Thesis (M. Eng.)--Carleton University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-193). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MScEng)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001, / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A frequency domain Power Line Carrier (PLC) simulation program, with the ability to simulate signal attenuation including the coupling equipment, was developed. This simulation program was put to the test against the independent program of Professor L.M. Wedepohl and against practical field measurements. The predictions of the two programs were in precise agreement for a wide range of input parameters. Results from the field tests and predictions also showed close agreement. Further investigations, applying the simulation program, explained how ground conductors and soil resistivity influences PLC signal propagation. An experiment, which was developed to monitor PLC signal attenuation, was installed on the PLC system between Koeberg power station and Acacia substation, both near Cape Town. Data logged continuously over 28 days, indicated measurable and deterministic PLC signal attenuation variations with typical time constants of a few hours. Simulations of the PLC system indicated that the signal amplitude variations were influenced by changes in the height above the ground plane of the phase conductor. This significant finding creates the possibility to obtain real time knowledge of the sag of an Over Head Transmission Line (OHTL) by exploiting an operational PLC system. The knowledge about real time sag can be used in economical dynamic ampacity control systems. The practical and financial benefits to the electricity supply and distribution industry can be significant. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: 'n Frekwensie gebied "Power Line Carrier" (PLC) simulasie program wat die sein verswakking en die koppeling verliese kan naboots, is ontwikkel. Die program is getoets teen die onafhanklike program van Professor L.M. Wedepohl asook praktiese metings in die veld. Die vooruitskatings van beide programme is presies die selfde vir 'n wye reeks van parameters. Metings en nabootsings het ook noue ooreenstemming getoon. Verdere ondersoek, m. b. v. die program, is gedoen ten einde te verduidelik hoe grond-geleiers en grond weerstand die PLC sein se voortplanting beïnvloed. 'n Eksperiment om die PLC sein se verswakking mee te monitor is ontwerp. Die eksperiment was geïnstalleer in die PLC stelsel tussen Koeberg kernkragstasie en Acacia substasie, naby Kaapstad. Die eksperiment was vir 28 dae geaktiveer en die data wat die eksperiment opgelewer het toon meetbare PLC sein verswakking met tyd konstantes van 'n paar uur. Verdere nabootsings het gewys dat die veranderende verswakking in die PLC seinsterkte toegeskryf kan word aan die wisseling in hoogte van die fase geleiers bo die grondvlak. Hierdie bevinding is van besondere belang aangesien dit die moontlikheid oopmaak om die gemiddelde sak van kraglyne in reële tyd en onder bedryfs toestande te kan meet. Die informasie van die reële sak van kraglyne kan gebruik word in effektiewe stroomdrae-vermoë beheer stelsels. Die praktiese en finansiële voordele wat krag voorsieners en verspreiders hieruit kan put kan aansienlik wees.

Dans le cadre de l’avion plus électrique, les avionneurs cherchent à remplacer les commandes de vol hydrauliques par des commandes de vol électriques, avec pour intérêt de diminuer le poids, et d’améliorer la flexibilité des équipements aéronautiques. Sachant que sur un A380, la distance cumulée pour les câbles peut atteindre plus de 500 km, la solution consistant à faire cohabiter les transmissions de données et de puissances au sein de mêmes câbles grâce à la technologie CPL pourrait contribuer à réduire la masse de câble dans un avion. Cependant les câbles de puissance n’ont pas été dimensionnés pour transmettre un signal informationnel, et les équipements présents sur le réseau sont source de bruits. Dans ce contexte nous souhaitons montrer la faisabilité d’une transmission CPL soumise aux contraintes avioniques tout en respectant les normes aéronautiques. La première partie des travaux a consisté à mesurer le canal de propagation sur un banc de test représentatif d’un environnement aéronautique. Le canal de propagation est composé de deux coupleurs de type inductif ou capacitif dont le but est de connecter les câbles de télécommunication au réseau de puissance et d’une paire bifilaire torsadée de puissance d’une longueur de 32 m représentative d’un réseau HVDC ±270 V. Nous avons alors testé trois architectures différentes : l’architecture point-À-Point avec coupleur capacitif, l’architecture point-À-Point avec coupleur inductif et l’architecture point-À-Multipoints avec coupleur inductif. Le but de ces mesures a été d’évaluer la fonction de transfert du canal sur la bande [1 ; 100] MHz. Nous avons alors calculé les éléments caractéristiques du canal comme la bande de cohérence et l’étalement des retards. Après la caractérisation du canal de propagation, nous avons choisi et dimensionné les algorithmes de traitement du signal au regard des spécifications aéronautiques à savoir : un débit utile de 10 Mbit/s, un temps de latence de 167-334 μs, un TEB de 10-12 et le respect du gabarit de la DO-160 en émission conduite. Au regard de la fonction de transfert du canal, nous avons choisi d’utiliser l’OFDM comme technique de transmission. Ainsi, à l’aide de la caractérisation du canal de propagation nous avons au cours d’une étude paramétrique défini les paramètres de la transmission OFDM au regard des spécifications de débit et de temps réel. Dans un second temps, nous avons implanté les paramètres OFDM ainsi que la modélisation du canal de propagation dans une chaine de transmission Matlab. Cette chaine nous a alors permis de vérifier les paramètres issues de l’étude paramétrique ainsi que de définir le système de codage de canal (Reed-Solomon et code convolutif) pour respecter les spécifications aéronautiques. La dernière partie de cette thèse a consisté en l’étude du système de synchronisation. Du fait de la stabilité du canal de propagation, nous avons considéré une synchronisation fine du système lors d’une phase d’initialisation puis nous nous somme focalisé sur le dimensionnement d’un système de suivi dans le but de corriger le décalage de fenêtre FFT dû au défaut de fréquence d’échantillonnage. Pour limiter les pertes de débit lors de la phase de suivi, nous avons proposé une estimation de l’erreur de fréquence d’échantillonnage sur la phase des données reçues sur une période de 20 symboles OFDM. / In the new aircrafts, hydraulic flight control systems are replaced by electric flight control systems. The main interests are a better flexibility of the aeronautical equipments and a decrease in maintenance costs and construction costs, but the major problem is the increasing of the wires length. In order to decrease this length, it has been proposed to use power line communications (PLC) technology for flight control systems. The decrease of wire will first decrease aircraft weight and therefore the consumption of kerosene and on the other hand will simplify maintenance and construction. The first part of this work is the measurement and the characterisation of the propagation channel on an aeronautic test bench (with HVDC supply and loads). This channel is composed of two couplers (inductive or capacitive) in order to connect the telecommunication system on the power wires with galvanic isolation and one twisted pair of 32 m longs. We have tested three architectures: the point-To-Point architecture with capacitive coupler, the point-To-Point architecture with inductive coupler and the point-To-Multipoint architecture with inductive coupler. The purpose of these measurements is to measured the transfer function on the [1 ; 100] MHz bandwidth. Then, we have computed the channel parameters like the coherence bandwidth and the delay spread. The second step was the design of the signal processing algorithm in order to satisfy the aeronautical specifications: a useful bite rate of 10 Mbit/s, a latency of 167- 334 μs, a BER of 10-12 and the respect of the DO-160 gauge in conducted emissions. For the transmissions, we have chosen the OFDM technology which has been use with success in other PLC systems. With the channel characterization, we have proposed a parametric study in order to define the OFDM parameters to satisfy the bite rate and the real time constraints. After, we compute digital simulations with Matlab to check the OFDM parameters. With these simulations, we have also defined the channel coding parameters (Reed-Solomon and convolutional coding) to satisfy the aeronautical specifications. The last part of this study was the design of the synchronisation system. Because of the channel stability, we considered a precise synchronisation after an initialisation period. Then, we focus on the estimation of the FFT shift, due to the sampling frequency shift, during a following-Up period. In order to avoid the decrease of the latency and the bitrate due to the pilot symbols or pilot sub-Carriers insertion, we proposed to correct the FFT shift with the receive data thanks to the maximal likelihood algorithm.

No description available.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in ful lment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in Engineering (Electrical). Johannesburg, 2016 / Power-line communications can be used for the transfer of data across electrical net- works in applications such as automatic meter reading in smart grid technology. As the power-line channel is harsh and plagued with non-Gaussian noise, robust forward error correction schemes are required. This research is a comparative study where a Luby transform code is concatenated with power-line communication systems provided by an up-to-date standard published by electricit e R eseau Distribution France named G3 PLC. Both decoding using Gaussian elimination and belief propagation are imple- mented to investigate and characterise their behaviour through computer simulations in MATLAB. Results show that a bit error rate performance improvement is achiev- able under non worst-case channel conditions using a Gaussian elimination decoder. An adaptive system is thus recommended which decodes using Gaussian elimination and which has the appropriate data rate. The added complexity can be well tolerated especially on the receiver side in automatic meter reading systems due to the network structure being built around a centralised agent which possesses more resources. / MT2017

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:22:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-11-30Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:27:56Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 carvalho_cg_me_ilha.pdf: 1013674 bytes, checksum: 2251b87eda27daaaa94e554489ebe5d0 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O objetivo deste trabalho é desenvolver uma metodologia para definir um condutor equivalente para um condutor múltiplo. O método baseia-se no fato de que os parâmetros dos subcondutores estão distribuídos ao longo do comprimento dos mesmos e, deste modo, cada subcondutor deve ser tratado como uma linha de transmissão. Inicialmente são obtidas as relações entre as correntes e tensões nos dois terminais de cada subcondutor. Em seguida, considera-se que a corrente no condutor múltiplo deve ser igual à corrente no condutor equivalente. Uma vez que as tensões e correntes nos terminais do condutor equivalente são conhecidas, é possível obter a impedância longitudinal e a admitância transversal deste condutor. O método desenvolvido foi aplicado em um condutor múltiplo hipotético constituído de dois subcondutores. Os resultados obtidos com este método são comparados com o método clássico de obtenção do condutor equivalente, que se baseia no raio médio geométrico dos subcondutores do condutor múltiplo. Para isto foi mostrado que quando o raio médio geométrico é usado para definir um condutor equivalente de um condutor múltiplo, os parâmetros longitudinais e transversais do condutor equivalente são afetados. / The objective of this work is to improve a methodology to define an equivalent conductor for a bundled conductor. The proposed methodology takes into account that the longitudinal and transversal parameters are distributed along the subconductors. This way, each subconductor of a bundled conductor needs to be considered as being a transmission line. Initially the relationships among currents and voltages at sending and receiving end of each subcondutor are obtained. Then, it is considered that total currents and voltages at sending and receiving end of the bundled conductor is equal to currents and voltages at sending and receiving end of the equivalent conductor. Taking into account that parameters of the equivalent conductor are distributed parameters, it is possible to obtain them from currents and voltages at sending and receiving end. The proposed methodology was applied in a hypothetical bundled conductor constituted by two subconductors. The results were compared with results obtained by using geometric mean radius. It was shown that when geometric mean radius is used to define an equivalent conductor of a bundled conductor, the longitudinal and transversal parameters of the equivalent conductor are severely affected.

Orientador: Sérgio Kurokawa / Banca: Mariângela de Carvalho Bovolato / Banca: Humberto Mendes Mazzini / Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho é desenvolver uma metodologia para definir um condutor equivalente para um condutor múltiplo. O método baseia-se no fato de que os parâmetros dos subcondutores estão distribuídos ao longo do comprimento dos mesmos e, deste modo, cada subcondutor deve ser tratado como uma linha de transmissão. Inicialmente são obtidas as relações entre as correntes e tensões nos dois terminais de cada subcondutor. Em seguida, considera-se que a corrente no condutor múltiplo deve ser igual à corrente no condutor equivalente. Uma vez que as tensões e correntes nos terminais do condutor equivalente são conhecidas, é possível obter a impedância longitudinal e a admitância transversal deste condutor. O método desenvolvido foi aplicado em um condutor múltiplo hipotético constituído de dois subcondutores. Os resultados obtidos com este método são comparados com o método clássico de obtenção do condutor equivalente, que se baseia no raio médio geométrico dos subcondutores do condutor múltiplo. Para isto foi mostrado que quando o raio médio geométrico é usado para definir um condutor equivalente de um condutor múltiplo, os parâmetros longitudinais e transversais do condutor equivalente são afetados. / Abstract: The objective of this work is to improve a methodology to define an equivalent conductor for a bundled conductor. The proposed methodology takes into account that the longitudinal and transversal parameters are distributed along the subconductors. This way, each subconductor of a bundled conductor needs to be considered as being a transmission line. Initially the relationships among currents and voltages at sending and receiving end of each subcondutor are obtained. Then, it is considered that total currents and voltages at sending and receiving end of the bundled conductor is equal to currents and voltages at sending and receiving end of the equivalent conductor. Taking into account that parameters of the equivalent conductor are distributed parameters, it is possible to obtain them from currents and voltages at sending and receiving end. The proposed methodology was applied in a hypothetical bundled conductor constituted by two subconductors. The results were compared with results obtained by using geometric mean radius. It was shown that when geometric mean radius is used to define an equivalent conductor of a bundled conductor, the longitudinal and transversal parameters of the equivalent conductor are severely affected. / Mestre

Electric power systems are among the most complex man made systems on the world. Most of the time, they operate under quasi-steady state. With the ever increasing load demand and the advent of the deregulated power market recently, the power systems are pushed more often to operate close to their design limits and with more uncertainty of the system operating mode. With the increasing complexity and more interconnected systems, power systems are operating closer to their performance limits. As a result, maintaining system security and facilitating efficient system operation have been challenging tasks. Transmission systems are considered the most vital components in power systems connecting both generating/substation and consumer areas with several interconnected networks. In the past, they were owned by regulated, vertically integrated utility companies. They have been designed and operated so that conditions in close proximity to security boundaries are not frequently encountered. However, in the new open access environment, operating conditions tend to be much closer to security boundaries, as transmission use is increasing in sudden and unpredictable directions. Transmission unbundling, coupled with other regulatory requirements, has made new transmission facility construction more difficult. Unfortunately these transmission lines are frequently subjected to a wide variety of faults. Thus, providing proper protective functions for them is essential. Generally the protection of Extra High Voltage (EHV) and Ultra High Voltage (UHV) transmission lines are carried out by the use of distance relays in view of the fact that they provide fast fault clearance and system coordination. Transmission line relaying involves detection, classification and location of transmission line faults. Fast detections of faults enable quick isolation of the faulty line from service and hence, protecting it from the harmful effects of fault. Classification of faults means identification of the type of fault and faulted line section, and this information is required for finding the fault location and assessing the extent of repair work to be carried out. Accurate fault location is necessary for facilitating quick repair and restoration of the line, to improve the reliability and availability of the power supply. Generally, the protection system using conventional distance relaying algorithm involves three zones. The first zone (Z1) of the relay is set to detect faults on 80%90% of the protected line without any intentional time delay. The second zone (Z2) is set to protect the remainder of the line plus an adequate margin. Second zone relays are time delayed for 1530 cycles to coordinate with relays at remote bus. The settings of the third zone (Z3) ideally will cover the protected line, plus all of the longest line leaving the remote station. Z3 of a distance relay is used to provide the remote backup protection in case of the failure of the primary protection. Since Z3 covers an adjacent line, a large infeed (outfeed) from the remote terminal causes the relay to underreach (overreach). Thus, a very large load at the remote terminal may cause distance relays to mal-operate. Settings for conventional distance relays are selected to avoid overreach/underreach operation under the worst case scenarios. Studies of significant power system disturbances reported by North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) indicate that protective relays are involved, one way or another, in 75% of the major disturbances and the most troublesome ones are backup protection relays. With their limited view of the interconnected network based on their locally measured inputs, conventional backup protection relays generally take actions to protect a localized region of the network without considering the impact on the whole network. Relay mal-operations or unintended operations due to overload, power swing, and relay hidden failure are the main factors contributing to the blackouts. Most of the problems are associated with relays tripping too many healthy lines. Since a relay makes the decision automatically to remove a component from the system according to its internal mechanism, the relay mal-operation or unintended operation can make an effective influence on the system stability. Approaches to reduce the relay misbehavior need to be identified. Real time monitoring tools to assess the relay misbehavior are needed, providing the system operator, the accurate information about unfolding events. Existing transmission line protection scheme still has drawbacks. Advanced fault analysis mechanism to enhance the system dependability and security simultaneously is desirable. Relay settings play a significant role in major blackouts. So correct settings should be calculated and coordinated by suitable studies. Attempts are to be made to employ highly accurate AI techniques in protective system implementation. The research work focussed on developing knowledge based intelligent tools for the improving the transmission system security. A process to obtain knowledgebase using SVMs for ready post-fault diagnosis purpose is developed. SVMs are used as Intelligent tool for identifying the faulted line that is emanating from a substation and finding the distance from the substation. The approach uses phasor values of the line voltages and currents after the fault has been detected. The approach is particularly important for post-fault diagnosis of any mal-operation of relays following a disturbance in the neighboring line connected to the same substation. This may help in improving the fault monitoring/diagnosis process and coordination of the protective relays, thus assuring secure operation of the power systems. The approach based on SVMs, exploits the first part of this goal. For comparison, a classifier and regression tools based on the RBFNNs was also investigated. The RBFNNs and SVM networks are introduced and considered as an appropriate tool for pattern recognition problems. Results on a practical 24Bus equivalent EHV transmission system of Indian Southern region and on IEEE39 bus New England system are presented to illustrate the proposed method. In a large connected power network, the number of generators are more in number and their set patterns number will be large. As the line flows are sensitive to generator set patterns, it is difficult to consider all the combinations of generators while simulating the training and testing patterns as input to SVMs. To simulate the training and testing patterns corresponding to possible changes in line flows to meet the load in the present deregulated environment, line flow sensitive generators set to be identified/merit-listed. In this regard, to identify the most sensitive generators for a particular line of interest, a method from the literature is adopted and developed a software program based on the graph theory concepts. Case studies on generator contributions towards loads and transmission lines are illustrated on an equivalent 33bus system, a part of Indian Northern grid with major part of Uttar Pradesh and also with an equivalent 246bus system of practical Indian Southern grid. A distance relay coordination approach is proposed using detailed simulation studies, taking into account various operating conditions and fault resistances. Support Vector Machines as a pattern classifier is used for obtaining distance relay coordination. The scheme uses the apparent impedance values observed during fault as inputs. SVMs are used to build the underlying concept between reach of different zones and the impedance trajectory during fault. An improved performance with the use of SVMs, keeping the reach when faced with different fault conditions as well as line flow changes are illustrated with an equivalent 246bus system of practical Indian Southern grid and also with an equivalent 265bus system of practical Indian Western grid. A strategy of Supportive System is described to aid the conventional protection philosophy in combating situations where protection systems are mal-operated and/or information is missing and provide selective and secure coordination. Highly accurate identification/discrimination of zones plays a key role in effective implementation of the region-wide supportive system. This typically requires a multiclass SVM classifier to effectively analyze/build the underlying concept between reach of different zones and the apparent impedance trajectory during fault. Different multiclass methods are compared for their performance with respect to accuracy, number of iterations, number of support vectors, training and testing time. The performance analysis of these methods is presented on three data sets belonging to the training and testing patterns of three supportive systems for a region, part of a network, which is an equivalent 265bus system of practical Indian Western grid.