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Electric vehicle seems to go well together with the growing societal trend of becoming more self-supplying with renewable electricity produced in the household. However, aligning household electricity production and electric vehicle charging have received little attention in HCI although both areas have been pursued separately for a number of years. In this paper, we present findings from a qualitative study that explore the potential of aligning electric vehicle charging with times where renewable electricity is being produced in the household. We present an empirical qualitative study of 5 households (19 persons) that own electric vehicles and also produce their own renewable electricity. Our findings, described in five themes, reveal that aligning charging and electricity production can be a challenge and tension exist for aligning consumption such as motivation, roles, mobility patterns, and electricity producing technology. We further discuss our findings and possible directions for future HCI research in the field.

An effective controller is proposed for the 'Photovoltaic(PV) - Battery - Diesel Generator(DG)' based hybrid standalone system in this article. A bidirectional DC to DC device which can allow power in both directions is integrated among the DC-link and battery bank to maintain contact voltage by maintaining power balance in the system. Further, a bidirectional inverter is also considered between point of common coupling (PCC) and DC-link for providing supply to AC loads as well as charging the battery from diesel generator based on requirement. However, the phenomenon of partial shading condition (PSC) commonly occurring on PV modules and also generated power from PV always fluctuates according to changes in weather. To achieve a superior performance of the system, a Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy (TSF) based controllers are implemented in proposed control schemes. The novel control schemes are implemented on a bidirectional DC to DC converter as well as three phase bidirectional inverter. However, the proper deloading process of the PV system should be incorporated into the controller of the DC to DC converter to achieve power balance during light load conditions. Balanced quality voltages (3-phase) at PCC are achieved by inverter control which forces to maintain balanced currents generated by DG during the operation of unbalanced loads. Maintaining balanced DG currents can help to reduce the oscillations on the torque of the shaft which increases the fatigue life. Further the reactive power demanded at PCC is compensated by the inverter control, hence DG need not to provide it which results can reduce the consumption of diesel. Various case studies are examined by using MATLAB to present results and Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) based results are also provided in this paper.

Investigations show that most simulations on solar parabolic trough collectors reported in the literature are one-dimensional or at least with a variety of simplifications. Indeed, for this collector type, due to the complex heat transfer elements as well as two-phase flow through the tubes, etc., such simplifications make the model fail to give an acceptable estimation of the circumferential temperature distribution of the walls, thermal stresses, heat losses, vapor volume fraction, etc. In this article, a detailed three-dimensional numerical modeling of solar parabolic trough collectors is presented. The results of this model are also compared to those given by an axisymmetric model and a one-dimensional nodal model to highlight the impacts of such a rigorous model on the accuracy of the final results. The results demonstrated that although the axisymmetric and nodal models show acceptable accuracy in predicting the temperature and enthalpy for the flow, they are quite incapable of precisely calculating the vapor volume fraction and heat loss rates. The discrepancy in the distribution of vapor volume fraction in different sections of the absorber tube causes significant temperature heterogeneity in the solid walls.

The recommended power quality (PQ) indices in electric power systems are defined based on the discrete Fourier transform (DFT). DFT is mostly evaluated applying fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm which requires signals to be periodic in nature. Hence, it evaluates PQ indices accurately for stationary PQ disturbances only. However, in case of nonstationary PQ disturbances signal is aperiodic and FFT results in erroneous assessment due to spectral leakage phenomena. Furthermore, FFT cannot provide time information of the PQ indices as computation is performed in frequency domain only. Which is significant shortcoming of the FFT when dealing with time-varying PQ disturbances to extract dynamic signature of the signal. Thereby, this paper presents a framework of redefining PQ indices for stationary and nonstationary PQ disturbances employing time-frequency distribution (TFD) method. Among all TFDs, reduced interference distribution (RID) represents the most suitable properties for analyzing time-varying PQ disturbances. Hence, in this work, it is employed to reformulate PQ indices typically used in electric power systems. The results of two synthetic examples considering stationary and nonstationary PQ disturbances imply that the RID-based redefined PQ indices are closer to the actual values. Also, they provide more accurate results than the existing transient PQ indices and traditional FFT-based method.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are considered a substitute for fossil-fueled vehicles due to rising fossil fuel prices and accompanying environmental concerns, and their use is predicted to increase dramatically shortly. However, the widespread use of EVs and their large-scale integration into the energy system will present several operational and technological hurdles. In the energy industry, an innovative solution known as the EVs smart parking lot (SPL) is introduced to handle EV charging and discharging electricity and energy supply challenges. This paper investigates social equity access and mobile charging stations (MCSs) for EVs, where the owner of MCSs is the EV parking lot. Accordingly, a new self-scheduling model for SPLs is presented in this paper that incorporates scheduling of the MCSs as temporary charging infrastructures while considering social equity access and optimizes SPL energy generation and storage schedule. The main objectives of this research are to (i) develop MCSs accessibility measures and quantify the equity impacts of MCSs locations by modeling prioritized demand based on several indices; (ii) determine the optimal set-points of SPL components (i.e., combined heat and power (CHP), photovoltaic system, electrical and heat-energy storage, and MCSs) to manage electrical peak demand and to maximize the economic benefits of SPLs. Results indicate that the proposed demand prioritization function model can meet the required EV charging demands for prioritized events, and the self-scheduling model for SPLs satisfies the charging demand of the EVs in the SPL location. Also, the social equity access to the EV charging stations is satisfied by analyzing the operation of MCSs around the prioritized demand of the prioritized events and social equity access indices.

The potential of renewable energy should be fully exploited in the transportation sector to achieve a cleaner production. Therefore, this paper proposes an on-grid hybrid hydrogen refueling and battery swapping station powered by wind energy. This novel concept can promote the development of low-carbon emission vehicles including hydrogen-based vehicle and battery electric vehicle. During the daily operation of the station, the multiple uncertainties may lead to a higher operational cost. To address this problem, a hybrid stochastic/distributionally robust optimization method is proposed to handle different uncertainties for the energy management problem. The first type of uncertainties can be depicted by a certain distribution, i.e. electricity price and wind power, which is processed by a stochastic optimization method. The second type of uncertainties is associated with human behaviors and is difficult to find its probability distribution, i.e. the hydrogen demand of hydrogen-based vehicles, so the second type is processed by a distributionally robust optimization method. The overall objective is to minimize the total operational cost of the station, which also considers the battery swapping station overstock punishment. Because a reasonable battery swapping scheduling can reduce the waiting time of users and operational cost of the station. The results indicate that the proposed method can effectively address the conservatism of solutions as its total operational cost is 4.4% lower than that of the hybrid stochastic/robust optimization method under a high confidence level.

The adoption of solar systems has witnessed a remarkable growth rate in recent years, driven by increasing awareness of renewable energy and declining costs of solar technology. Solar systems offer several advantages, including abundant energy source, reduced carbon emissions, and potential cost savings. However, they also face challenges such as intermittency, limited energy storage capacity, and grid integration issues. By incorporating hydrogen in smart grids, these drawbacks can be addressed as hydrogen can serve as a means of energy storage, allowing excess solar energy to be stored as hydrogen and utilized during periods of low solar generation. Hydrogen-incorporated smart grids thus provide a complementary solution to enhance the reliability, stability, and scalability of solar systems, facilitating their integration into the broader energy landscape. Consequently, this chapter aims to provide a comprehensive review of green hydrogen-integrated sector-coupled smart grids and presents prospects for future advancements. The background and significance of hydrogen integration within smart grid systems are established. The fundamentals of hydrogen integration, including its role as an energy carrier and its integration within smart grid systems, are explored. The concept of sector coupling in smart grids is examined, emphasizing the interconnection of different energy sectors and the importance of achieving energy system integration. Existing green hydrogen-incorporated smart grid projects are reviewed, and experiences gathered from successful implementations are analyzed. Technological advancements, such as emerging green hydrogen production and storage technologies, are discussed along with smart grid control and management systems for efficient green hydrogen utilization. Economic and environmental considerations are evaluated, encompassing cost analysis, evaluation of environmental impacts, and identification of economic incentives. Future prospects and research directions are explored, aiming to identify key challenges, address gaps, and highlight areas for further investigation. Overall, through this comprehensive review and exploration of future prospects, a deeper understanding of hydrogen-integrated sector-coupled smart grids and their potential for advancing sustainable energy systems can be achieved.

The high expansion rate of renewable generation in the last years was mainly driven by the green transition and the net zero emission targets for 2050. Concerns on the volatility of wind and solar energy, can be mitigated by combining these renewable energy sources with energy storage and operating them coordinately, creating hybrid power plants. Price of batteries has also dropped significantly reaching US$139/kWh in 2023 (battery pack price) and it is expected that by the end of this decade the price will fall below US$100/kWh. Thus, more developers and owners of large renewable plants are looking into their hybridization for both off-grid and grid-connected configurations. The advantages for such a hybrid renewable power plant include complementarity of energy production, better utilization of grid connection while reducing the connection costs, firm capacity of energy production, increase of revenue streams by providing ancillary services, etc. However, the control of a wide range of technologies i.e. wind turbines, solar PV and batteries, from different suppliers poses challenges during their integration into a hybrid power plant.This paper aims to provide an overview of the most common configurations of co-located hybrid power plants including their control architectures. The advantages and challenges for each configuration are discussed in detail from the perspective of OEMs and system integrators.The work presented is part of the ongoing activities in the IEA Wind TCP Task 50 on Hybrid Power Plants that aims to provide a systematic framework and guidelines in this area.

A non-inverting, single switch with voltage lift switched inductor module high gain configurations of the modified SEPIC converter is discussed in the paper for high voltage and low current renewable energy applications. Based on the VLSI module position, modified SEPIC converter are classified into four configurations as MSC VLSI - XLL, MSC VLSI - L YL, MSC VLSI - LLZ and MSC VLSI - XYZ. The goal of the proposed research is to design a converter with high voltage gain ratio. The key advantage of MSC VLSI configurations is: 1) single switch topologies which have a simple control strategy, 2) continuous input current and non-inverting boosted output voltage. The mathematical analysis and Matlab/Simulink results validate the functionality of four configurations of the modified SEPIC converter.