Andrew Xavier Raj Irudayaraj

This paper introduces a robust approach, integrating a Virtual Inertia Controller (VIC) with a modified demand response controller for an islanded Multi-Microgrid (MMG) system, accommodating high levels of Renewable Energy Sources (RESs). In these MGs, the low inertia in the system has an undesirable impact on the stability of MG frequency. As a result, it leads to a weakening of the MGs overall performance. A novel fractional derivative virtual inertia is integrated into the VIC loop to address this issue. This enhancement aims to fortify the MG’s stability and robust performance, particularly when facing contingencies. Furthermore, a modified demand response controller has been incorporated into the proposed inertia control technique to mitigate the frequency fluctuations and reduce stress on the energy storage system (ESS). Fractional Order Proportional Integral Derivative (FOPID) controllers have been employed to regulate the active power output of the biodiesel generators and the Geothermal station in the MG. The hybrid sparrow search and mountain gazelle optimizer algorithm (SSAMGO) optimizes the parameters for the three-loop controller. Time-domain simulations assess the effectiveness of proposed controllers in enhancing system frequency stability. SSAMGO’s performance was comprehensively evaluated, comparing it to various optimization algorithms in diverse scenarios. The results obtained from the MMG system demonstrate that utilizing the proposed controller technique, optimized with hybrid SSAMGO parameters, yields notable improvements in settling time by 24.68%, 46.20%, 7.52%, and 61.01%, steady-state error values by 72.56%, 98.18%, 98.73%, and 6.67%, undershoot by 105.76%, 144.23%, 19.23%, and 7.69% compared to other state-of-the-art algorithms presented in the literature. Finally, the proposed control technique’s effectiveness and robustness are assessed in comparison to conventional inertia control across various system scenarios. These scenarios encompass random load demand fluctuations, real-time changes in RES, and a wide spectrum of system operations, including situations with reduced damping and inertia and high levels of load variation.

In modern railway traffic systems, direct current (DC) electrification is a prevalent choice, with numerous traction networks adopting a variety of voltage levels to accommodate varying load current dynamics. These dynamics are influenced by passenger density, aggregate demand for electrical power, headways, and frequency of locomotive operations. Load currents are prone to surges during periods of dense traffic and transient phases such as acceleration, deceleration, and the start–stop sequences of trains. Such surges hold the potential to precipitate fault currents within the traction system, which are similar to those engendered by external anomalies. Conventional protection systems, such as the Détection Défaut Ligne’—French for ’Line Fault Detection), may not always effectively identify remote faults or prolonged overcurrent situations. These scenarios necessitate an advancement beyond the traditional fault detection methodologies, which primarily rely on fixed thresholds and may not account for the dynamic nature of the railway system’s electrical load. This paper addresses the limitations inherent in the existing DDL protection mechanisms by focusing on the feeder attributes specific to the DC Traction System. In pursuit of this objective, we introduce an innovative adaptive current DDL algorithm to refine the rigid threshold paradigm inherent in the conventional approach. To facilitate a pragmatic assessment, the Rapid Rail network of Malaysia serves as a reference for emulating the railway’s electrical system. This comprehensive analysis yields insights that are potentially useful for safety protocols in DC electrified railroad traffic systems.

Nowadays, renewable energy (RE) sources are heavily integrated into the power system due to the deregulation of the energy market along with environmental and economic benefits. The intermittent nature of RE and the stochastic behavior of loads create frequency aberrations in interconnected hybrid power systems (HPS). This paper attempts to develop an optimization technique to tune the controller optimally to regulate frequency. A hybrid Sparrow Search Algorithm-Grey Wolf Optimizer (SSAGWO) is proposed to optimize the gain values of the proportional integral derivative controller. The proposed algorithm helps to improve the original algorithms’ exploration and exploitation. The optimization technique is coded in MATLAB and applied for frequency regulation of a two-area HPS developed in Simulink. The efficacy of the proffered hybrid SSAGWO is first assessed on standard benchmark functions and then applied to the frequency control of the HPS model. The results obtained from the multi-area multi-source HPS demonstrate that the proposed hybrid SSAGWO optimized PID controller performs significantly by 53%, 60%, 20%, and 70% in terms of settling time, peak undershoot, control effort, and steady-state error values, respectively, than other state-of-the-art algorithms presented in the literature. The robustness of the proffered method is also evaluated under the random varying load, variation of HPS system parameters, and weather intermittency of RE resources in real-time conditions. Furthermore, the controller’s efficacy was also demonstrated by performing a sensitivity analysis of the proposed system with variations of 75% and 125% in the inertia constant and system loading, respectively, from the nominal values. The results show that the proposed technique damped out the transient oscillations with minimum settling time. Moreover, the stability of the system is analyzed in the frequency domain using Bode analysis.

Natural ester oils are the current target of many industries and electrical utilities as electrically insulating fluids to replace the conventional mineral oils. However, as previously investigated, most natural ester oils are based on edible products, causing a negative impact on the food crisis. Accordingly, nonedible green nanofluids based on cottonseed oil have been targeted in the present study. Additive graphene nanoparticles (0.0015 wt%, 0.003 wt%, 0.006 wt%, and 0.01 wt%) along with surfactant sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS) were used (1:1) due to their promising impact on dielectric and thermal properties. Experimental methods introduced were including characterization of graphene and preparation of dielectric nanofluids (DNFs). The main concern for any nanofluid to be usable in transformer applications is its long-term stability. The effect of various ultrasonication periods (10, 20, 30 and 60-minute) on short-term stability of nanofluids was preliminary investigated by visual inspection, highest short-term stability was obtained at 30-min and 60-min. Considering short-term stability results, the two most stable samples were investigated and compared for long-term stability through ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy to find the suitable ultrasonication time. In addition, dielectric and thermal properties of these samples were investigated and compared. Physical mechanisms were discussed for the obtained enhancements considering the effect of ultrasonication period on the number of dispersed nanoparticle sheets per unit volume and the corresponding effect on dielectric and thermal properties.

The large-scale penetration of intermittent renewable energy (RE) sources such as wind and solar power generation may cause a problem of frequency aberration, power quality and instability to the system. This occurs when the load frequency control of interconnected system is unable to compensate the power balance between generation and load demand. To overcome these issues, this paper proposes a method to analyze the frequency stability of Hybrid Power System (HPS) through adaptive intelligent control techniques for delivering reliable power supply under the stochastic nature of RE and load demand. A recently developed physics-inspired Atom Search Optimization algorithm was applied for tuning the parameters of Fractional Order Proportional-Integral-Derivative controller for Automatic Load Frequency control of HPS. In addition, an effort was made to analyze the frequency stability of HPS using Matignon’s theorem. The interconnected HPS consists of reheat thermal power system, RE sources such as wind and solar thermal power generation associated with energy storage devices namely aqua electrolyzer, fuel cell and electric vehicle. The gain and fractional terms of the controller were obtained by minimizing the Integral Time Absolute Error of interconnected system. The robustness of ASO-tuned FOPID controller is tested on two-area HPS that was modelled using MATLAB/Simulink. The results obtained were then compared with other fractional order and classical integer order controllers. From the simulation results, it is inferred that the proposed ASO-tuned FOPID controller gives superior transient and steady-state response compared with other controllers. Moreover, the self-adaptiveness and robustness of the controller was validated to account for the change in RE power generations and system parameters. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the method is proved by comparing its performance with the recent literature works. The real-time applicability of proffered controller is validated in hardware-in-the-loop simulation using Real Time Digital Simulator.

This paper presents the automatic load frequency control (ALFC) of two-area multisource hybrid power system (HPS). The interconnected HPS model consists of conventional and renewable energy sources operating in disparate combinations to balance the generation and load demand of the system. In the proffered work, the stability analysis of nonlinear dynamic HPS model was analyzed using the Hankel method of model order reduction. Also, an attempt was made to apply cascade proportional integral – proportional derivative (PI-PD) control for HPS. The gains of the controller were optimized by minimizing the integral absolute error (IAE) of area control error using particle swarm optimization–gravitational search algorithm (PSO-GSA) optimization technique. The performance of cascade control was compared with other classical controllers and the efficiency of this approach was studied for various cases of HPS model. The result shows that the cascade control produced better transient and steady state performances than those of the other classical controllers. The robustness analysis also reveals that the system overshoots/undershoots in frequency response pertaining to random change in wind power generation and load perturbations were significantly reduced by the proposed cascade control. In addition, the sensitivity analysis of the system was performed, with the variation in step load perturbation (SLP) of 1% to 5%, system loading and inertia of the system by ±25% of nominal values to prove the efficiency of the controller. Furthermore, to prove the efficiency of PSO-GSA tuned cascade control, the results were compared with other artificial intelligence (AI) methods presented in the literature. Further, the stability of the system was analyzed in frequency domain for different operating cases.