Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-184). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.E.S.)--Evergreen State College, 2009. / "June, 2009." Title from title screen (viewed 3/16/2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 150-171).

D. Tech. Electrical Engineering. / Aims to investigate wind resources of a given site and develop a mathematical model that is suited for the selection of an appropriate wind turbine for the site. Develop a mathematical model for a wind energy conversion system (WECS) and its use in studying the behaviour of wind generators in response to the electrical network disturbance. The impact of wind power on the transient stability of a power system and the integration impact of intermittent wind power on the small signal stability of a power system.

Recent scientific findings have generated considerable concern about the adverse effect of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on the world's climate in general and global warming in particular. In Canada and many other countries, this concern has led to the adoption of legal and political steps with the aim of curbing GHG emissions. The first part of this thesis describes the steps taken by Canada in this regard. / Such steps provide a strong incentive to Canadian power systems to incorporate reduction of GHG emissions in their planning process. Thus, in the second part of the thesis, a long-term supply mix planning model is developed. Since significant decrease in GHG emissions is unlikely to occur without removal of highly polluting power plants, this model allows for decommissioning these power plants. / Finally, the supply mix planning model is applied to evaluate the strategy of joint planning (as opposed to separate planning) of the power systems of Quebec and Ontario. Results obtained from the model leads to the conclusion that joint planning is preferable from the point of view of overall social and financial cost.

Electromechanical modeling efforts in the research field of vibration-based energy harvesting have been mostly focused on deterministic forms of vibrational input as in the typical case of harmonic excitation at resonance. However, ambient vibrational energy often has broader frequency content than a single harmonic, and in many cases it is entirely stochastic. As compared to the literature of harvesting deterministic forms of vibrational energy, few authors presented modeling approaches for energy harvesting from broadband random vibrations. These efforts have combined the input statistical information with the single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) dynamics of the energy harvester to express the electromechanical response characteristics. In most cases, the vibrational input is assumed to have broadband frequency content, such as white noise. White noise has a flat power spectral density (PSD) that might in fact excite higher vibration modes of an electroelastic energy harvester. In particular, cantilevered piezoelectric energy harvesters constitute such continuous electroelastic systems with more than one vibration mode. The main component of this thesis presents analytical and numerical electroelastic modeling, simulations, and experimental validations of piezoelectric energy harvesting from broadband random excitation. The modeling approach employed herein is based on distributed-parameter electroelastic formulation to ensure that the effects of higher vibration modes are included. The goal is to predict the expected value of the power output and the mean-square shunted vibration response in terms of the given PSD or time history of the random vibrational input. The analytical method is based on the PSD of random base excitation and distributed-parameter frequency response functions of the coupled voltage output and shunted vibration response. The first one of the two numerical solution methods employs the Fourier series representation of the base acceleration history in a Runge-Kutta-based ordinary differential equation solver while the second method uses an Euler-Maruyama scheme to directly solve the resulting electroelastic stochastic differential equations. The analytical and numerical simulations are compared with several experiments for a brass-reinforced PZT-5H cantilever bimorph under different random excitation levels.In addition to base-excited cantilevered configurations, energy harvesting using prismatic piezoelectric stack configurations is investigated. Electromechanical modeling and numerical simulations are given and validated through experiments for a multi-layer PZT-5H stack. After validating the electromechanical models for specific experimentally configurations and samples, various piezoelectric materials are compared theoretically for energy harvesting from random vibrations. Finally, energy harvesting from narrowband random vibrationsusing both configurations are investigated theoretically and experimentally.

Planning electricity supply is important because power demand continues to increase while there is a concomitant desire to increase reliance on renewable sources. Extant, research pays particular attention to highly variable, low-carbon energy sources such as wind and small-scale hydroelectric power. Models generally employ only a simple load leveling technique, ensuring that generation meets demand in every period. The current research considers the power transmission system as well as load leveling. A network model is developed to simulate the integration of highly variable non-dispatchable power into an electrical grid that relies on traditional generation sources, while remaining within the network's operating constraints. The model minimizes a quadratic cost function over two periods of 336 hours, with periods representing low (summer) and high (winter) demand, subject to various linear constraints. The model is numerically solved using Matlab and GAMS software environments. Results indicate that the economic benefit of introducing zero cost wind into an existing system heavily depends on the existing generation mixture, with system cost reductions favoring wind penetration into thermally dominated mixtures. Results also show that integrating wind power into a generation mixture with a large percentage of coal capacity can increase emissions for moderate wind penetrations, and that coal facilities may economically replace lower cost alternatives under certain conditions.

The last decade has delivered rapid structural change to the Australian electricity sector. The common conceptualisation of the sector's restructuring has been narrowly based around sector-specific regulatory change and the creation of a national electricity market. This thesis argues that such a focus provides an incomplete and inaccurate explanation of the transformation. Three closely interrelated layers of policies and actions embodying the precepts of neoliberalism, and implemented by the state, have driven the sector's transformation. These policies and actions transcend 'electricity-centric' policies and encompass policies which have become systemic to the Australian public sector as well as a third layer which has transformed the prevailing industrial paradigm across all industry sectors. The drivers of the electricity sector's restructuring -- and the outcomes and beneficiaries arising -- form the core research focus of this thesis. The research task is addressed by using the analytical framework of the French theory of r??gulation. The analysis reveals that the electricity sector has been Australia's second largest contributor of privatisation proceeds, remains dominated by government ownership and has falling levels of foreign ownership. Higher relative wage levels and union membership are also evident as have been job losses and substantial real price increases for households whereas those for business have generally fallen. The purported 'reform' centrepiece, the national electricity market, was found to be increasingly uncompetitive due to its own regulatory regime and market manipulation by government-owned companies. In addition, the sector exhibits a heightened precariousness: an unprecedented financial vulnerability arising from a strong appetite for debt and derivatives and exacerbated by payments to government owners not by new investment in generation capacity; increasing tensions between the nation-state and local-state concerning the national electricity market and compromises with labour; and an exposure to political and financial risks from the sector's global integration. The clear winners from the sector's restructuring are the owners of capital and the state, particularly the local-state, although the sustainability of this situation is questionable. The analysis also generates a number of propositions about the application of r??gulation theory to sector-based research.

Thesis (M. Env. St.)--University of Adelaide, Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-161).

Thesis (M. App. Sc.)--Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (MOcE)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-54). Also available on the World Wide Web.