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Optimization techniques are widely applied in the power system planning and operation to achieve more efficient and reliable power supply. With the introduction of new technologies, the complexity of today’s power system increased significantly. Intelligent optimization techniques, such as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), can efficiently deal with the new challenges compared to conventional optimization techniques. This thesis presents applications of discrete PSO in two specific environments. The first one is for day-ahead optimal scheduling of the reconfigurable gird with distributed energy resources. The second one is a two-step method for rapid reconfiguration of shipboard power system. Effective techniques, such as graph theory, optimal power flow and heuristic mutation, are employed to make the PSO algorithm more suitable to application environments and achieve better performance.

Short-term wind power forecasting is crucial for the efficient operation of power systems with high wind power penetration. Many forecasting approaches have been developed in the past to forecast short-term wind power. In recent years, artificial neural network-based approaches (ANNs) have been one of the most effective and popular approaches for short-term wind power forecasting because of the availability of large amounts of historical data and strong computational power. Although ANNs usually perform well for short-term wind power forecasting, further improvement can be obtained by selecting suitable input features, model parameters, and using forecasting techniques like spatial correlation and ensemble for ANNs. In this research, the effect of input features, model parameters, spatial correlation and ensemble techniques on short-term wind power forecasting performance of the ANNs models was evaluated. Pearson correlation coefficients between wind speed and other meteorological variables, together with a basic ANN model, were used to determine the impact of different input features on the forecasting performance of the ANNs. The effect of training sample resolution and training sample size on the forecasting performance was also investigated. To separately investigate the impact of the number of hidden layers and the number of hidden neurons on short-term wind power forecasting and to keep a single variable for each experiment, the same number of hidden neurons was used in each hidden layer. The ANNs with a total of 20 hidden neurons are shown to be sufficient for the nonlinear multivariate wind power forecasting problems faced in this dissertation. The ANNs with two hidden layers performed better than the one with a single hidden layer because additional hidden layer adds nonlinearity to the model. However, the ANNs with more than two hidden layers have the same or worse forecasting performance than the one with two hidden layers. ANNs with too many hidden layers and hidden neurons can overfit the training data. Spatial correlation technique was used to include meteorological variables from highly correlated neighbouring stations as input features to provide more surrounding information to the ANNs. The advantages of input features, model parameters, and spatial correlation and ensemble techniques were combined to form an ANN-based ensemble model to further enhance the forecasting performance from an individual ANN model. The simulation results show that all the available meteorological variables have different levels of impact on forecasting performance. Wind speed has the most significant impact on both short-term wind speed and wind power forecasting, whereas air temperature, barometric pressure, and air density have the smallest effects. The ANNs perform better with a higher data resolution and a significantly larger training sample size. However, one requires more computational power and a longer training time to train the model with a higher data resolution and a larger training sample size. Using the meteorological variables from highly related neighbouring stations do significantly improve the forecasting accuracy of target stations. It is shown that an ANNs-based ensemble model can further enhance the forecasting performance of an individual ANN by obtaining a large amount of surrounding meteorological information in parallel without encountering the overfitting issue faced by a single ANN model.

The PMU has been found to carry great deal of value for applications in the wide area monitoring of power systems. Historically, deployment of these devices has been limited by the prohibitive cost of the device itself. Therefore, the objective of the conventional optimal PMU placement problem is to find the minimum number devices, which if carefully placed throughout the network, either maximize observability or completely observe subject to different constraints. Now due to improved technology and digital relays serving a dual use as relay & PMU, the cost of the PMU device itself is not the largest portion of the deployment cost, but rather the substation installation. In a recently completed large-scale deployment of PMUs on the EHV network, Virginia Electric & Power Company (VEPCO) has found this to be so. The assumption then becomes that if construction work is done in a substation, enough PMU devices will be placed such that everything at that substation is measured. This thesis presents a technique proposed to minimize the number of substation installations thus indirectly minimizing the synchrophasor deployment costs. Also presented is a brief history of the PMU and its applications along with the conventional Optimal PMU placement problem and the scope for expanding this work. / Master of Science

Over the years, phased array antennas have provided electronic scanning with high gain and low sidelobe levels for many radar and satellite applications. The need for higher bandwidth as well as greater scanning ability has led to research in the area of aperiodically spaced antenna arrays. Aperiodic arrays use variable spacing between antenna elements and generally require fewer elements than periodically spaced arrays to achieve similar far field pattern performance. This reduction in elements allows the array to be built at much lower cost than traditional phased arrays. This thesis introduces the concept of aperiodic phased arrays and their design via optimization algorithms, specifically Particle Swarm Optimization. An axial mode helix is designed as the antenna array element to obtain the required half power beamwidth and bandwidth. The final optimized aperiodic array is compared to a traditional periodic array and conclusions are made. / Master of Science

Um sistema elétrico de potência agrega toda a estrutura pela qual a energia elétrica percorre, desde a sua geração até o seu consumo final. Nas últimas décadas observou-se um significativo aumento da demanda e, consequentemente, um aumento das interligações entre sistemas, tornando assim a operação e o controle destes extremamente complexos. Com o fim de obter a desejada operação destes sistemas, inúmeros estudos na área de Proteção de Sistemas Elétricos são realizados, pois é sabido que a interrupção desses serviços causam transtornos que podem assumir proporções desastrosas. Em sistemas elétricos malhados, nos quais as correntes de curto-circuito podem ser bidirecionais e podem ter intensidades diferentes devido a alterações topológicas nos mesmos, coordenar relés de sobrecorrente pode ser uma tarefa muito trabalhosa caso não haja nenhuma ferramenta de apoio. Neste contexto, este trabalho visa o desenvolvimento de uma metodologia eficiente que determine os ajustes otimizados dos relés de sobrecorrente direcionais instalados em sistemas elétricos malhados de forma a garantir a rapidez na eliminação da falta, bem como a coordenação e seletividade, considerando as várias intensidades das correntes de curto-circuito. Seguindo essa linha de raciocínio, observou-se que o uso de técnicas metaheurísticas para lidar com o problema da coordenação de relés é capaz de alcançar resultados significativos. No presente projeto, dentre os algoritmos inteligentes estudados, optou-se por pesquisar a aplicação do Algoritmo Enxame de Partículas Evolutivo (Evolutionary Particle Swarm Optimization) por este apresentar como características as vantagens tanto do Algoritmo Enxame de Partículas (Particle Swarm Optimization) quanto as dos Algoritmos Genéticos, possuindo assim grande potencial para solução destes tipos de problemas. / An electric power system aggregates all the structure in which the electric energy travels, from its generation to the final user. In the last decades it has been observed a significative increase of the demand and, consequently, an increment of the number of interconnections between systems, making the operation and control of them extremely complex. Aiming to obtain a good operation of this kind of systems, a lot of effort in the research area of power system protection has been spent, because it is known that the interruption of this service causes disorders that may assume disastrous proportions. In meshed power systems, in which the shortcircuit currents might be bidirectional and might have different magnitudes due to topological changes on them, to coordinate overcurrent relays may be a really hard task if you do not have a support tool. Look in this context, this work aims the development of and efficient methodology thats determine the optimal parameters of the directional overcurrent relays in a meshed electric power system ensuring the quickness in the fault elimination, as well as the coordination and selectivity of the protection system, considering the various intensities of the short-circuit currents. Maintaining this line, it has been noticed that the use of metaheuristics to deal with the problem of relay coordination is capable of achieving promissory results. In the present research, among the studied intelligent algorithms, it was chosen to use in it the Evolutionary Particle Swarm Optimization, due to its features thats is the advantages of the Particle Swarm Optimization as well as the Genetic Algorithms ones, hence it has great potential do solve theses kind of problems.

Neste estudo, o novo algoritmo hibrido autoconfigurado PSOS (Particle Swarm Optimization - Simplex) para avaliação da integridade estrutural a partir de respostas dinâmicas é apresentado. A formulação da função objetivo para o problema de minimização definido emprega funções de resposta em freqüência e/ou dados modais do sistema. Uma nova estratégia para o controle dos parâmetros do algoritmo Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), baseada no uso do método de Nelder - Mead é desenvolvida; conseqüentemente, a convergência do PSO fica independente dos parâmetros heurísticos e sua estabilidade e precisão são melhoradas. O método híbrido proposto teve melhor desempenho, nas diversas funções teste analisadas, quando comparado com os algoritmos simulated annealing, algoritmos genéticos e o PSO. São apresentados diversos problemas de detecção de dano, levando em conta os efeitos do ruído e da falta de dados experimentais. Em todos os casos, a posição e extensão do dano foram determinadas com sucesso. Finalmente, usando o PSOS, os parâmetros de um oscilador não linear (oscilador de Duffing) foram identificados. / In this study, a new auto configured Particle Swarm Optimization - Simplex algorithm for damage detection has been proposed. The formulation of the objective function for the minimization problem is based on the frequency response functions (FRFs) and the modal parameters of the system. A novel strategy for the control of the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) parameters based on the Nelder-Mead algorithm (Simplex method) is presented; consequently, the convergence of the PSOS becomes independent of the heuristic constants and its stability and accuracy are enhanced. The formulated hybrid method performs better in different benchmark functions than the Simulated Annealing (SA), the Genetic Algorithm (GA) and the basic PSO. Several damage identification problems, taking into consideration the effects of noisy and incomplete data, were studied. In these cases, the damage location and extent were determined successfully. Finally, using the PSOS, a non-linear oscillator (Duffing oscillator) was identified with good results.

Um sistema elétrico de potência agrega toda a estrutura pela qual a energia elétrica percorre, desde a sua geração até o seu consumo final. Nas últimas décadas observou-se um significativo aumento da demanda e, consequentemente, um aumento das interligações entre sistemas, tornando assim a operação e o controle destes extremamente complexos. Com o fim de obter a desejada operação destes sistemas, inúmeros estudos na área de Proteção de Sistemas Elétricos são realizados, pois é sabido que a interrupção desses serviços causam transtornos que podem assumir proporções desastrosas. Em sistemas elétricos malhados, nos quais as correntes de curto-circuito podem ser bidirecionais e podem ter intensidades diferentes devido a alterações topológicas nos mesmos, coordenar relés de sobrecorrente pode ser uma tarefa muito trabalhosa caso não haja nenhuma ferramenta de apoio. Neste contexto, este trabalho visa o desenvolvimento de uma metodologia eficiente que determine os ajustes otimizados dos relés de sobrecorrente direcionais instalados em sistemas elétricos malhados de forma a garantir a rapidez na eliminação da falta, bem como a coordenação e seletividade, considerando as várias intensidades das correntes de curto-circuito. Seguindo essa linha de raciocínio, observou-se que o uso de técnicas metaheurísticas para lidar com o problema da coordenação de relés é capaz de alcançar resultados significativos. No presente projeto, dentre os algoritmos inteligentes estudados, optou-se por pesquisar a aplicação do Algoritmo Enxame de Partículas Evolutivo (Evolutionary Particle Swarm Optimization) por este apresentar como características as vantagens tanto do Algoritmo Enxame de Partículas (Particle Swarm Optimization) quanto as dos Algoritmos Genéticos, possuindo assim grande potencial para solução destes tipos de problemas. / An electric power system aggregates all the structure in which the electric energy travels, from its generation to the final user. In the last decades it has been observed a significative increase of the demand and, consequently, an increment of the number of interconnections between systems, making the operation and control of them extremely complex. Aiming to obtain a good operation of this kind of systems, a lot of effort in the research area of power system protection has been spent, because it is known that the interruption of this service causes disorders that may assume disastrous proportions. In meshed power systems, in which the shortcircuit currents might be bidirectional and might have different magnitudes due to topological changes on them, to coordinate overcurrent relays may be a really hard task if you do not have a support tool. Look in this context, this work aims the development of and efficient methodology thats determine the optimal parameters of the directional overcurrent relays in a meshed electric power system ensuring the quickness in the fault elimination, as well as the coordination and selectivity of the protection system, considering the various intensities of the short-circuit currents. Maintaining this line, it has been noticed that the use of metaheuristics to deal with the problem of relay coordination is capable of achieving promissory results. In the present research, among the studied intelligent algorithms, it was chosen to use in it the Evolutionary Particle Swarm Optimization, due to its features thats is the advantages of the Particle Swarm Optimization as well as the Genetic Algorithms ones, hence it has great potential do solve theses kind of problems.

Neste estudo, o novo algoritmo hibrido autoconfigurado PSOS (Particle Swarm Optimization - Simplex) para avaliação da integridade estrutural a partir de respostas dinâmicas é apresentado. A formulação da função objetivo para o problema de minimização definido emprega funções de resposta em freqüência e/ou dados modais do sistema. Uma nova estratégia para o controle dos parâmetros do algoritmo Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), baseada no uso do método de Nelder - Mead é desenvolvida; conseqüentemente, a convergência do PSO fica independente dos parâmetros heurísticos e sua estabilidade e precisão são melhoradas. O método híbrido proposto teve melhor desempenho, nas diversas funções teste analisadas, quando comparado com os algoritmos simulated annealing, algoritmos genéticos e o PSO. São apresentados diversos problemas de detecção de dano, levando em conta os efeitos do ruído e da falta de dados experimentais. Em todos os casos, a posição e extensão do dano foram determinadas com sucesso. Finalmente, usando o PSOS, os parâmetros de um oscilador não linear (oscilador de Duffing) foram identificados. / In this study, a new auto configured Particle Swarm Optimization - Simplex algorithm for damage detection has been proposed. The formulation of the objective function for the minimization problem is based on the frequency response functions (FRFs) and the modal parameters of the system. A novel strategy for the control of the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) parameters based on the Nelder-Mead algorithm (Simplex method) is presented; consequently, the convergence of the PSOS becomes independent of the heuristic constants and its stability and accuracy are enhanced. The formulated hybrid method performs better in different benchmark functions than the Simulated Annealing (SA), the Genetic Algorithm (GA) and the basic PSO. Several damage identification problems, taking into consideration the effects of noisy and incomplete data, were studied. In these cases, the damage location and extent were determined successfully. Finally, using the PSOS, a non-linear oscillator (Duffing oscillator) was identified with good results.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2016-08-05T14:42:09Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) TESE PPGEP (Romero Luiz M. Sales Filho).pdf: 3453451 bytes, checksum: be76714c0d9a1e907faa85d15041f6ca (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-05T14:42:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) TESE PPGEP (Romero Luiz M. Sales Filho).pdf: 3453451 bytes, checksum: be76714c0d9a1e907faa85d15041f6ca (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-24 / CAPEs / In recent years, a family of probability distributions based on Nonextensive Statistical Mechanics, known as q-distributions, has experienced a surge in terms of applications to several fields of science and engineering. In this work the _-Exponential distribution will be studied in detail. One of the features of this distribution is the capability of modeling data that have a power law behavior, since it has a heavy-tailed probability density function (PDF) for particular values of its parameters. This feature allows us to consider this distribution as a candidate to model data sets with extremely large values (e.g. cycles to failure). Once the analytical expressions for the maximum likelihood estimates (MLE) of _-Exponential are very difficult to be obtained, in this work, we will obtain the MLE for the parameters of the _- Exponential using two different optimization methods: particle swarm optimization (PSO) and Nelder-Mead (NM), which are also coupled with parametric and non-parametric bootstrap methods in order to obtain confidence intervals for these parameters; asymptotic intervals are also derived. Besides, we will make inference about a useful performance metric in system reliability, the called index __(_, where the stress _ and strength are independent q-Exponential random variables with different parameters. In fact, when dealing with practical problems of stress-strength reliability, one can work with fatigue life data and make use of the well-known relation between stress and cycles until failure. For some materials, this kind of data can involve extremely large values and the capability of the q- Exponential distribution to model data with extremely large values makes this distribution a good candidate to adjust stress-strength models. In terms of system reliability, the index _ is considered a topic of great interest, so we will develop the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) for the index _ and show that this estimator is obtained by a function that depends on the parameters of the distributions for and _. The behavior of the MLE for the index _ is assessed by means of simulated experiments. Moreover, confidence intervals are developed based on parametric and non-parametric bootstrap. As an example of application, we consider two experimental data sets taken from literature: the first is related to the analysis of high cycle fatigue properties of ductile cast iron for wind turbine components, and the second one evaluates the specimen size effects on gigacycle fatigue properties of high-strength steel. / Nos últimos anos, tem sido notado em diversas áreas da ciência e engenharia, um aumento significativo na aplicabilidade da família q de distribuições de probabilidade que se baseia em Mecânica Estatística Não Extensiva. Uma das características da distribuição q-Exponencial é a capacidade de modelar dados que apresentam comportamento de lei de potência, uma vez que tal distribuição possui uma função densidade de probabilidade (FDP) que apresenta cauda pesada para determinados valores de parâmetros. Esta característica permite-nos considerar tal distribuição como candidata para modelar conjuntos de dados que apresentam valores extremamente grandes (Ex.: ciclos até a falha). Uma vez que expressões analíticas para os estimadores de máxima verossimilhança dos parâmetros não são facilmente encontradas, neste trabalho, iremos obter as estimativas de máxima verossimilhança dos parâmetros através de dois métodos de otimização: particle swarm optimization (PSO) e Nelder-Mead (NM), que além das estimativas pontuais, irão nos fornecer juntamente com abordagens bootstrap, intervalos de confiança para os parâmetros da distribuição; intervalos assintóticos também serão derivados. Além disso, faremos inferência sobre um importante índice de confiabilidade, o chamado Índice __(_, onde Y (estresse) e X (força) são variáveis aleatórias independentes. De fato, quando tratamos de problemas práticos de força-estresse, podemos trabalhar com dados de fadiga e fazer uso da bem conhecida relação entre estresse e ciclos até a falha. Para alguns materiais, esse tipo de variável pode apresentar dados com valores muito grandes e a capacidade da q-Exponencial em modelar esse tipo de dado torna essa uma distribuição a ser considerada para ajustar modelos de força-estresse. Em termos de confiabilidade de sistemas, o índice R é considerado um tópico de bastante interesse, assim iremos desenvolver os estimadores de máxima verossimilhança para esse índice e mostrar que esse estimador é obtido através de uma função que depende dos parâmetros da distribuição de X e Y. O comportamento do estimador é investigado através de experimentos simulados. Intervalos de confiança são desenvolvidos através de bootstrap paramétrico e nãoparamétrico. Duas aplicações envolvendo dados de ciclos até a falha e retiradas da literatura são consideradas: a primeira para ferro fundido e a segunda para aço de alta resistência.