Physical Sciences and Engineering

The electricity market has since 1980’s been gradually evolving from a monopoly market into a liberalized one for encouraging competition and improving efficiency. This introduces the opportunity for market participants (Power suppliers and consumers) to make more profit and benefits in the trading process of electrical energy. Therefore, it has become a core interest for the market participants to develop optimal bidding strategies to maximize the profit and benefits while participating in a competitive energy market.

In this paper, Gravitational Search Algorithm based optimal pitch controller design is proposed for an isolated wind-diesel hybrid power system. The Gravitational search algorithm (GSA) is one of the newest meta-heuristic searching algorithms, which is motivated by the Newton’s law of gravity and law of motion. The optimal controller parameters are obtained using Integral Square Error (ISE) criterion.  Simulation results show that the proposed Controller gives a superior dynamic performance and damps out the frequency deviation and attains the steady state value with less settling time.

This study aims to minimize the power loss in radial distribution networks which is realized by injecting reactive power with the aid of shunt capacitors installation at appropriate locations with optimal sizing.   A population based meta-heuristic search algorithm namely Harmony search optimization algorithm is utilized for finding out the optimal rating of shunt capacitors to be placed in the radial distribution networks. A Backward / Forward sweep based iterative power flow technique is adopted to compute the load flow solution.

This paper proposes an application of redox flow battery (RFB) for the improvement of Load Frequency Control (LFC) of a two-area interconnected hydro-nuclear power system using Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) optimization algorithm. The Redox Flow Battery, which is not aged due to the frequent charging and discharging, has a quick response and outstanding function during overload conditions. In addition to leveling load, the battery is advantageous for secondary control in the power system and maintenance of power quality of distributed power resources.

This paper presents an arbitrary switching hybrid pulse width modulation (ASHPWM) strategy for three level inverters. This hybrid-modulation strategy represents an amalgamation of fundamental-frequency modulation and sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) strategy and is designed for performance of the well-known carrier based modulation strategies. The main characteristic of this modulation is the reduction of switching losses with good harmonic performance, balanced power loss dissipation among the devices in the H- bridge inverter.

New recommendations and present standards have increased the interest in power factor correction circuits. Solid-state switch-mode converters have reached a matured level for improving power quality in terms of Power Factor Correction (PFC), reduced total harmonic distortion at input ac mains and precisely regulated dc output in buck, boost, buck–boost and multilevel modes with unidirectional and bidirectional power flow. In this paper, an improved power quality converter employing Zeta converter topology with conventional PI  is used to feed a Induction Motor (IM) drive.

The economic emission dispatch (EED) assumes a lot of significance to meet the clean energy requirements of the society and simultaneously minimizes the cost of generation. The Firefly Algorithm (FA) is a nature-inspired meta-heuristic algorithm for solving multimodal optimization problems.  This paper presents an FA based strategy for obtaining the robust solution of EED problem involving normalized objective function. The feasibility of the proposed approach is evaluated through two test systems and the results are presented to demonstrate its effectiveness.

A matrix converter is used as an alternative AC–AC power converter that has received wide research concentration as an alternative scheme to fixed AC–DC–AC converter. To convert the energy from an AC source to an AC load without the need of bulky and limited-lifetime energy-storage elements matrix converters are preferred. This paper presents a simulation of speed control of Induction motor fed by Indirect Matrix Converter (IMC) using v/Hz technique by space vector PWM technology.

This paper discusses about the energy conservation potential of the heat pipe using copper nanofluid as a working fluid and the optimizes the working parameters using the response surface methodology (RSM). The parameters considered are heat input, angle of inclination and concentration of the copper nano particles in the copper nanofluid. Box Behnken design is used to conduct the experiments in the heat pipe and the responses are thermal efficiency and the thermal resistance. The influences of the above parameters and the interaction effects are studied by analysis of variance (ANNOVA).

Multi Carrier Based Pulse Width Modulation (MCBPWM) technique have been used widely for switching of multilevel inverters due to simplicity and reduced computational requirements than the Space Vector Modulation (SVM). New hybrid MCBPWM techniques for the chosen single phase Asymmetrical Multi Level Inverter (AMLI) with Trapezoidal Amalgamated Reference (TAR) are proposed in this paper.