Renewable energy

The increasing integration of renewable energy sources (RES) and electric vehicles (EVs) into microgrids presents both opportunities and challenges in terms of optimizing energy use and minimizing electricity costs. This dissertation explores the development of an advanced optimization framework using artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance battery operation in microgrids. The proposed solution leverages AI techniques to dynamically manage the charging and discharging of batteries, considering fluctuating energy demands, variable electricity pricing, and intermittent RES generation.
By employing a fuzzy logic-based control algorithm, the system intelligently allocates energy from solar power, grid electricity, and battery storage, while coordinating EV charging schedules to reduce peak demand charges. The optimization framework integrates predictive modeling for energy consumption and generation, alongside real-time data from weather forecasts and electricity markets, to make informed decisions. Additionally, the approach considers the trade-off between maximizing renewable energy usage and minimizing reliance on costly grid power during peak hours.

The feasibility and optimization of small unmanned mobile marine hydrokinetic (MHK) energy platforms for harvesting marine current energy in coastal and tidal waters are examined. A case study of a platform based on the use of a free-surface waterwheel (FSWW) mounted on an autonomous unmanned surface vehicle (USV) was conducted. Such platforms can serve as recharging stations for aerial drones (UAVs), enabling extension of the UAVs’ autonomous operating time. An unmanned MHK platform potentially meets this need with sustainable power harvested from water currents. For the case study, six different waterwheel configurations were field-tested in the Intracoastal Waterway of South Florida in support of determining the configuration that produced the most power. Required technologies for unmanned operations of the MHK platform were developed and tested. The data from the field-testing were analyzed to develop an empirical relation between the wheel’s theoretical hydrokinetic power produced and the mechanical power harnessed by the MHK platform with various waterwheel configurations during field-testing. The field data was also used to determine the electrical power generated by the FSWW configurations during field-testing. The study has led to the development of standardized testing procedures. The empirical relation is used to examine predicted power production through scaling up different physical aspects of the waterwheel.

Modeling, implementation, field testing and control of a power takeoff (PTO) device equipped with a ball-type continuously variable transmission (B-CVT) for a small marine hydrokinetic (MHK) turbine deployed from a floating unmanned autonomous mobile catamaran platform is described. The turbine is a partially submerged multi-blade undershot waterwheel (USWW). A validated numerical torque model for the MHK turbine has been derived and a speed controller has been developed, implemented and tested in the field. The dependance of the power generated as a function of number and submergence level of turbine blades has been investigated and the number of blades that maximizes power production is determined. Bench and field testing in support of characterizing the power conversion capabilities of MHK turbine and PTO are described. Detailed results of the final torque and power coefficient models, the controls architecture, and the MHK turbine performance with varying numbers of blades are provided.

Microgrid is an essential part of the nation’s smart grid deployment plan, recognized especially for improving efficiency, reliability, flexibility, and resiliency of the electricity system. Since microgrid consists of different distributed generation units, microgrid scheduling and real-time dispatch play a crucial role in maintaining economic, reliable, and resilient operation. The control and optimization performances of the existing online approaches degrade significantly in microgrid applications with missing forecast information, large state space, and multiple probabilistic events. This dissertation focuses on these challenges and proposes efficient online learning and optimization-based approaches.
For addressing the missing forecast challenges on online microgrid operations, a new fitted rolling horizon control (fitted-RHC) approach is proposed in Chapter 2. The proposed fitted-RHC approach is designed with a regression algorithm that utilizes the empirical knowledge obtain from the day-ahead forecast to make microgrid real-time decisions whenever the intra-day forecast data is unavailable. Simulation results show that the proposed fitted-RHC approach can achieve the optimal policy for the deterministic case study and perform efficiently with the uncertain environment in the stochastic case study.

The goal of the work described in this thesis is to design a flow augmentation device to increase the power capture and efficiency of a small-scale floating Under-Shot Water Wheel (USWW) currently being developed by Florida Atlantic University research funded by the U.S Department of Energy. The flow concentrator subsystem is intended to maximize the kinetic energy extracted by the marine hydrokinetic (MHK) energy collection device through modification of the local flow field across the capture plane. The primary objective is to increase the velocity and/or rate of mass inflow through the turbine through inserting a streamlined body in the region of interest. By utilizing the resulting flow field to increase hydraulic forcing on the waterwheel blades, the torque and/or RPM of the USWW can be increased. Based on experimental testing in the FAU wave tank at 1:5 prototype scale (280 mm wheel diameter) the flow concentrator was shown to produce an increase in device power coefficient of 17-55% measured over a velocity range of 0.16-0.45 m/s.