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Building Automation and Special Electrical Systems
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Building Automation and Special Electrical Systems

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "G: Energy and Buildings".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2021) | Viewed by 19424

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Luigi Martirano

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Astronautical, Electrical and Energy Engineering DIAEE, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, Italy
Interests: power systems; electrical power distribution and utilization; industrial and commercial power systems; microgrids; home and building electronic systems (HBES); special electrical systems; home and building automation (HBA) for smart buildings; energy efficiency; energy communities; lighting systems; electrical safety, security and resilience; earthing systems
Dr. Alessandro Ruvio

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Astronautical, Elecritical and Energetics Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, 18, 00184 Rome, Italy
Interests: railways; electric vehicles; power quality; power systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Mostafa Kermani

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Astronautical, Elecritical and Energetics Engineering Via Eudossiana Sapienza - University of Rome, 18, 00184 Rome, Italy
Interests: renewable energy; microgrid; energy storage; peak shaving; optimization methods and sustainable container terminal ports

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Building automation and special electrical systems are becoming increasingly important and have almost become essential for the operation and management of technical systems in buildings and infrastructures. Special electrical systems include both safety and security systems such as fire detection, alarms, and access control, and home and building electronic systems (HBES) based on digital bus communication, coupled with technical ones (lighting, HVAC, etc.) able to control, operate, monitor, and manage in manual and automatic mode the systems. Often, they are integrated and supervised by a main software called supervisory, control, and data acquisition (SCADA).

The main functions of special electrical systems and building automation are the supervision and monitoring of technical systems, remote control, and simple and complex automated management by specific optimized algorithms. Several standards are available, and there are many ways of making these systems. Energy efficiency is one of the most important goals in the design, operation, management, and maintenance of technical systems, but also, safety, security, functionality, predictive maintenance and optimal management are important aspects to consider.

Microgrids for building and infrastructures are the new paradigm where local generation, storage, HVAC regulation, electric vehicle charging stations, smart appliances, safety, and security systems can be operated, managed, and continuously monitored by building automation and special electrical systems so as to optimize functionality and efficiency. The aggregation of users in the energy community with common energy sources is giving a further push to the application of these new technologies also for buildings (tertiary, residential, and commercial).

The diffusion of this paradigm is bolstered by test-beds, operation experiences, and actual applications.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas, and collect papers addressing issues related to the design and operation of special electrical systems and building automation applied in buildings, infrastructures, and microgrids.

A non-exhaustive list of the possible topics is reported below:

  • Case studies of special electrical systems and building automation in buildings, infrastructures, and microgrids;
  • Design criteria, architecture, and performance of special electrical systems and building automation;
  • Building network design and protocols development for smart buildings;
  • Impact of building automation in the energy performance;
  • Functionality, availability, safety of special electrical systems, and building automation;
  • Supervisory, control, and data acquisition systems coupled with building automation;
  • Human machine interfaces (HMI) and human system interface (HSI);
  • Prototyping, experimentation, standards and interoperability issues;
  • Building management systems;
  • Demand side management;
  • Smart aggregation and flexibility market;
  • Energy blockchain application in power systems and building automation;
  • Electric vehicle charging stations integration and management;
  • High-efficiency lighting systems;
  • Development of special devices for microgrid integration;
  • Microgrid architectures for smart buildings, integration with smart loads, local generation, storage;
  • Microgrid operation planning and real-time control;
  • DC microgrid applications;
  • Microgrid impact on distribution networks and ancillary services;
  • Electrical safety of microgrids;
  • Applications in environments with disabled or elderly people and bedridden patients.

Prof. Ing. Luigi Martirano
Dr. Alessandro Ruvio
Dr. Mostafa Kermani
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 2585 KiB  
Article
Capacitor Voltage Balancing of a Grid-Tied, Cascaded Multilevel Converter with Binary Asymmetric Voltage Levels Using an Optimal One-Step-Ahead Switching-State Combination Approach
by Manuel Kuder, Anton Kersten, Jose-Luis Marques-Lopez, Julian Estaller, Johannes Buberger, Florian Schwitzgebel, Torbjörn Thiringer, Anton Lesnicar, Rainer Marquardt, Thomas Weyh and Richard Eckerle
Energies 2022, 15(2), 575; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15020575 - 13 Jan 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2073
Abstract
This paper presents a novel capacitor voltage balancing control approach for cascaded multilevel inverters with an arbitrary number of series-connected H-Bridge modules (floating capacitor modules) with asymmetric voltages, tiered by a factor of two (binary asymmetric). Using a nearest-level reference waveform, the balancing [...] Read more.
This paper presents a novel capacitor voltage balancing control approach for cascaded multilevel inverters with an arbitrary number of series-connected H-Bridge modules (floating capacitor modules) with asymmetric voltages, tiered by a factor of two (binary asymmetric). Using a nearest-level reference waveform, the balancing approach uses a one-step-ahead approach to find the optimal switching-state combination among all redundant switching-state combinations to balance the capacitor voltages as quickly as possible. Moreover, using a Lyapunov function candidate and considering LaSalle’s invariance principle, it is shown that an offline calculated trajectory of optimal switching-state combinations for each discrete output voltage level can be used to operate (asymptotically stable) the inverter without measuring any of the capacitor voltages, achieving a novel sensorless control as well. To verify the stability of the one-step-ahead balancing approach and its sensorless variant, a demonstrator inverter with 33 levels is operated in grid-tied mode. For the chosen 33-level converter, the NPC main-stage and the individual H-bridge modules are operated with an individual switching frequency of about 1 kHz and 2 kHz, respectively. The sensorless approach slightly reduced the dynamic system response and, furthermore, the current THD for the chosen operating point was increased from 3.28 to 4.58 in comparison with that of using the capacitor voltage feedback. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Automation and Special Electrical Systems)
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16 pages, 5109 KiB  
Article
Elevator Regenerative Energy Applications with Ultracapacitor and Battery Energy Storage Systems in Complex Buildings
by Mostafa Kermani, Erfan Shirdare, Saram Abbasi, Giuseppe Parise and Luigi Martirano
Energies 2021, 14(11), 3259; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14113259 - 2 Jun 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5453
Abstract
Due to the dramatic growth of the global population, building multi-story buildings has become a necessity, which strongly requires the installation of an elevator regardless of the type of building being built. This study focuses on households, which are the second-largest electricity consumers [...] Read more.
Due to the dramatic growth of the global population, building multi-story buildings has become a necessity, which strongly requires the installation of an elevator regardless of the type of building being built. This study focuses on households, which are the second-largest electricity consumers after the transportation sector. In residential buildings, elevators impose huge electricity costs because they are used by many consumers. The novelty of this paper is implementing a Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS), including an ultracapacitor Energy Storage (UCES) and a Battery Energy Storage (BES) system, in order to reduce the amount of power and energy consumed by elevators in residential buildings. The control strategy of this study includes two main parts. In the first stage, an indirect field-oriented control strategy is implemented to provide new features and flexibility to the system and take benefit of the regenerative energy received from the elevator’s motor. In the second stage, a novel control strategy is proposed to control the HESS efficiently. In this context, the HESS is only fed by regenerated power so the amount of energy stored in the UC can be used to reduce peak consumption. Meanwhile, the BES supplies common electrical loads in the building, e.g., washing machines, heating services (both boiler and heat pump), and lighting, which helps to achieve a nearly zero energy building. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Automation and Special Electrical Systems)
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19 pages, 3591 KiB  
Article
Hybrid Output Voltage Modulation (PWM-FSHE) for a Modular Battery System Based on a Cascaded H-Bridge Inverter for Electric Vehicles Reducing Drivetrain Losses and Current Ripple
by Anton Kersten, Manuel Kuder and Torbjörn Thiringer
Energies 2021, 14(5), 1424; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14051424 - 5 Mar 2021
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3764
Abstract
This paper shows a preliminary study about the output voltage modulation of a modular battery system based on a seven-level cascaded H-bridge inverter used for vehicle propulsion. Two generally known modulation techniques, pulse width modulation (PWM) and fundamental selective harmonic elimination (FSHE), are [...] Read more.
This paper shows a preliminary study about the output voltage modulation of a modular battery system based on a seven-level cascaded H-bridge inverter used for vehicle propulsion. Two generally known modulation techniques, pulse width modulation (PWM) and fundamental selective harmonic elimination (FSHE), are extensively compared for such an innovative modular battery system inverter considering EVs’ broad torque-speed range. The inverter and the battery losses, as well as the inverter-induced current THD, are modeled and quantified using simulations. At low speeds, if the modulation index M is below 0.3, FSHE induces a high current THD (>>5%) and, thus, cannot be used. At medium speeds, FSHE reduces the drivetrain losses (including the battery losses), while operating at higher speeds, it even reduces the current THD. Thus, an individual boundary between multilevel PWM and FSHE can be determined using weightings for efficiency and current quality. Based on this, a simple hybrid modulation technique is suggested for modular battery system inverters, improving the simulated drive cycle efficiency by a maximum of 0.29% to 0.42% for a modeled small passenger vehicle. Furthermore, FSHE’s high speed dominance is demonstrated using a simple experimental setup with an inductive load. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Automation and Special Electrical Systems)
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Review

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17 pages, 1102 KiB  
Review
Review of Technical Design and Safety Requirements for Vehicle Chargers and Their Infrastructure According to National Swedish and Harmonized European Standards
by Anton Kersten, Artem Rodionov, Manuel Kuder, Thomas Hammarström, Anton Lesnicar and Torbjörn Thiringer
Energies 2021, 14(11), 3301; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14113301 - 4 Jun 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 6773
Abstract
Battery electric vehicles demand a wide variety of charging networks, such as charging stations and wallboxes, to be set up in the future. The high charging power (typically in the range of a couple of kW up to a couple of hundred [...] Read more.
Battery electric vehicles demand a wide variety of charging networks, such as charging stations and wallboxes, to be set up in the future. The high charging power (typically in the range of a couple of kW up to a couple of hundred kW) and the possibly long duration of the charging process (up to more than 24 h) put some special requirements on the electrical infrastructure of charging stations, sockets, and plugs. This paper gives an overview of the technical design requirements and considerations for vehicle charging stations, sockets, and plugs, including their infrastructure, according to the Swedish Standard 4364000, “Low-voltage electrical installations—Rules for design and erection of electrical installations”, and the corresponding harmonized European standards. In detail, the four internationally categorized charging modes are explained and the preferable charging plugs, including their two-bus communication, according to European Directives are shown. The dimensioning of the supply lines and the proper selection of the overcurrent protection device, the insulation monitor, and the residual current device are described. Furthermore, a comprehensive overview of the required safety measures, such as the application of an isolation transformer or the implementation of an overvoltage protection mechanism, and the limits for conducted electromagnetic emissions, such as low-frequency harmonics or high-frequency (150 kHz to 108 MHz) emissions, are given. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Automation and Special Electrical Systems)
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