Smart Energy Control & Conversion Systems

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Power Electronics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2022) | Viewed by 18889

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute for Marine Engineering (INM), Section of Palermo, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), 90146 Palermo, Italy
Interests: sensorless control systems for electric driving with induction; rotating and linear motors, synchronous motors; PMSM and SynRM with particular attention to their applications for electric generation systems and electric propulsion
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Guest Editor
Institute for Marine engineering (INM), Section of Palermo, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Palermo, Italy
Interests: electrical machines; electrical drives; wind generations; photovoltaic generation; fuel cell systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Institute for Marine engineering (INM), Section of Palermo, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Palermo, Italy
Interests: optimization algorithms and machine learning for energy management and energy-related time series forecasting

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Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
Interests: control system design; linear control; observer design; estimation; filtering and system identification; electrical drives and power converters

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change is a difficult reality, and even if fossil fuels are not going to be decommissioned soon, smart energy management, conversion, and control are mandatory, to avoid the direst scenarios that, unanimously, will be realized if current energy consumption continues unabated.

In the last decade, research institutions all over the world have devoted an ever-growing effort to innovative energy conversion. Electric energy generation is moving from the centralized paradigm that is currently in use to a distributed generation paradigm, especially given the technological improvements to micro-scaled renewable energy sources (RES); of course, the introduction of several smaller energy sources into the electrical grid has led to new problems, given the resources needed to coordinate, convert, and control all the energy flows at the same time. This has, ultimately, initiated the current smart grid paradigm.

This Special Issue aims to collect new research contributions on smart energy management, conversion, and control; this includes but is not limited to applications for power electronic converters, electrical motors, internal combustion engines, renewable energy sources, and fuel cells. Smart energy management, conversion, and control can be achieved in various ways, among which:

  • Power electronics static energy conversion with switching loss minimization;
  • Load curve management;
  • Fuel consumption optimization;
  • Electric machine loss minimization;
  • Efficiency optimization in power flow management.

Dr. Angelo Accetta
Dr. Marcello Pucci
Dr. Giuseppe La Tona
Dr. Antonino Sferlazza
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • smart grids
  • renewable energy sources (RES)
  • power electronics converters
  • energy management systems (EMS)
  • loss minimization
  • maximum torque per ampere control (MTPA)
  • maximum power point tracking control (MPPT)
  • fuel consumption optimization

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 5361 KiB  
Article
Development of Voltage Control Algorithm for Improving System Stability in Korean Distribution Grids
by DongYeong Gwon, YunHyuk Choi and JunBo Sim
Electronics 2022, 11(22), 3661; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11223661 - 9 Nov 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1823
Abstract
Problems with overvoltage and reverse energy flow arise as the percentage of distribution energy resources (DERs) in distribution system rises. This paper implements a MATLAB/Simulink linked model that communicates with the OpenDSS engine. The point of common coupling (PCC) voltage typically mitigates using [...] Read more.
Problems with overvoltage and reverse energy flow arise as the percentage of distribution energy resources (DERs) in distribution system rises. This paper implements a MATLAB/Simulink linked model that communicates with the OpenDSS engine. The point of common coupling (PCC) voltage typically mitigates using the inverter outputs control. However, case overvoltage issues occur in distribution networks and the influence of the volt–var control effect is insufficient to reduce PCC voltage to a stable range. To improve the reactive control effect, this paper proposes active power control and voltage error compensation methods that maximize the reactive power control effect. The DER management system (DERMS) platform was constructed to analyze the effect of changing DER output values. The DERMS data are organized based on real distribution line (D/L) system data where overvoltage occurred in Korea and the control effect of the real system is analyzed. This control method analysis can be used to develop an inverter control scheme for the over voltage issues described in this paper. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Energy Control & Conversion Systems)
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22 pages, 1277 KiB  
Article
Techno-Economic Optimization Study of Interconnected Heat and Power Multi-Microgrids with a Novel Nature-Inspired Evolutionary Method
by Paolo Fracas, Edwin Zondervan, Meik Franke, Kyle Camarda, Stanimir Valtchev and Svilen Valtchev
Electronics 2022, 11(19), 3147; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11193147 - 30 Sep 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2151
Abstract
The world is once again facing massive energy- and environmental challenges, caused by global warming. This time, the situation is complicated by the increase in energy demand after the pandemic years, and the dramatic lack of basic energy supply. The purely “green” energy [...] Read more.
The world is once again facing massive energy- and environmental challenges, caused by global warming. This time, the situation is complicated by the increase in energy demand after the pandemic years, and the dramatic lack of basic energy supply. The purely “green” energy is still not ready to substitute the fossil energy, but this year the fossil supplies are heavily questioned. Consequently, engineering must take flexible, adaptive, unexpected directions. For example, even the natural gas power plants are currently considered “green” by the European Union Taxonomy, joining the “green” hydrogen. Through a tight integration of highly intermittent renewable, or other distributed energy resources, the microgrid is the technology of choice to guarantee the expected impacts, making clean energy affordable. The focus of this work lies in the techno-economic optimization analysis of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Multi-Micro Grids (MMG), a novel distribution system architecture comprising two interconnected hybrid microgrids. High computational resources are needed to investigate the CHP-MMG. To this aim, a novel nature-inspired two-layer optimization-simulation algorithm is discussed. The proposed algorithm is used to execute a techno-economic analysis and find the best settings while the energy balance is achieved at minimum operational costs and highest revenues. At a lower level, inside the algorithm, a Sequential Least Squares Programming (SLSQP) method ensures that the stochastic generation and consumption of energy deriving from CHP-MMG trial settings are balanced at each time-step. At the upper level, a novel multi-objective self-adaptive evolutionary algorithm is discussed. This upper level is searching for the best design, sizing, siting, and setting, which guarantees the highest internal rate of return (IRR) and the lowest Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). The Artificial Immune Evolutionary (AIE) algorithm imitates how the immune system fights harmful viruses that enter the body. The optimization method is used for sensitivity analysis of hydrogen costs in off-grid and on-grid highly perturbed contexts. It has been observed that the best CHP-MMG settings are those that promote a tight thermal and electrical energy balance between interconnected microgrids. The results demonstrate that such mechanism of energy swarm can keep the LCOE lower than 15 c€/kWh and IRR of over 55%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Energy Control & Conversion Systems)
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21 pages, 1064 KiB  
Article
Nonlinear Robust Control of a Quadratic Boost Converter in a Wide Operation Range, Based on Extended Linearization Method
by Francesco Alonge, Alessandro Busacca, Michele Calabretta, Filippo D’Ippolito, Adriano Fagiolini, Giovanni Garraffa, Angelo Alberto Messina, Antonino Sferlazza and Salvatore Stivala
Electronics 2022, 11(15), 2336; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11152336 - 27 Jul 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1825
Abstract
This paper proposes a control system for a quadratic boost DC/DC converter in a wide range of operations, based on an inner loop with a sliding mode controller, for reaching a desired equilibrium state, and an outer loop with integral-type controller, for assuring [...] Read more.
This paper proposes a control system for a quadratic boost DC/DC converter in a wide range of operations, based on an inner loop with a sliding mode controller, for reaching a desired equilibrium state, and an outer loop with integral-type controller, for assuring robustness against load and input voltage variations and converter parameter uncertainties. The sliding mode controller is designed with the extended linearization method and assures local asymptotic stability, whereas the integral controller is designed using classical frequency methods, and assures input–output stability. It is shown that the proposed controller also deals with the sudden changes in the nominal operating conditions; thus, if a change of the operating conditions takes place, the proposed control scheme automatically creates a sliding regime which stabilizes the converter trajectories to the new equilibrium point. Experimental results carried out on a suitably developed test set up show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Energy Control & Conversion Systems)
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12 pages, 5754 KiB  
Article
Energy Management Strategy of Fuel-Cell Backup Power Supply Systems Based on Whale Optimization Fuzzy Control
by Yu Cheng, Yuan Zhang and Qihong Chen
Electronics 2022, 11(15), 2325; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11152325 - 26 Jul 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2058
Abstract
A backup power supply system can provide electrical energy for load in harsh environment without power grid, and plays a very important role in natural disaster rescue and military application. Compared with traditional energy sources, the proton-exchange membrane fuel cell has the advantages [...] Read more.
A backup power supply system can provide electrical energy for load in harsh environment without power grid, and plays a very important role in natural disaster rescue and military application. Compared with traditional energy sources, the proton-exchange membrane fuel cell has the advantages of good low temperature start-up performance, low noise, high efficiency and high power density, and no carbon emission, which gradually becomes the main energy source of the backup power supply system. This paper designs the backup power system topology of the “dual fuel cell and lithium battery” and researches energy management strategy based on fuzzy control (FC). Considering that it is difficult for the fuzzy controller to obtain the optimal membership function parameters according to working conditions, this paper aims to reduce the hydrogen consumption of the system, uses the whale optimization algorithm to optimize the membership function of the fuzzy controller, and proposes an energy management strategy based on whale optimization fuzzy control (WO-FC). The energy management strategies are verified and compared by simulations. The results show that the membership function of the optimized fuzzy controller based on WO-FC energy management strategy has changed greatly: The hydrogen consumption of the system obviously decreased compared with no optimization, and the overall efficiency of the fuel cell also significantly improved. To be more precise, the energy management strategy based on WO-FC reduces the hydrogen consumption of the system by 5.35% and improves the overall efficiency of the fuel cell by 1.56%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Energy Control & Conversion Systems)
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11 pages, 2756 KiB  
Article
Research on Energy Management Strategy of Electric Vehicle Hybrid System Based on Reinforcement Learning
by Yu Cheng, Ge Xu and Qihong Chen
Electronics 2022, 11(13), 1933; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11131933 - 21 Jun 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1986
Abstract
From the perspective of energy management, the demand power of a hybrid electric vehicle driving under random conditions can be considered as a random process, and the Markov chain can be used for modeling. In this article, an energy management strategy based on [...] Read more.
From the perspective of energy management, the demand power of a hybrid electric vehicle driving under random conditions can be considered as a random process, and the Markov chain can be used for modeling. In this article, an energy management strategy based on reinforcement learning with real-time updates is proposed to reasonably allocate the energy flow of the hybrid power system under unknown working conditions. The hybrid system is powered by a supercapacitor and a lithium battery, which uses the characteristics of each component to reduce the energy loss of the system, reduce the rate of change of the lithium battery current, and prolong the service life of the components. The strategy takes the change of the transition probability matrix under real-time working conditions as the basis. The system judges whether it is necessary to use the new transition probability to calculate and update the energy management strategy of the system by calculating the Pearson similarity between the transition probability matrix at the current time and previous time. The simulation results validate the proposed method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Energy Control & Conversion Systems)
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17 pages, 10627 KiB  
Article
A Carrier-Based Discontinuous PWM Strategy of NPC Three-Level Inverter for Common-Mode Voltage and Switching Loss Reduction
by Guozheng Zhang, Yingjie Su, Zhanqing Zhou and Qiang Geng
Electronics 2021, 10(23), 3041; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10233041 - 5 Dec 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4212
Abstract
For the conventional carrier-based pulse width modulation (CBPWM) strategies of neutral point clamped (NPC) three-level inverters, the higher common-mode voltage (CMV) is a major drawback. However, with CMV suppression strategies, the switching loss is relatively high. In order to solve the above issue, [...] Read more.
For the conventional carrier-based pulse width modulation (CBPWM) strategies of neutral point clamped (NPC) three-level inverters, the higher common-mode voltage (CMV) is a major drawback. However, with CMV suppression strategies, the switching loss is relatively high. In order to solve the above issue, a carrier-based discontinuous PWM (DPWM) strategy for NPC three-level inverter is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the reference voltage is modified by the twice injection of zero-sequence voltage. Switching states of the three-phase are clamped alternatively to reduce both the CMV and the switching loss. Secondly, the carriers are also modified by the phase opposite disposition of the upper and lower carriers. The extra switching at the border of two adjacent regions in the space vector diagram is reduced. Meanwhile, a neutral-point voltage (NPV) control method is also presented. The duty cycle of the switching state that affects the NPV is adjusted to obtain the balance control of the NPV. Still, the switching sequence in each carrier period remains the same. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed DPWM strategy are tested on a rapid control prototype platform based on RT-Lab. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Energy Control & Conversion Systems)
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15 pages, 3055 KiB  
Article
Single-Phase Current Source Inverter with Reduced Ground Leakage Current for Photovoltaic Applications
by Giovanni Migliazza, Emilio Lorenzani, Fabio Immovilli and Giampaolo Buticchi
Electronics 2020, 9(10), 1618; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9101618 - 2 Oct 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3167
Abstract
Integrated power electronics for photovoltaic applications has attracted increasing interest, due to the possibility of having grid-connected photovoltaic modules with independent maximum power point tracking and high reliability. In this paper, a single-phase Current Source Inverter (CSI) is discussed for a photovoltaic application. [...] Read more.
Integrated power electronics for photovoltaic applications has attracted increasing interest, due to the possibility of having grid-connected photovoltaic modules with independent maximum power point tracking and high reliability. In this paper, a single-phase Current Source Inverter (CSI) is discussed for a photovoltaic application. The basic CSI topology will be explained for the sake of completeness, highlighting its main features and analyzing the ground leakage current problem, an important benchmark for photovoltaic application. A novel topology, called CSI5, is proposed in this work. The main feature is the presence of additional switches for ground leakage current reduction. The performance of the proposed topology is assessed by numerical simulation, and the experimental results confirm that this solution is able to strongly reduce the ground leakage current and conduction power losses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Energy Control & Conversion Systems)
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