Sharifah Azwa Shaaya

Optimal combinations of PV, wind, micro-hydro and diesel systems for a seasonal load demand

This paper proposes multiple optimal combinations of hybrid renewable energy systems for a resort island based on actual generation-side energy auditing, assessment of seasonal renewable energy resources availability versus load profiles, and techno-economic analyses. Tioman Island is selected for this study as it represents the typical energy demands of many resort islands in the South China Sea. The island depends primarily on diesel-fuel for electricity generation. As a result, the generating company is exposed to diesel fuel volatile market prices and high operation and maintenance costs. Moreover, the diesel power plant poses possible risk of fuel spills and environmental degradation. Hence, to mitigate the diesel fuel dependence, an optimal combination of hybrid diesel and renewable energy is proposed. The study starts with an actual generation-side auditing, which includes distribution of loads, seasonal load profiles, and types of loads as well as an analysis of local development planning. Subsequently, surveys of available renewable resource potentials such as solar, wind, and hydro have been conducted that involved collection and analysis of meteorological data. Finally, HOMER software was used to perform techno-economic analyses for different combinations of hybrid energy system. Results of the analyses include the optimal hybrid system configurations, cost of the hybrid system, fuel saving, and CO2 emission reduction.

Micro-hydropower potential assessment and generation volatility due to seasonal climate

This paper proposes hydropower potential sites for a resort island located in the South China Sea. Furthermore, the effects of seasonal climate to hydropower generation are also discussed. The resort island selected is Tioman, as it represents the typical energy requirements of many resort islands in the South China Sea. The island relies mainly on diesel-fuel for electricity generation. However, diesel is subjected to high and volatile market prices, high operation and maintenance costs, and poses environmental risks. Therefore, to mitigate diesel fuel dependency, reconnaissance studies were conducted through topographic maps and hydrological studies in order to determine the potential sites or locations available for the development of a micro-hydropower plant in Tioman Island. The result shows that a total of 10 sites identified to have micro-hydro potential from 26 investigated sites. From the monthly estimated river flow, it can be seen that the hydropower in Tioman Island varies seasonally, having the highest potential during the northeast monsoon season.

Simulation Study of UWB Interference Effects on GSM 900 System

The impact of UWB interference on GSM 900 was studied in view of Federal Communication Commission (FCC) regulations. The maximum UWB transmitter power levels that would cause 1dB performance degradation on GSM 900 receivers were determined. UWB densities were computed for different GSM cluster size and the results showed that there is no harmful interference for GSM 900 system.

Simulation Study of UWB Interference Effects on Each WLANa Frequency Band

Currently, the advancement in Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) technology has caught the attention of many researchers to explore it given that its ability to support higher data rate with low transmission power. In spite of this, its capability to share the frequency spectrum with current narrowband and wideband radio services raises interference concerns for radio services. This study concerned with the effect of UWB interference on data rate performance in WLAN IEEE 802.11a system.

A hybrid optimization technique for solving economic dispatch problem

Economic dispatch (ED) is one the main power system problems solved during operational planning phase. It is solved by power system engineers with the objective to find the best setting of dispatchable generating units output so that the total production cost is cheap and at the same time abiding the system constraints. For the past ten years, researchers and engineers have been focusing on hybrid optimization techniques to solve ED problems. The strength of each hybridized technique is combined to form an improved optimization technique. Most of the hybrid techniques are combination of two or more meta-heuristic techniques. This paper proposed a new hybrid technique termed as immune evolutionary programming (IEP) to solve economic dispatch problem. The technique is a combination of two population based optimization techniques which are artificial immune system (AIS) and evolutionary programming (EP). In order to study the effectiveness of the proposed technique, the results produced have been compared with the results produced using AIS and EP techniques. It is found that IEP succeeded to give the lowest total production cost compared to the other two techniques.

Seasonal Wind Power Potential for a Resort Island in the South China Sea

This paper presents a wind energy assessment for a resort island in the South China Sea that has a seasonal climate contributed by the monsoon seasons. The resort island selected for this study is Tioman, as it denotes the typical energy requirements of most resort islands in the South China Sea. The island depends primarily on diesel-fuel for electricity generation. However, diesel is subjected to expensive and unpredictable market values, high operation and maintenance costs, and poses environmental threats. Therefore, the potential for wind energy conversion system development is conducted in order to reduce the island’s diesel fuel dependency. The study starts with energy auditing and meteorological data collection. Subsequently, the wind energy potential is evaluated using Weibull distribution function. The results indicate that the wind speed vary according to seasons, where higher wind power can be generated during the northeast monsoon season than any other seasons.

Energy efficiency monitoring and economic analysis for energy saving potential in UNITEN

This paper discusses on energy efficiency survey for typical buildings in Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN). Undeniably, wastage of energy will cause the increase of operation cost and depletion of fossil fuel resources which contributes to the climate change issue in the world. UNITEN was commenced in the late 1990s and most of the buildings in this university are not equipped with energy management system. Such system is the solution to reduce energy use while maximizing the comfort levels of the occupants. Disregard to the energy management system, the implementation of other energy saving measures is the main objective of this paper. By taking the right measures, the energy wastage in the buildings of this university can be reduced.

Building automation: Photovoltaic assisted thermal comfort management system for energy saving

Building automation plays an important key role in the means to reduce building energy consumption and to provide comfort for building occupants. It is often that air conditioning system operating features ignored in building automation which can result in thermal discomfort among building occupants. Most automation system for building is expensive and incurs high maintenance cost. Such system also does not support electricity demand side management system such as load shifting. This paper discusses on centralized monitoring system for room temperature and photovoltaic (PV) output for feasibility study of PV assisted air conditioning system in small office buildings. The architecture of the system consists of PV modules and sensor nodes located at each room. Wireless sensor network technology (WSN) been used for data transmission. The data from temperature sensors and PV modules transmitted to the host personal computer (PC) wirelessly using Zigbee modules. Microcontroller based USB data acquisition device used to receive data from sensor nodes and displays the data on PC.