This thesis undertakes a review of the Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) for the St. Lawrence River Area of Concern (AOC). As directed by Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, RAPs are to take a systematic and comprehensive ecosystem approach to restoration, and ensure that the public is consulted about restoration activities. Through triangulation of three different research methods: twelve semi-structured interviews, observational research, and document analysis, this research explores how these two principles were incorporated into the St. Lawrence River AOC. This research draws from environmental management and governance literature in order to describe the implementation and decision-making frameworks of the RAP program. In theory an ecosystem approach is to be holistic and comprehensive in scope and application. In terms of the St. Lawrence River AOC, the holistic nature of the restoration process was hindered by the jurisdictional complexity of the region; Not only was there two federal governments, Canada and the United States, but the province of Ontario, state of New York, and the Mohawks of Akwesasne Nation. These jurisdictional divisions led to the eventual decision to separate the AOC into two RAPs at Massena, NY and Cornwall, ON. This division led to a divergence in impairment indicator identification and resultant restoration practices, timelines for RAP progress reports, availability of financial resources, and collective organization of restoration duties. The goal of each RAP is to eventually delist as an AOC. Through a review of the collective organization of the Cornwall RAP, it is best described as participatory and inclusive in terms of governance. There was representation and membership from government, industry, First Nations, and the public making the Cornwall RAP an example of solidarity in action. Because there has been a unification of visions through the RAP process, which is to have a clean and health St. Lawrence River, momentum has been generated to expand the ideals of the RAP to a broader St. Lawrence River collective. Lessons learned from this restoration process are constructive for cross-jurisdictional, multi-media restoration projects and serve to inform approaches to ecosystem restoration, planning, and management, especially that of the St. Lawrence River. / Thesis (Master, Environmental Studies) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-30 15:39:18.132

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Electric power is becoming more and more important in the modern world. Since most electric power utilizations should be supplied by the power transmission and distribution system, the security of power system is paid more and more heed to nowadays. All over the world, there are some trends to introduce the deregulated power system into the power system operation, and to increase the stability of electric power supply. As a result, making accurate predictions for the power system operating conditions is an important task for the current power system research. The research mainly interests in checking if the operating conditions are acceptable after contingencies. Dynamic Security Assessment (DSA) is proposed and studied under such context. One tool to implement the DSA is to create the Stability Indices (SI) system. The SI system is used to indicate the operating conditions for the power system. This master thesis project aims to develop the appropriate Remedial Actions Scheme (RAS) by using the SI system. The RAS is used against different instabilities. Firstly, all indices of the SI system are summarized. The summarization is based on theoretical study on to-date DSA researches. The indices of the SI system are able to predict power system operating conditions. They are also able to release the stress of DSA computing, and to reduce misclassification and failed-alarm. The SI system is computed by quantities of state variables from the components of the power system. Secondly, the functionalities of different remedial actions are clarified. Then, those remedial actions are used to develop the RAS. The RAS is developed according to the evaluation by the SI system. Using the SI system, different remedial actions are tested and evaluated. The results of evaluation are used to develop and categorize different RASs against different instabilities. After that, the RASs are analyzed, and qualities of RASs are ranked by the SI. In this way, more suitable RAS against each type of instability is developed. The results show the process of analysis is both fast and accurate. All analysis and evaluations are implemented by simulation software of PSS TMNETOMAC. The thesis has been implemented between cooperation of Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden and Energy Sector of Siemens AG in Germany.

In situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) using permanganate has been increasingly applied to deplete mass from dense nonaqueous-phase liquid (DNAPL) source zones. However, uncertainty in the performance of ISCO on DNAPL contaminants is partially attributable to a limited understanding of interactions between the oxidant, subsurface hydrology, and DNAPL mass transfer, resulting in failure to optimize ISCO applications. To investigate these interactions, a factorial design experiment was conducted using one-dimensional flow through tube reactors to determine how groundwater velocity, permanganate concentration, and DNAPL type affected DNAPL mass depletion rates. DNAPL mass depletion rates were found to increase with increasing groundwater velocity, or increasing oxidant concentration. An interaction occurred between the two factors, where high oxidant concentrations had little impact on mass depletion rates at high velocities. High oxidant concentration systems experienced gas generation. Mass depletion rates were fastest at high velocities, but required additional oxidant mass and pore volume addition to achieve complete mass depletion. Lower-velocity systems were more efficient with respect to oxidant mass and pore volume requirements, but mass depletion rates were reduced.

This paper describes laboratory studies conducted to evaluate the impact of varying environmental conditions (dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) type and mass, and properties of the subsurface porous media) and design features (oxidant type and load) on the effectiveness and efficiency of in situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) for destruction of DNAPL contaminants. Porous media in 160 mL zero-headspace reactors were employed to examine the destruction of trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene by the oxidants potassium permanganate and catalyzed hydrogen peroxide. Measures of oxidation effectiveness and efficiency include (1) media demand (mg-oxidant/kg-porous media), (2) oxidant demand (mol-oxidant/mol-DNAPL), (3) reaction rate constants for oxidant and DNAPL depletion (min-1), (4) the percent (%) DNAPL destroyed, and (5) the relative treatment efficiency, i.e., the rate of oxidant depletion versus rate of DNAPL destruction. While an obvious goal of ISCO for DNAPL treatment is high effectiveness (i.e., extensive contaminant destruction), it is also important to focus on oxidation efficiency, or to what extent the oxidant is utilized for contaminant destruction instead of competing side reactions, for improved cost effectiveness and/or treatment times. Results indicate that DNAPL contaminants can be treated both effectively and efficiently under many environmental and design conditions. In some cases, DNAPL treatment was more effective and efficient than dissolved/sorbed phase treatment. In these experiments, permanganate was a more effective oxidant, however catalyzed hydrogen peroxide treated contaminants more efficiently (e.g., less oxidant required per mass contaminant treated). Results also indicate that oxidation treatment goals can be dictated by environmental conditions, and that specific treatment goals can dictate remediation design parameters (e.g., faster contaminant destruction was realized in catalyzed hydrogen peroxide systems, whereas greater contaminant destruction occurred in permanganate systems). Journal of Environmental Engineering

The electric power grid is operated with exceptionally high levels of reliability, yet recent large-scale outages have highlighted areas for improvement in operation, control, and planning of power systems.  Synchrophasor technology may be able to address these concerns, and Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) are actively being deployed across the Western Interconnection and North America.  Initiatives such as the Western Interconnection Synchrophasor Program (WISP) are making significant investments PMUs with the expectation that wide-area, synchronized, high-resolution measurements will improve operator situational awareness, enable advanced control strategies, and aid in planning the grid. This research is multifaceted in that it focuses on improved operator awareness and alarming as well as innovative remedial controls utilizing synchrophasors.  It integrates existing tools, controls, and infrastructure with new technology to propose applications and schemes that can be implemented for any utility.  This work presents solutions to problems relevant to the industry today, emphasizing utility design and implementation.  The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) transmission systems are used as the testing environment, and the work performed here is being explored for implementation at BPA.  However, this work is general in nature such that it can be implemented in myriad networks and control centers. A Phase Angle Alarming methodology is proposed for improving operator situational awareness.  The methodology is used for setting phase angle limits for a two-tiered angle alarming application.  PMUs are clustered using an adapted disturbance-based probabilistic rms-coherency analysis.  While the lower tier angle limits are determined using static security assessment between the PMU clusters, the higher tier limits are based on pre-contingency operating conditions that signify poorly damped post-contingency oscillation ringdown.  Data mining tools, specifically decision trees, are employed to determine critical indicators and their respective thresholds.  An application is presented as a prototype; however, the methodology may be implemented in online tools as well as offline studies. System response to disturbances is not only dependent on pre-contingency conditions but also highly dependent on post-contingency controls.  Pre-defined controls such as Special Protection Schemes (SPSs) or Remedial Action Schemes (RAS) have a substantial impact on the stability of the system.  However, existing RAS controls are generally event-driven, meaning they respond to predetermined events on the system.  This research expands an existing event-driven voltage stability RAS to a response-based scheme using synchrophasor measurements.  A rate-of-change algorithm is used to detect substantial events that may put the WECC system at risk of instability.  Pickup of this algorithm triggers a RAS that provides high-speed wide-area reactive support in the BPA area.  The controls have proved effective for varying system conditions and topologies, and maintain stability for low probability, high consequence contingencies generally dismissed in today's deterministic planning studies. With investments being made in synchrophasor technology, the path of innovation has been laid; it's a matter of where it goes.  The goal of this research is to present simple, yet highly effective solutions to problems.  Doing so, the momentum behind synchrophasors can continue to build upon itself as it matures industry-wide. / Ph. D.

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Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:47:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:10:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 08354.pdf: 6557210 bytes, checksum: 0c6cea793150b2683fda13b9ec421168 (MD5) / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP