Microgrid is a group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources (including microturbines, diesel generators, energy storage, renewable resources, and all other kinds of distributed energy resources) at distribution level with defined electrical boundaries that has black start capacity and can operate in island mode and/or grid-connected mode.
Because of the uncertainty, intermittent, and discontinuity of the renewable resources, transient disturbance and dynamic disturbance exist in the microgrid. For the fault current is small in the system and the microgrid has very little inertia, the disturbance control and fault protection of microgrids are more difficult than the ones of traditional grids.
The most challenging part of protection and dynamic control of microgrids is how to distinguish whether a fault or disturbance is occurring in the system. In the microgrid, there may appear transient characteristics similar to the transient and dynamic disturbance at the initial faults. If there is a fault, the transient disturbance control should be used to prevent the system from collapsing and make sure the right breakers should be tripped. But if there are transient and dynamic disturbances, even the initial characteristics of the transient and dynamic are very similar to the fault ones, the breakers should not be tripped.

Solar photocatalysis is a promising approach to achieve production of renewable hydrogen fuel for future sustainable energy. Photocatalysis (PC) can also be integrated with fuel cell (FC) to form photocatalytic fuel cell (PFC) that effectively utilizes solar energy for simultaneous wastewater treatment and recovery of energy chemically stored in wastewater. PFC using photoanode and photocathode can utilize solar energy effectively for hydrogen production, carbon reduction, wastewater treatment and recovery of the energy chemically stored in wastewater. Solar PC can decompose organic compounds while the FC component provides an electrical potential bias to drive the transport of the photogenerated electrons. In this talk, the speaker will first discuss the properties and fundamental mechanisms of solar photocatalysis followed by the development of effective visible-light activated nano-photocatalysts. Then, different reactor configurations, designs and control strategies for various applications will be presented. The talk will also cover upcoming R&D challenges for enhancing the solar photocatalysis technologies.

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are increasingly becoming an attractive energy source for the future due to their portability, silent operation and high power density. Efforts have been made to improve their efficiency as well as in making the technology affordable. Several parameters come into play in the context of fuel cell efficiency, of which the operating temperature is of prime importance. Specifically, high temperature PEM fuel cell (HTPEMFC) has greater merits such as higher efficiency, improved tolerance of the electrodes against carbon monoxide poisoning, faster reaction kinetics, and effective heat transfer. Since the proton conductivities of commonly used perfluorinated membranes, such as Nafion, is highly dependent on external humidification, their operating temperature is limited to 100 °C. Hence one of the biggest challenges in PEMFC is fabricating a thermally stable membrane which can operate at temperatures above 100 °C under anhydrous conditions.
In the present work phoshonated SBA-15/phosphonated Poly(styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene) (PSEBS) composite membranes are developed for high temperature fuel cell electrolyte. Mesoporous Santa Barbara Amorphous (SBA-15) was synthesized and it was grafted with phosphonate functionality using a simple two-step process involving chloromethylation and subsequent phosphonation. The phosphonated SBA-15 (PSBA-15) was characterized using Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy, solid state 13C Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), 29Si NMR, 31P NMR for confirming successful modification. Morphology features were verified by small angle X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Transmission electron microscopy TEM analyses. Poly(styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene) (PSEBS) was chosen as the base polymer and phosphonic acid functional groups were grafted onto the polymer using the aforementioned approach, where chloromethyl (-CH2Cl) groups were attached to the main chain using Friedel Craft’s alkylation, followed by the phosphonation of the chloromethylated polymer by the Michaels-Arbuzov reaction resulting in phosphonated PSEBS (PPSEBS). The functionalisation was confirmed using NMR and FTIR spectroscopy studies. Composite PPSEBS/PSBA-15 membranes were fabricated with different filler concentrations (2, 4, 6, and 8%) of PSBA-15. Various studies such as water uptake, ion exchange capacity and the proton conductivity of the composite membranes were undertaken with respect to fuel cell applications. From the studies, it was found that the PPSEBS/PSBA-15 membrane with 6% wt of filler exhibited maximum proton conductivity of 8.62 mS/cm at 140 °C. Finally, membrane electrode assembly (MEA) was fabricated using PPSEBS/6% PSBA composite membrane, Platinium (Pt) anode, Pt cathode and was tested in an in-house built fuel cell setup. A maximum power density of 226 mW/cm2 and an open circuit voltage of 0.89 V was achieved at 140 °C under un-humidified condition.

Wide-scale deployment of Smart Inverters (SIs) can only happen if their impacts on power systems can be clearly understood. For this reason, thorough power flow and system stability studies are required. Traditional power system simulation software does not include proper models for SIs. Furthermore, dynamic behavior of SIs is not very well known to develop such models. Consequently, hardware in the loop tests with digital real-time simulators seem to be the best option, due to their high fidelity. That being said, interface between the simulated and real-world plays a very significant role. Since the real world is sampled and these samples are utilized to map reality inside digital real-time simulator, any mistake may render the test unstable. On the other hand, real-time simulation has very strong timing requirements and this becomes a deciding factor on how much detail can be modeled. Since the bridge inverters have several components that operate in time steps that are much smaller than conventional power systems, digital real-time simulators have very limited capacity. Using simplified inverter models has been investigated in the past and shown to be acceptable in steady-state situations. This paper investigates use of such models for protection studies in low-voltage networks.

A study was conducted to examine what is going to be required to fully phase out fossil fuels as an energy source and replace the entire existing system with renewable energy sources and transportation.  This is done by estimating what it would be required to replace the entire fossil fuel system in 2018, for the US, Europe, China, and global economies.  This report examines the size and scope of the existing transport fleet, and scope of fossil fuel industrial actions.

To replace fossil fueled ICE vehicles, Electric Vehicles, H₂ cell vehicles for cars, trucks, rail, and maritime shipping was examined.  Fossil fuels consumption for electricity generation, building heating and production of steel were all examined for replacement.  Calculations reported here suggest that the total additional non-fossil fuel electrical power annual capacity to be added to the global grid will need to be around 37 670.6 TWh.  To phase out fossil fuel power generation, solar, wind, hydro, biomass, geothermal and nuclear were all examined.  If the same non-fossil fuel energy mix as that reported in 2018 is assumed, then this translates into an extra 221 594 new power plants will be needed to be constructed and commissioned. 

Nuclear power was assessed in context of being the only power source to generate electricity. It was found that the NPP fleet cannot expand fast enough, nor will existing uranium resources be enough to be useful.

Biofuels substitution for petroleum (gasoline and diesel) was examined globally.  It was found that lack of capacity for the planet earth to produce enough biomass feedstock means that biofuels cannot be scaled up to a full system replacement.

Conclusions were drawn after comparing all these different aspects.  It was proposed that the phasing out of fossil fuels will not go to plan.