ALBERT

Description: Renewable energy resources like solar energy, wind energy, hydro energy, photovoltaic etc. are gaining much importance due to the day by day depletion of conventional resources. Owing to the lower efficiencies of renewable energy resources, much attention has been paid to improving them. The concept of utilizing phase change materials (PCMs) has attracted wide attention in recent years. This is due to their ability to extract thermal energy when used in collaboration with photovoltaic (PV), thus improving the photoelectric conversion efficiency. In this paper, the objective is to design and fabricate a novel thermal energy storage system using phase change material. An investigation on the characteristics of Potash Alum as a phase change material due to its low cost, easy availability and its usage as an energy storage for the indoor purposes are taken into account. The use of a latent heat storage system using phase change materials (PCMs) is an effective way of storing thermal energy and has the advantage of high-energy storage density and the isothermal nature of the storage process. In the current study, potash alum was identified as a phase change material combined with renewable energy sources, that can be efficiently and effectively used in storing thermal energy at compartively lower temperatures that can later be used in daily life heating requirements.A parabolic dish which acts of a heat collector is used to track and reflects solar radiation at a single point on a receiver tank. Heat transfer from the solar collector to the storage tank is done by using a circulating heat transfer fluid with the help of a pump. The experimental results show that this system is capable of successfully storing and utilizing thermal energy on indoor scale such as cooking, heating and those applications where temperature is below 92 °C.

Description: The Alternating Current-Direct Current (AC-DC) hybrid distribution network has received attention in recent years. Due to advancement in technologies such as the integration of renewable energy resources of DC–type output and usage of DC loads in the distribution network, the modern distribution system can meet the increasing energy demand with improved efficiency. In this paper, a new AC-DC hybrid distribution network architecture is analyzed that considers distributed energy resources (DER) in the network. A network reconfiguration scheme is proposed that uses the AC soft open point (AC-SOP) and the DC soft open point (DC-SOP) along with an SOP selection algorithm for minimizing the network power losses. Subsequently, the real-time data for DER and load/demand variation are considered for a day-a-head scenario for the verification of the effectiveness of the network reconfiguration scheme. The results show that the proposed network reconfiguration scheme using AC-SOP and DC-SOP can successfully minimize the network power losses by modifying the network configuration. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in minimizing the network power losses by the upgraded network configuration is verified by constructing an AC-DC hybrid distribution network by combining two IEEE 33-bus distribution networks.