Special Issue "Advances in Sustainable Electrical Engineering"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Phatiphat Thounthong
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Renewable Energy Research Centre (RERC), King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok, 1518, Pracharat 1 Road, Wongsawang, Bangsue, Bangkok 10800, Thailand
Interests: power electronics; electric drives; electric vehicles; electrical devices (fuel cells; photovoltaic; wind turbine; batteries; supercapacitors; nonlinear controls; observers
Dr. Damien Guilbert
E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Group of Research in Electrical Engineering of Nancy (GREEN), Université de Lorraine, GREEN, F-54000 Nancy, France
Interests: power electronics; fuel cells and electrolyzer systems; modeling and emulation of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzers; fault-tolerant DC/DC converters for fuel cell/photovoltaic/electrolyzer applications; fault-tolerant control for fuel cell/electrolyzer systems; energy management of multisource systems based on renewable energy sources and hydrogen buffer storage
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last few decades, the depletion of fossil fuels and global climate change have motivated researchers and industrial actors to find other alternatives to produce electricity efficiently and cleanly. To cope with the depletion of fossil fuel resources and global warming, the use of renewable energy resources such as wind turbines, photovoltaic, biomass, hydroelectricity, and geothermal energy seems to be the most efficient alternative to fossil fuels in the future by providing electricity cleanly and efficiently. In addition, hydrogen is considered one of the most promising alternative fuels for a sustainable future, because it is the simplest element on earth (consisting of only one proton and one electron) and has the capability to store and deliver usable energy. The cleanest way to produce hydrogen is to combine the water electrolysis process and renewable energy sources. This combination will allow for disseminating future decarbonized energy systems at a large scale. Once hydrogen is produced via water electrolysis, it can be used in fuel cells to generate electricity, producing only water and heat as byproducts. Fuel cells can be used in a wide range of applications, such as transportation (i.e., fuel cell electric vehicles), material handling, portable emergency backup power, and microgrids (combined with renewable energy sources and energy storage devices). Compared to classical energy storage devices such as batteries, hydrogen provides a higher energy density (around 120 MJ/kg), enabling storing a large amount of energy that can be useful to ease intermittent power discontinuances by storing excess energy from renewable energy sources at periods of low energy requirements and delivering stored energy at periods of high energy requirements.

In hybrid electrical systems combining renewable energy sources, hydrogen technologies, and energy storage devices, the use of power electronics is needed to control the whole system, ensuring its stability and performance according to the energy demand. As a result, to meet these purposes in terms of stability and performance, new control techniques must be developed for power electronics applications.

Only by enhancing control techniques will hybrid electrical systems be introduced as a reliable and sustainable distributed power generation system.

This Special Issue aims at attracting original high-quality papers and review articles focused on control techniques for power electronics applications applied to hybrid energy systems coupling renewable energy sources, hydrogen technologies, and energy storage devices.

Prospective authors may submit contributions dealing with (but not limited to):

-        Development of new control techniques for power electronics applications.

-        Energy management of hybrid electrical systems.

-        Development of new power electronics topologies.

-        Fault-tolerant topologies and control.

-        Reliability of power electronics.

-        Integration of hydrogen technologies in hybrid electrical systems.

Prof. Dr. Phatiphat Thounthong
Dr. Damien Guilbert
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 papers will be 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. Sustainability 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 1900 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.

Keywords

  • renewable energy sources
  • energy storage devices
  • fuel cell
  • electrolyzer
  • power electronics
  • control techniques in power switching
  • DC microgrid
  • constant power load
  • hybrid system
  • supercapacitor
  • battery

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

Article
D-distance Risk Factor for Transmission Line Maintenance Management and Cost Analysis
Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8208; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158208 - 22 Jul 2021
Viewed by 381
Abstract
In this paper, a D-distance risk factor was proposed to prioritize high-voltage transmission lines from high to low risk in transmission line maintenance and renovation management. Various conditions and importance assessment criteria together with the weighting and scoring method were proposed to calculate [...] Read more.
In this paper, a D-distance risk factor was proposed to prioritize high-voltage transmission lines from high to low risk in transmission line maintenance and renovation management. Various conditions and importance assessment criteria together with the weighting and scoring method were proposed to calculate both the renovation and importance indices of transmission lines. The scores of different test methods and visual inspection were differentiated from zero to five as end-of-life to very good condition to evaluate the condition of the line and its components. Additionally, the scores of different importance criteria were modified to assess the line importance from low to high importance. Moreover, the analytic hierarchy process was applied to determine the important weight of all test methods and importance criteria, which were evaluated by utility experts. The renovation and importance indices were combined in a risk matrix to finally determine the risk of the line by using the D-distance technique. Later, the risk of every transmission line was plotted in a risk matrix to prioritize and manage maintenance tasks. Finally, a maintenance cost was analyzed by applying the D-distance risk factor and compared with the replacement cost of a new transmission line for maintenance planning and cost minimization. Twenty out of 115, 230 and 500 kV transmission lines fleet in Thailand were practically analyzed with actual data. The results were realistic to feasibly implement in a transmission system for sustainable management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Sustainable Electrical Engineering)
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Article
Improved Adaptive Hamiltonian Control Law for Constant Power Load Stability Issue in DC Microgrid: Case Study for Multiphase Interleaved Fuel Cell Boost Converter
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 8093; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13148093 - 20 Jul 2021
Viewed by 378
Abstract
The cascaded connection of power converters in a DC microgrid may cause instabilities. Indeed, power converters operating as external loads exhibit constant power load (CPL) behaviors. In this study, the design of the feedback controller of a multi–cell interleaved fuel cell (FC) step–up [...] Read more.
The cascaded connection of power converters in a DC microgrid may cause instabilities. Indeed, power converters operating as external loads exhibit constant power load (CPL) behaviors. In this study, the design of the feedback controller of a multi–cell interleaved fuel cell (FC) step–up power circuit is based on the adaptive Hamiltonian control law. It includes two integral terms to confirm that there is no steady-state error in the DC bus voltage, and to guarantee the current balancing of each input inductor current. The design confirms that the desired equilibrium point is (locally) asymptotically stable by using the Lyapunov stability proof. The control approach is validated via digital simulations and experimental tests performed with a 2500 W FC converter supplied by an FC/reformer size of 2500 W and 50 V. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Sustainable Electrical Engineering)
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Article
Hybrid Forecasting Methodology for Wind Power-Photovoltaic-Concentrating Solar Power Generation Clustered Renewable Energy Systems
Sustainability 2021, 13(12), 6681; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126681 - 11 Jun 2021
Viewed by 551
Abstract
Forecasting of large-scale renewable energy clusters composed of wind power generation, photovoltaic and concentrating solar power (CSP) generation encounters complex uncertainties due to spatial scale dispersion and time scale random fluctuation. In response to this, a short-term forecasting method is proposed to improve [...] Read more.
Forecasting of large-scale renewable energy clusters composed of wind power generation, photovoltaic and concentrating solar power (CSP) generation encounters complex uncertainties due to spatial scale dispersion and time scale random fluctuation. In response to this, a short-term forecasting method is proposed to improve the hybrid forecasting accuracy of multiple generation types in the same region. It is formed through training the long short-term memory (LSTM) network using spatial panel data. Historical power data and meteorological data for CSP plant, wind farm and photovoltaic (PV) plant are included in the dataset. Based on the data set, the correlation between these three types of power generation is proved by Pearson coefficient, and the feasibility of improving the forecasting ability through the hybrid renewable energy clusters is analyzed. Moreover, cases study indicates that the uncertainty of renewable energy cluster power tends to weaken due to partial controllability of CSP generation. Compared with the traditional prediction method, the hybrid prediction method has better prediction accuracy in the real case of renewable energy cluster in Northwest China. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Sustainable Electrical Engineering)
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Article
Analyzing the Effect of Parasitic Capacitance in a Full-Bridge Class-D Current Source Rectifier on a High Step-Up Push–Pull Multiresonant Converter
Sustainability 2021, 13(10), 5477; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105477 - 13 May 2021
Viewed by 362
Abstract
This paper presents an analysis on the effect of a parasitic capacitance full-bridge class-D current source rectifier (FB-CDCSR) on a high step-up push–pull multiresonant converter (HSPPMRC). The proposed converter can provide high voltage for a 12 VDC battery using an isolated transformer [...] Read more.
This paper presents an analysis on the effect of a parasitic capacitance full-bridge class-D current source rectifier (FB-CDCSR) on a high step-up push–pull multiresonant converter (HSPPMRC). The proposed converter can provide high voltage for a 12 VDC battery using an isolated transformer and an FB-CDCSR. The main switches of the push–pull and diode full-bridge rectifier can be operated under a zero-current switching condition (ZCS). The advantages of this technique are that it uses a leakage inductance to achieve the ZCS for the power switch, and the leakage inductance and parasitic junction capacitance are used to design the secondary side of the resonant circuit. A prototype HSPPMRC was built and operated at 200 kHz fixed switching frequency, 340 VDC output voltage, and 250 W output power. In addition, the efficiency is equal to 96% at maximum load. Analysis of the effect of the parasitic junction capacitance on the full-bridge rectifier indicates that it has a significant impact on the operating point of the resonant tank and voltage. The proposed circuit design was verified via experimental results, which were found to be in agreement with the theoretical analysis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Sustainable Electrical Engineering)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: Primary-Secondary Control Approach for DC Networks in Rural Areas Considering Renewables and Constant Power Loads
Authors: Oscar Danilo Montoya; Federico Martin Serra; Cristian H. de Angelo
Affiliation: 1. Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Colombia; 2. Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Argentina; 3. Universidad Nacional de Rio Cuarto, Argentina
Abstract: The problem of the optimal operation of electrical networks in rural areas considering the presence of reneable generation and constant power loads is addressed in this research from the primary-secondary control point of view. The primary controller is entrusted with stabilizing the electrical network around the optimal voltage references; which as provided by the secondary controller that acts as an optimization stage for minimizing the grid power losses for any particular load and generation combination. In the primary stage is proposed a passivity-based controller taking the advantage of the hamiltonian representation of the DC grid to stabilize all the voltage profiles of the grid when these experiences perturbation. ; while the second stage is modeled using a second-order cone programming model which ensures the global optimum finding in the equivalent optimal power flow model. Numerical simulations in radial DC grid presents the effectiveness and robustness of the primary-secondary controller in presence of load variations and and short-circuit events to maintain the DC network stable in the sense of Lyapunov.

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