controlled islanding, each resulted island may face temporary active/reactive load-generation imbalance, which may put the islands at the risk of frequency instability, transient voltage instability or a combination of both. The proposed model reduces these risks by modeling energy storage systems (ESSs) and static VAR compensators (SVCs) as fast corrective control actions. In addition to modeling voltage dependent loads in the controlled islanding problem, a linear island frequency response (IFR) model is proposed for frequency stability assessment. The test results of the proposed ICI model on the IEEE 39-bus and IEEE 118-bus test systems demonstrate its performance.

It has been known for a very long time that chemical energy may be converted into electrical energy by using biomass, considered a renewable energy source. In the study that is being presented here, an explanation and a presentation are offered on a one-of-a-kind hybrid system that generates dependable power and cooling by harnessing the chemical energy of biomass. An anaerobic digester takes in organic material and converts it into biomass by using the high-energy content of cow manure as fuel. The Rankin cycle is the primary engine that drives the system that produces energy, and its combustion-based byproducts are routed to an ammonia absorption refrigeration system in order to provide sufficient cooling for the process of pasteurizing and drying the milk. It is expected that solar panels might contribute to the production of sufficient amounts of power for necessary activities. The technical and financial facets of the system are both being investigated at the moment. In addition, the optimal working conditions are determined by employing a forward-thinking multi-objective optimization strategy. This method simultaneously raises the operational effectiveness to the greatest extent that is practically possible while simultaneously lowering both expenses and emissions. The findings indicate that under ideal conditions, the levelized cost of the product (LCOP), efficiency, and emission of the system are, respectively, 0.087 $/kWh, 38.2%, and 0.249 kg/kWh. The digester and the combustion chamber both have very high exergy destruction rates, with the digester having the highest rate and the combustion chamber having the second-highest rate among all of the system's components. This assertion is supported by every one of these components.

Abstract In developed countries, buildings are involved in almost 50% of total energy use and 30% of global green-house gas emissions. Buildings' operational energy is highly dependent on various building physical, operational, and functional characteristics, as well as meteorological and temporal properties. Besides physics-based building energy modeling, machine learning techniques can provide faster and higher accuracy estimates, given buildings' historic energy consumption data. Looking beyond individual building levels, forecasting buildings’ energy performance helps city and community managers have a better understanding of their future energy needs, and plan for satisfying them more efficiently. Focusing on an urban-scale, this study systematically reviews 70 journal articles, published in the field of building energy performance forecasting between 2015 and 2018. The recent literature have been categorized according to five criteria: 1. Learning Method, 2. Building Type, 3. Energy Type, 4. Input Data, and 5. Time-scale. The scarcity of building energy performance forecasting studies in urban-scale versus individual level is considerable. There is no study incorporating building functionality in terms of space functionality share percentages, nor assessing the effects of climate change on urban buildings energy performance using machine learning approaches and future weather scenarios. There is no optimal criteria combination for achieving the most accurate machine learning-based forecast, as there is no universal measure able to provide such global comparison. Accuracy levels are highly correlated with the characteristics of forecasting problems. The goal is to provide a comprehensive status of machine learning applications in urban building energy performance forecasting, during 2015–2018.

Abstract Clamping mechanisms have significant effect on the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. In this paper, PEM fuel cell with new clamping mechanism is designed to study the contact pressure distribution over the active area of PEM fuel cell's membrane electrode assembly (MEA). The clamping pressure is pneumatically exerted on the PEM fuel cell assembly. A comparison between the conventional and new clamping mechanism is carried out with simulation, and the numerical results are validated against experimental investigation performed in the fuel cell technology research laboratory. The experimental results are gathered using embedded pressure measurement films in the designed single cell. The results achieved via finite element method are in good agreement with experimental results. It is concluded that the contact pressure distribution of MEA for the new clamping mechanism is more uniform than the conventional one.

Abstract Although the sunshine-based models generally have a better performance than temperature-based models for estimating solar radiation, the limited availability of sunshine duration records makes the development of temperature-based methods inevitable. This paper presents a comparative study between Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), Gene Expression Programming (GEP), Wavelet Regression (WR) and 5 selected temperature-based empirical models for estimating the daily global solar radiation. A new combination of inputs including four readily accessible parameters have been employed: daily mean clearness index (K T ), temperature range (ΔT), theoretical sunshine duration (N) and extraterrestrial radiation (R a ). Ten statistical indicators in a form of GPI (Global Performance Indicator) is used to ascertain the suitability of the models. The performance of selected models across the range of solar radiation values, was depicted by the quantile-quantile (Q-Q) plots. Comparing these plots makes it evident that ANNs can cover a broader range of solar radiation values. The results shown indicate that the performance of ANN model was clearly superior to the other models. The findings also demonstrated that WR model performed well and presented high accuracy in estimations of daily global solar radiation.

Abstract In this paper, we designed, simulated and analyzed high efficiency of SnS-based solar cells. This work is related to the influence of a glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique for deposition of SnS layer, on the photovoltaic performance of SnS-based solar cells. The photovoltaic parameters have been calculated for the samples prepared at different oblique incident flux angles (α = 0°, 45°, 55°, 65°, 75°, and 85°). The best efficiency was found for the sample prepared at α = 85°. We simulated the J-V characteristics and showed how the absorber layer that prepared by GLAD technique at different incident flux angles, influence the short-circuit current density (Jsc), open-circuit voltage (Voc), fill factor (FF), and efficiency (η) of solar cell.

This paper investigates the problem of a combined study on both electric vehicle (EV) drivers’ behavior in charging station selection (DSS) and station’s behavior in charging service management (CSM) that are considered in the proposed DSS-CSM algorithm. The motivation behind the proposed algorithm is to comprehensively describe a charging market from both drivers’ point of view to reduce range anxiety and enhance customer satisfaction and charge station providers’ point of view to manage charging station properly and improve profitability. The proposed DSS algorithm obtains all the required data to find the best station in terms of the influential parameters given by the candidate stations. A fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (FMCDM) method that is utilized in the proposed DSS algorithm is deployed for evaluating the parameters and deciding for the best charging station. Moreover, the proposed CSM algorithm of each charging station is utilized to maximize its profitability by taking into account the charge, reserve, and discount prices with respect to the reaction of EV drivers. The Monte Carlo simulations are applied to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in comparison with a designed benchmark algorithm.