The continued drive to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in order to mitigate climate change has led to an increase in demand for low-carbon energy sources, and the development of new technologies to harness the available energy in the wind, waves and tides. Many controversies surround these technologies, however, particularly with regards to their economic cost, environmental impacts and the implications of the variability of their output for security of the electricity supply. In order to make informed policy decisions on future developments of the electricity system, it is necessary to address these controversies and confirm the environmental, economic and social sustainability of these new renewable generators. This thesis specifically examines two key issues: whether new variable-output renewable energy generators actually deliver a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over their lifetimes, and whether they produce a viable energy return on energy investment. Although renewable energy sources are themselves ‘carbon free’, GHG emissions (and energy consumption) occur during the construction, maintenance and decommissioning of the generator infrastructure required to convert this energy into electricity. Furthermore, the variability of the output power from such generators has implications for the operation of the grid - there may be a requirement for additional reserve capacity and the increased part-loading of conventional plant is likely to reduce its operating efficiency. Carbon and energy paybacks are measures of the time required for a new renewable installation to offset these life cycle impacts. The work presented in this thesis examines both the life cycle impacts and the GHG emissions displacement of variable renewable generation, using Great Britain as a case study, in order to provide a basis for significantly more robust and reliable estimates of carbon and energy paybacks. The extensive literature survey concentrates on two key areas: current calculation methodologies and estimates for life cycle carbon and energy consumption of power generators; and the marginal emissions displacement of variable renewable generation. A detailed life cycle assessment of the Pelamis wave energy converter is presented, which sets the embodied carbon and energy in the context of the wider environmental impacts and includes an examination of the effect of different assumptions on the analysis results. In order to investigate the true emissions displacement of renewable generation, a historical analysis of real data from the National Grid was carried out, identifying the marginal displacement factor of wind power and taking into account the effect of the efficiency penalties of conventional plant. The findings of the analyses presented in this thesis are combined with information from the literature to examine the actual carbon and energy payback of existing renewable generation infrastructure on the British grid, and to provide detailed recommendations for future carbon and energy payback calculations.

Within the broad topical designation of “smart grid,” research in demand response, or demand-side management, focuses on investigating possibilities for electrically powered devices to adapt their power consumption patterns to better match the availability of intermittent renewable energy sources, especially wind. Devices such as battery chargers, heating and cooling systems, and computers can be controlled to change the time, duration, and magnitude of their power consumption while still meeting workload constraints such as deadlines and rate of throughput. This thesis presents a system by which a computer server, or multiple servers in a data center, can estimate the power imbalance on the electrical grid and use that information to dynamically change the power consumption as a service to the grid. Implementation on a testbed demonstrates the system with a hypothetical but realistic usage case scenario of an online video streaming service in which there are workloads with deadlines (high-priority) and workloads without deadlines (low-priority). The testbed is implemented with real servers, estimates the power imbalance from the grid frequency with real-time measurements of the live outlet, and uses a distributed, real-time algorithm to dynamically adjust the power consumption of the servers based on the frequency estimate and the throughput of video transcoder workloads. Analysis of the system explains and justifies multiple design choices, compares the significance of the system in relation to similar publications in the literature, and explores the potential impact of the system.

Η παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή εντάσσεται στο πλαίσιο που αφορά στο πεδίο ελέγχου συστημάτων ισχύος και ειδικότερα στην εφαρμογή προηγμένων μεθόδων στην ανάλυση και τον έλεγχο στρεφόμενων ηλεκτρικών μηχανών οδηγούμενων από ηλεκτρονικές διατάξεις ισχύος. Ειδικότερα, λαμβάνοντας υπόψη τα ακριβή μη γραμμικά μοντέλα των μετατροπέων ισχύος και των ηλεκτρικών μηχανών, αναλύεται η μορφή και η συμπεριφορά των ολοκληρωμένων συστημάτων που χρησιμοποιούνται για την οδήγηση των μηχανών και αποδεικνύεται ότι τα μοντέλα αυτά μπορούν να περιγραφούν με τη γενική παθητική Hamiltonian μορφή. Οι ηλεκτρονικές διατάξεις ισχύος που μελετώνται είναι ο μετατροπέας ΣΡ/ΣΡ ανύψωσης τάσης και ο τριφασικός μετατροπέας σε λειτουργία ανορθωτή και μετατροπέα, ενώ επίσης μελετώνται οι μηχανές ΣΡ ξένης διέγερσης και με διέγερση σε σειρά καθώς επίσης και η τριφασική επαγωγική μηχανή. Έχοντας αναπτύξει τα πλήρη μοντέλα, προτείνεται ένας νέος μη γραμμικός νόμος ελέγχου κατάλληλος για τη γενική παθητική Hamiltonian μορφή των συστημάτων τα οποία περιλαμβάνουν διακοπτικούς μετατροπείς ισχύος. Μια εκτενής μη γραμμική μαθηματική ανάλυση αποδεικνύει ότι ο προτεινόμενος νόμος ελέγχου εγγυάται ευστάθεια και σύγκλιση στο επιθυμητό σημείο ισορροπίας για το σύστημα κλειστού βρόχου. Ο έλεγχος αυτός εφαρμόζεται για τον έλεγχο κινητήρων ΣΡ οδηγούμενων από μετατροπέα ΣΡ/ΣΡ ανύψωσης τάσης καθώς και στην τριφασική επαγωγική μηχανή. Η ανάλυση και η εφαρμογή του ελέγχου οδηγεί στην ανάγκη για επεκτάσεις στη μορφή του ώστε να αυξηθεί η σθεναρότητά του ως προς τις αρχικές συνθήκες, να βελτιωθεί η μεταβατική του συμπεριφορά και να εφαρμοστεί κατάλληλα σε τριφασικούς μετατροπείς ισχύος ώστε να εγγυάται συγκεκριμένες λειτουργίες όπως γραμμική διαμόρφωση. Με την εφαρμογή του ελέγχου στην επαγωγική μηχανή, προτείνεται μια πλήρης σχεδίαση που λειτουργεί είτε βασιζόμενη στη λογική του προσανατολισμένου πεδίου, είτε πλήρως ανεξάρτητα από αυτή, ενώ μελετάται και η συμπεριφορά του σε καταστάσεις εξασθένησης πεδίου. Τέλος, η λογική του ελέγχου επιβεβαιώνεται σε ένα σύστημα ανεμογεννήτριας συνδεδεμένης στο δίκτυο μέσω πλήρους συστήματος μετατροπέων ισχύος με διασύνδεση συνεχούς ρεύματος. Σε όλες τις περιπτώσεις παρουσιάζονται προσομοιώσεις και κατά το δυνατό πειραματικά αποτελέσματα μέσω κατάλληλων εργαστηριακών διατάξεων. / The present PhD dissertation is addressed in the research field of control of power systems and more precisely in providing advanced methods for the analysis and control of electrical machines driven by power devices. Particularly, taking into account the accurate nonlinear models of the power converters and the electrical machines, the structure and the behavior of the complete models used for machine driving are analyzed based on the generalized Hamiltonian-passive form. The power converters discussed are the DC/DC boost converter and the three-phase power converter used as a rectifier or an inverter, while the separately-excited and the series-connected DC motors along with the three-phase induction machine are studied as well. After providing the complete dynamic models, a new nonlinear control scheme suitable for the generalized Hamiltonian-passive systems with switching devices is proposed. Using an extended mathematical analysis, it is proven that the proposed controller guarantees stability and convergence to the desired equilibrium for the closed-loop system. The proposed control application is tested for DC drive systems fed by DC/DC boost converters as well as for induction motor systems fed by AC/DC/AC converters. The control analysis and application leads to the extension of the control structure in order to increase the robustness with respect to the initial conditions, to improve the transient performance and to be suitably applied in three-phase power converter systems, guaranteeing simultaneously certain operating constraints such as linear modulation. For the case of the induction motor control, a complete form of the controller is proposed that acts either in the frame of field-orientation or independently from it, while the controller is also studied in field-weakening conditions. Finally, the controller performance is studied in a wind generating system connected to the grid through a full-scale power converter. In all cases, simulation results are presented while experimental results are provided where possible by using suitable laboratory testbeds.

The demand for electrical power is growing due to factors such as population growth, urbanisation, and the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. To be able to keep up with the changes in electricity demand, the Swedish power grid must connect more renewable power generation, but also  increase its transmission capacity. Traditionally, power grids are expanded to increase the transmission capacity which requires a lot of time and investments. In order not to hinder the electrification of society, it is important to adequately estimate the current transmission capacity and plan the expansions accordingly. In the past, the generation of electrical power was primarily based on dispatchable energy sources, and the planning of new connections to the grid was assessed according to the stable and controllable nature of the electricity supply. However, renewable sources like solar and wind power are affected by weather variations. Therefore, the traditional methods of planning the power grid are no longer sufficient. Instead, there is a need to develop and implement new methods that account for the variable nature of renewable energy sources, and also the possible complementarity between different renewable power sources. This can possibly allow more connection of renewable power generation to the grid, without the need of expanding it. The aim of this thesis is to investigate two different methods for analysing how much renewable power generation that can be connected to the power grid, so-called hosting capacity methods. The first method is a deterministic method which is traditionally used in power system analyses since it is a fast, simple and conservative method. This method does neither consider the intermittent nature of solar and wind power, nor any complementarity. The second method is a time series method which considers the complementarity and intermittency of solar and wind power but requires much data. The methods are compared in regards to assessed hosting capacities, risks and reliability of results. The study is performed on a regional grid case in the middle of Sweden. Solar and wind power plants with different capacities are modeled at ten buses in the power grid. The power grid is analysed in PSS/E with loading of lines and voltage levels determining the assessed hosting capacities. A correlation map presenting the temporal correlations of solar and wind power over the grid case area is also created in order to evaluate the complementarity in the area and its possible effects on the assessed hosting capacities.  The results show that the time series method is more reliable than the deterministic method. This is due to the difficulties in identifying accurate worst case hours that are used for the deterministic method. The time series method is also preferred as it considers complementarity between solar and wind power. However, the correlation map argues that the grid case area has weakly positive correlations, meaning low complementarity between solar and wind power. This suggests that the differences in hosting capacity between the two methods are more likely dependent on the temporal variations in existing load and power generation. The differences in assessed hosting capacity between the ten buses in the power grid are probably not due to the local complementarity either, but rather the structural differences of the grid in terms of components, local loads and existing power generation.

Access to electricity is an important factor for rural development as many needs and services such as education, health care and water supply all have energy requirements. The aim of this study was to develop a sustainable electrification system based on renewable energy for the remote village Keteira on Moala Island, Fiji. Keteira does not currently have any reliable electricity supply, but the Fijian Government has set ambitious goals regarding electricity access and the renewable share in the power generation which led to the conclusion that Keteira in the near future will have access to electricity. The daily electricity demand profile for the village has been estimated based on consumption patterns available from other communities in similar living standards. The renewable energy sources available to Moala island have been identified as solar, wind and biomass energy, and the potentials of those sources were calculated based on global data libraries available online. Six different electrification system alternatives were developed, based on the aforementioned energy resources, either as single energy source-based systems or hybrid energy system solutions.These system alternatives were evaluated analytically and optimised for Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) using the software HOMER Pro. The results showed that the optimal LCOE was 0.516 USD/kWh for the hybrid energy system which consisted of biomass, wind, solar and battery storage designed to supply the maximum power demand and daily energy demand in the village. Capital investment cost (CAPEX) was estimated as 480,500 USD for installation of the optimum system. However, it should be taken into account that no field study could be conducted in Keteira due to covid-19 and that the resulting system therefore might not be the most optimal for Keteira’s real conditions. / Tillgång till elektricitet är en viktig faktor för utveckling av landsbygden eftersom många behov och tjänster såsom utbildning, hälsovård och vattenförsörjning har energikrav. Syftet med denna studie var att utveckla ett hållbart elektrifieringssystem baserat på förnybar energi för den avlägset belägna byn Keteira på Moala Island, Fiji. Keteira har för närvarande ingen pålitlig elförsörjning, men den Fijianska regeringen har satt upp ambitiösa mål gällande tillgång till elektricitet och den förnybara andelen i kraftproduktionen vilket ledde till slutsatsen att Keteira kommer att få tillgång till elektricitet inom en snar framtid. Den dagliga elbehovsprofilen för byn har uppskattats baserat på tillgängliga konsumtionsmönster från andra samhällen med liknande levnadsstandard. De förnybara energikällor som finns på ön Moala har identifierats som sol-, vind- och biomassaenergi, där potentialen för dessa källor beräknades baserat på globala databibliotek tillgängliga online. Sex olika elektrifieringssystemsalternativ utvecklades baserat på de tidigare nämnda energiresurserna, antingen som systemlösningar bestående av en energikälla eller som hybrid-energisystemlösningar. Dessa systemalternativ utvärderades analytiskt och optimerades för Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) med hjälp av programvaran HOMER Pro. Resultaten visade att den optimala LCOE var 0,516 USD / kWh för hybridenergisystemet vilket bestod av biomassa, vind, sol och batterilagring utformat för att tillgodose det maximala kraftbehovet och det dagliga energibehovet i byn. Kapitalinvesteringskostnaden (CAPEX) beräknades till 480 500 USD för installation av det optimala systemet. Det bör dock beaktas att ingen fältstudie kunde genomföras i Keteira på grund av covid-19 och att det resulterande systemet därför kanske inte är det mest optimala för Keteiras verkliga förhållanden.