Thesis (MBA) --University of Limpopo, 2010 / Management of electricity usage by household plays an important role in the growth of the country’s economy, and the avoidance of load shedding from Eskom. Electricity usage is very important for the growth of the economy and creation of job opportunities. The management of electricity usage by household’s customers will play a very critical role in the growth of the country’s economy and the creation of jobs. The contribution of households in applying the electricity saving techniques will reduce the risk of load shedding from Eskom during summer and winter. The save usage of electricity will give Eskom enough chance to build power stations to keep up with the demands and the growth of the South African economy. For the household customers to contribute positively, Eskom and the municipalities should conduct road shows to educate customers about the save usage of electrical appliances and the saving techniques that can be applied by households. Customer awareness campaigns should be conducted in both rural, urban and semi-urban areas. It will be very important for Eskom to communicate with the municipalities to run the awareness campaigns in the urban areas due to the high demand of electricity by households coming from the urban areas. The majority of households who are using the high consuming appliances of electricity reside in the urban areas and can play a vital role in minimizing the risk of load shedding that affected the country negatively in 2008. The quantitative research method was followed for this research. A questionnaire was used to collect the data from the household’s participants. Forty households from the five areas of Polokwane took part in the research totalling 200 participants. It was discovered that the customer awareness campaigns were conducted by Eskom in the areas where they service customers, although there are some gaps in other areas where the customers are complaining about lack of road shows to teach households about the electricity saving tips. Municipalities in all the five areas of Polokwane where the research was conducted are still lagging behind with the customer’s awareness campaigns. However Eskom customer services and the municipalities can work together and conduct road shows to reach more customers in order to reduce the risk of load shedding and power interruptions.

The research presented in this thesis aims to improve our knowledge regarding the impact of privatisation and deregulation of public service type infrastructure industries. In recent years, Australia's industry reform policies have critically relied on rapid deregulation of major utilities such as telecommunication, gas and electricity. Although several industries have been deregulated in the last two decades, our understanding regarding the impact of deregulation on residential electricity market is still developing. In order to accomplish the research, about 400 residential customers were surveyed and their electricity consumption patterns (ECP)were monitored by installing special electronic meters. The findings are discussed in detail. As an implication to policy and practice there is an urgent need for a nation-wide standard,reshaping the practices of the electricity marketing and establishing a time-dynamic ECP monitoring system. Another important implication concerns the well-founded theories in micro-economic literature. This research has established that the price of the commodities and services charged by public service type utility suppliers should not be left entirely to the market forces concerned with demand - supply equilibrium. There is an urgent need to understand the role of different socio-economic segments in contributing to the economic efficiencies of public service type assets. More efficient segments should be equitably rewarded for their contributions rather than penalised perhaps due to the lack of their bargaining power. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Energy economy in mobile devices is becoming an increasinglyimportant factor as the devices become more advancedand rich in features. A large part of the energy footprint of amobile device comes from the wireless communication module,and even more so as the amount of trac increases.In this paper we study the energy footprint of a mobilebroadband hardware module, and how it is aected by software,by performing systematic power consumption measurements.We show that there are several cases where thesoftware does not properly take into account the eect thatdata communication has on the power consumption. Thisopens up for potential energy savings by creating better applicationsthat are aware of the energy characteristics of thecommunication layer.

In this master thesis work, the power dissipation in a current-steering digital- to-analog converter, DAC, has been studied. The digital as well as the analog power dissipation have been modelled in MATLAB and it is shown that the MATLAB models agrees well with simulation results from the circuit simulator (Spectre). A case study on a DAC designed at Ericsson Microelectronics AB in Linköping has also been done. The DAC is a thermometer-coded current-steering DAC suitable for telecommunications applications. The telecommunication standards that have been studied are asymmetric digital subscriber line, ADSL, very high speed data digital subscriber line, VDSL, and, wireless local area network, WLAN. The conlusion of the study is that the power dissipation of the specific DAC, used in ADSL applications, 75mW, is far from optimized. It can theoretically be lowered to 3.5mW.

The anisotropic mass transport issues inside a fuel cell membrane have been studied in this thesis using computer modelling. The polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) conductivity of a PEM fuel cell (PEMFC) depends on the hydration state of the hydrophilic charged sites distributed in the pores of the membrane. Water humidification of these charged sites is crucial for sustaining the membrane conductivity and reducing concerning voltage losses of the cell. During the operation of a PEMFC, the transport of humidified inlet gases (fuel/oxidant) is influenced by external design factors such as flow field plate geometry of the gas circulating channels. As a result, there arises a distribution in the mass transport of water inside the membrane electrode assembly. A two-dimensional, cross-the-channel, fuel cell membrane layer mass transport model, developed in this work, helps the study of the impact of factors causing the distribution in the membrane ionic conductivity on ohmic losses.<p>The governing equations of the membrane mathematical model stem from the multicomponent framework of concentrated solution theory. All mass transport driving forces within the vapour and/or liquid equilibrated phases have been accounted in this research. A computational model, based on the finite control volume method, has been implemented using a line-by-line approach for solving the dependent variables of the mass transport equations in the two-dimensional membrane domain. The required boundary conditions for performing the anisotropic mass transport analysis have been obtained from a detailed agglomerate model of the cathode catalyst layer available in the literature.<p>The results obtained using boundary conditions with various flow field plate channel-land configurations revealed that the anisotropic water transport in the cathode half-cell severely affects the ohmic losses within the membrane. A partially humidified vapour equilibrated membrane simulation results show that a smaller channel-land ratio (1:1) sustains a better membrane performance compared to that with a larger one (2:1 or 4:1). Resistance calculations using the computer model revealed that ohmic losses across the membrane also depend on its physical parameters such as thickness. It was observed that the resistance offered by a thinner membrane towards vapour phase mass transport is comparatively lower than that offered by a thicker membrane. A further analysis accounting the practical aspects such as membrane swelling constraints, imposed by design limitations of a fuel cell, revealed that the membrane water content and ionic conductivity are altered with an increase in the compression constraint effects acting upon a free swelling membrane.

The anisotropic mass transport issues inside a fuel cell membrane have been studied in this thesis using computer modelling. The polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) conductivity of a PEM fuel cell (PEMFC) depends on the hydration state of the hydrophilic charged sites distributed in the pores of the membrane. Water humidification of these charged sites is crucial for sustaining the membrane conductivity and reducing concerning voltage losses of the cell. During the operation of a PEMFC, the transport of humidified inlet gases (fuel/oxidant) is influenced by external design factors such as flow field plate geometry of the gas circulating channels. As a result, there arises a distribution in the mass transport of water inside the membrane electrode assembly. A two-dimensional, cross-the-channel, fuel cell membrane layer mass transport model, developed in this work, helps the study of the impact of factors causing the distribution in the membrane ionic conductivity on ohmic losses.<p>The governing equations of the membrane mathematical model stem from the multicomponent framework of concentrated solution theory. All mass transport driving forces within the vapour and/or liquid equilibrated phases have been accounted in this research. A computational model, based on the finite control volume method, has been implemented using a line-by-line approach for solving the dependent variables of the mass transport equations in the two-dimensional membrane domain. The required boundary conditions for performing the anisotropic mass transport analysis have been obtained from a detailed agglomerate model of the cathode catalyst layer available in the literature.<p>The results obtained using boundary conditions with various flow field plate channel-land configurations revealed that the anisotropic water transport in the cathode half-cell severely affects the ohmic losses within the membrane. A partially humidified vapour equilibrated membrane simulation results show that a smaller channel-land ratio (1:1) sustains a better membrane performance compared to that with a larger one (2:1 or 4:1). Resistance calculations using the computer model revealed that ohmic losses across the membrane also depend on its physical parameters such as thickness. It was observed that the resistance offered by a thinner membrane towards vapour phase mass transport is comparatively lower than that offered by a thicker membrane. A further analysis accounting the practical aspects such as membrane swelling constraints, imposed by design limitations of a fuel cell, revealed that the membrane water content and ionic conductivity are altered with an increase in the compression constraint effects acting upon a free swelling membrane.

A micromachined magnetic field sensing system capable of measuring the direction of the Earths magnetic field has been fabricated, measured, and characterized. The system is composed of a micromachined silicon resonator combined with a permanent magnet, excitation and sensing coils, and a magnetic feedback loop. Electromagnetic excitation of the mechanical resonator enables it to operate with very low power consumption and low excitation voltage. The interaction between an external magnetic field surrounding the sensor and the permanent magnet generates a rotating torque on the silicon resonator disc, changing the effective stiffness of the beams and therefore the resonant frequency of the sensor. MEMS-based mechanically-resonant sensors, in which the sensor resonant frequency shifts in response to the measurand, are widely utilized. Such sensors are typically operated in their linear resonant regime. However, substantial improvements in resonant sensor performance can be obtained by designing the sensors to operate far into their nonlinear regime. This effect is illustrated through the use of a magnetically-torqued, rotationally-resonant MEMS platform. Platform structural parameters such as beam width and number of beams are parametrically varied subject to the constraint of constant small-deflection resonant frequency. Nonlinear performance improvement characterization is performed both analytically as well as with Finite Element Method (FEM) simulation, and confirmed with measurement results. These nonlinearity based sensitivity enhancement mechanisms are utilized in the device design. The complete magnetic sensing system consumes less than 200 microwatts of power in continuous operation, and is capable of sensing the direction of the Earths magnetic field. Such low power consumption levels enable continuous magnetic field sensing for portable electronics and potentially wristwatch applications, thereby enabling personal navigation and motion sensing functionalities. A total system power consumption of 138W and a resonator actuation voltage of 4mVpp from the 1.2V power supply have been demonstrated with capability of measuring the direction of the Earths magnetic field. Sensitivities of 0.009, 0.086, and 0.196 [mHz/(Hz and #903;degree)] for the Earths magnetic field were measured for 3, 4, and 6 beam structures, respectively.

In this study, buildings in southern Taiwan area were selected to perform full-scale energy auditing experiment so that the energy consumption of each building can be analyzed comparatively. The result of experimental investigation and computer simulation were compared analytically with good accuracy obtained. The result can further facilitate as the design guide and energy indexes to be adapted in the national building energy code in the future

<p>In this master thesis work, the power dissipation in a current-steering digital- to-analog converter, DAC, has been studied. The digital as well as the analog power dissipation have been modelled in MATLAB and it is shown that the MATLAB models agrees well with simulation results from the circuit simulator (Spectre). </p><p>A case study on a DAC designed at Ericsson Microelectronics AB in Linköping has also been done. The DAC is a thermometer-coded current-steering DAC suitable for telecommunications applications. The telecommunication standards that have been studied are asymmetric digital subscriber line, ADSL, very high speed data digital subscriber line, VDSL, and, wireless local area network, WLAN. The conlusion of the study is that the power dissipation of the specific DAC, used in ADSL applications, 75mW, is far from optimized. It can theoretically be lowered to 3.5mW.</p>

In recent years, oscillators are considered as inevitable blocks in many electronic systems. They are commonly used in digital circuits to provide clocking and in analog/RF circuits of communication transceivers to support frequency conversion. Nowadays, CMOS technology is the most applicable solution for VLSI and especially for modern integrated circuits used in wireless communications. The main purpose of this project is to design a high performance voltage-controlled oscillator (LC VCO) using 65nm CMOS technology. To meet the state-of-the-art requirements, several circuit solutions have been explored and the design work ended-up with a Quadrature VCO. The circuit operates at center frequency of 2.4 GHz. The phase noise of QVCO obtained by simulation is -140 dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset frequency which is 6 dB less compared to conventional LC VCOs. The power consumption is 3.6mW and the tuning voltage can be swept from 0.2 V to 1.2 V resulting in 2.25 GHz - 2.55 GHz frequency range.