Electrical Engineering in Japan最新文献

We are planning to develop the new Advanced Distribution Automation System (ADAS) equipped with optical communication network and sectionalizer with sensor for more grid reliability and efficiency on maintenance operation. The new system is featured with the function of fault cause or damaged part estimation. The new sectionalizer captures the waveform of electrical line surge originated by fault and the system analyzes the waveform for this function. This paper mainly introduces the system configuration of ADAS and an early stage examination of fault cause estimation technology.

At present, there is a growing demand for energy saving to prevent global warming. Thus, the railway industry is also focusing on energy saving methods. Power consumption of running trains has a large variation of approximately 20% caused by drivers’ operation. Therefore, improving the running profile can considerably reduce energy consumption. Numerous algorithms for generating energy saving running profiles have been researched and developed. To adapt energy saving operation to various environments, we developed a technology that maintains punctuality without reducing the energy efficiency when temporary differences occur in driving conditions. We propose a method that determines the re-creation command point to complete the re-creation at the switching point of the driving operation in the existing energy-saving target pattern, to achieve both punctuality and ride comfort. As a result of verifying the effect of the proposed method on the conventional method via a simulation, it was confirmed that the proposed method can prevent the increase in the number of operation changes when the driving conditions change, whereas the conventional method increases the number of operation changes.

With the developments in power electronics equipment, the electromagnetic environment has become severe for electronic equipment. In the smart facility field, the stable operation of electronic devices is indispensable, and noise countermeasures must be improved. To suppress intrusive noise from cables, shielded cables are used in many cases. However, electromagnetic induction cannot be suppressed when the shield is grounded at one end, and when grounding both ends of the shield, current flows through the shield creating intrusive noise in the cable. That is, even if a shielded cable is used, a sufficient effect cannot be obtained. Therefore, as a countermeasure, this study prototypes and evaluates cables that combine double shielded cables with magnetic cores. Evaluations conducted using the copper pipe method, triaxial method, and impulse test confirm that the shielded performance improved by 10–30 dB compared with the conventional shielded cable.

The partial discharge (PD) waveform reflects the evolution process of electron avalanche in the discharge space. The authors expect to estimate the condition of the discharge space based on the PD waveform characteristics. The semi-conductive sheet was attached to the insulator to simulate the decrease in surface resistance due to deterioration. With the reduction of the surface resistivity, the shoulder appeared on the rising part of the PD waveform and the rise time of the PD waveform became longer. In addition, we simulated the change in the rise time using an equivalent circuit model. The displacement current was calculated from the surface potential distribution estimated by the diffusion equation, and the PD current was simulated by summing up all the current components. As a result, the shoulder was reproduced at the rising part of the PD waveform in the simulation as well. The surface resistance was estimated from the PD waveform by fitting with the experimental results.

The photovoltaic (PV) power output might be frequently curtailed to maintain electricity supply-demand balance in future power systems. In our previous study, we proposed a new method for updating the battery energy storage system (BESS) charge/discharge and the generator unit commitment (UC) schedules based on the forecasted and actual PV power outputs. The forecast dataset was updated every 3 h (eight times a day). Although the simulation results showed that the proposed method could reduce the supply-demand imbalances, it was not clear whether the forecasted or actual values made contributions. Therefore, in this study, we propose and evaluate a real-time scheduling and operation method using the forecasted and actual PV power outputs assuming that the forecasted dataset is updated only once a day. Numerical simulations of supply-demand operations are conducted on the power system model of the Kanto area of Japan for one year. The results show that the previous study method has a slight advantage over proposed method in terms of curtailed PV energy and operational cost of thermal generators reduction, but the difference is very small, indicating that the contribution of the actual PV power outputs is greater than that of the forecasted PV power outputs.

In this study, we have measured the negative ion mobility in O₂ at high pressures with a little amount of H₂O concentration between 15 and 17,000 ppb. After that, we carried out a Monte Carlo simulation using mobility of electrons, that of the ions obtained in the measurements, and rate coefficients of ion-molecule reactions. As a result, the mobility value 2.39 cm²/V·s of O₄¯ is obtained in ultrahigh purity O₂ of which the H₂O concentration is between 15 and 100 ppb. Moreover, the mobility decreases with the H₂O concentrations at which the ion species are considered to be O₂¯·(H₂O)_n (_n = 1, 2, 3). Then, we compared the experimental result with that of the simulation and estimated the ion mobility and rate coefficients of ion molecule reactions. Simulation results using estimated values of the ion mobility and rate coefficients agree well with measurement results.

In recent years, the aggregation business has gained a lot of attention in Japan. Aggregators will make contracts with customers with photovoltaic (PV) power systems and battery energy storage systems (BESSs) including electric vehicles (EVs) to participate in electricity markets. Aggregators might have to pay electricity supply-demand imbalance charges when generated and consumed energies contracted at the day-ahead supply-demand market are different from those at the current day operation due to distribution network constraints such as voltage and power flow limitations. Therefore, the information on network constraints is very important for aggregators to determine their day-ahead schedules. In this paper, we evaluated the relationship between aggregator supply-demand schedules and the distribution system operation. It was assumed that the reverse power flow limitations due to network constraints are notified to the aggregators by distribution system operator (DSO). Two cases of the aggregators’ schedules of PV systems and stationary BESSs were compared in the simulations. In addition, aggregator strategies for making adequate schedules were evaluated.

Recently, energy harvesting has attracted increasing attention. The present study focuses on vibration generators based on piezoelectric elements by proposing an internal capacitor cancel control (ICCC) rectifier to improve the output power. The proposed rectifier cancels the internal capacitor to improve the output power while retaining the maximum output power. Accordingly, this paper experimentally demonstrates the improvement in output power by using the ICCC rectifier compared to conventional circuits and the previous proposed circuit.

Electric power generated by photovoltaic (PV) systems is generally unstable because of uncertain meteorological conditions. Stably maintaining the supply-demand balance of power systems requires an accurate prediction of the performance of PV systems. Especially for predicting the performance of the PV systems containing modules with different electrical characteristics or installed in different angles, it is necessary to calculate the generated power of the system by combining the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of each module in series and parallel. Therefore, an accurate method is required for estimating the I-V characteristics in various meteorological conditions. In this paper, a simple modeling method of the I-V characteristics for crystalline silicon PV modules is proposed. The I-V characteristics can be simulated in a good accuracy for practical use based on a simplified equivalent circuit of PV modules and a temperature correction of the short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage, and the current and voltage at maximum power point. The validity of the proposed method is examined by comparing simulated and measured I-V characteristics of a PV module. Furthermore, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed modelling method, it was applied to simulating the power generation of a PV system containing modules installed in different angles.

Renewable energy is attracting attention as an alternative to current mainstream power generator sources. One source of renewable energy is wave energy. We devised a simulator for the OWC-type wave power generator and developed a reciprocating airflow generator is generated reciprocating airflow by using the reciprocating motion of a piston. This piston motion was achieved by converting the rotational motion of the motor into linear motion of the ball screw via gears. Furthermore, we used a vertical axis turbine with arc camber blades and studied on the turbine characteristics. Owing to the reciprocation of the piston, a substantially sinusoidal reciprocating airflow was generated in the measurement section. It was confirmed that a reciprocating airflow speed was generated for all the target values. A load characteristic test of the turbine was conducted. It was confirmed that the maximum turbine output was 1.60 W.