Automated energy management in distributed electricity systems: An EEPOS approach

The increasing capacity of distributed electricity generation brings new challenges in maintaining a high security and quality of electricity supply. New techniques are required for grid support and power balance. The highest potential for these techniques is to be found on the part of the electricity distribution grid.

This article addresses this potential and presents the EEPOS project’s approach to the automated management of flexible electrical loads in neighborhoods. The management goals are (i) maximum utilization of distributed generation in the local grid, (ii) peak load shaving/congestion management, and (iii) reduction of electricity distribution losses. Contribution to the power balance is considered by applying two-tariff pricing for electricity.

The presented approach to energy management is tested in a hypothetical sensitivity analysis of a distribution feeder with 10 households and 10 photovoltaic (PV) plants with an average daily consumption of electricity of 4.54 kWh per household and a peak PV panel output of 0.38 kW per plant. Energy management shows efficient performance at relatively low capacities of flexible load. At a flexible load capacity of 2.5% (of the average daily electricity consumption), PV generation surplus is compensated by 34–100% depending on solar irradiance. Peak load is reduced by 30% on average. The article also presents the load shifting effect on electricity distribution losses and electricity costs for the grid user.     

Reviews

Planning theory

Andreas Faludi

Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1973. Hard cover £4.75, flexi‐cover £3.

PLANNING AND THE INNOVATION PROCESS (Progress in Planning, Vol. 1, Part 3)

Ray Jefferson

Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1973

THRESHOLD ANALYSIS MANUAL

Scottish Development Department H.M.S.O., London, 1973. £6

THE PLANNER IN SOCIETY: THE CHANGING ROLE OF A PROFESSION

David Eversley

Faber and Faber, London, 1973. £4.75.

SUB‐REGIONAL PLANNING STUDIES: AN EVALUATION

T. M. Cowling and G. C. Steeley

Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1973. £3.80

SKETCHBOOKS OF PAOLO SOLERI

Paolo Soleri.

M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England, 1971.

ARCOLOGY: THE CITY IN THE IMAGE OF MAN.

Paolo Soleri.

M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England, 1969.

FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED AND THE AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL TRADITION

Albert Fein

George Braziller, New York. $10.00 cloth. $3.95 paper.

ECOLOGY AND RECLAMATION OF DEVASTED LAND (2 vols.) ed. Russel Hutnick and Grant Davis

Gordon and Breach, New York, 1973. £25.00.

MAN MADE THE LAND: Essays in English Historical Geography

Ed. Alan R. H. Baker and J. B. Harley.

David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1973. £5.25.

THE UNKNOWN URBAN REALM (Vol. 2, Europe 2,000, Project 3, Urbanization, Planning Human Environment in Europe)

U. Neveling, R. Sulzer, W. Ubbens, G. Wersig.

Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1973.     

Higher-efficiency for combined photovoltaic-thermoelectric solar power generation

Solar energy application in a large spectrum has the potential for high-efficiency energy conversion. Though, solar cells can only absorb photon energy of the solar spectrum near their band-gap energy, and the remaining energy will be converted into thermal energy. The use of the thermoelectric generator becomes a necessity for convert this thermal energy dissipated so as to increase efficiency conversion.

This paper analyses the feasibility of photovoltaic-thermoelectric hybrid system and reviews their performance in order to optimize harvested energy. Regarding the thermoelectric effect, a new method of the ambient energy harvesting is presented. This method combines thermoelectric generators and the effects of heat sensitive materials associated to photovoltaic cells in phase change for generating both energy day and night. Experimental measures have been conducted primarily in laboratory conditions for a greater understanding of hybridization phenomena under real conditions and to test the actual performance of devices made. Results show that the hybrid system can generate more power than the simple PV and TEG in environmental conditions. This hybrid technology will highlight the use of renewable energies in the service of the energy production.     

Reviews

DESIGN ON THE LAND: the development of Landscape Architecture Norman T. Newton Belknap Harvard

COMMUNITY CENTERS AND STUDENT UNIONS Eugene D. Sternberg and Barbara E. Sternberg Van Hostrand Reinhold Company, New York.

DECISION AND CONTROL by Stafford Beer, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1966 (3rd printing, 1970)

INDUSTRIAL DYNAMICS by Jay W. Forrester, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1961. S.1O.5O.

PRINCIPLES OF SYSTEMS by Jay W. Forrester. Wright‐Allen Press, Inc., Cambridge, Mass., 1968.

PUBLIC INQUIRIES AS AN INSTRUMENT OF GOVERNMENT R.E. Wraith and G.B. Lamb George Allen & Unwin Ltd. for the Royal Institute of Public Administration, London 1971, £4.50.

SYSTEMS APPROACH AND THE CITY M.D. Mesarovic and A. Reisman (eds.) North‐Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam and London, 1972.

SIMULATION IN THE CLASSROOM John L. Taylor and Rex Walford Penguin Books, London, 1972. 45p.

DEVELOPMENT BUILDING: THE TEAM APPROACH C.W. Griffin John Wiley & Sons, Inc. for the American Institute of Architects, New York, 1972.     

CFD analysis on the performance of a solar chimney power plant system: Case study in Algeria

The solar chimney power plant (SCPP) is a power generator which uses solar radiation to increase the internal energy of the air circulating in the system, thereby transforming the useful gain of the solar collector into kinetic energy. The produced kinetic energy then can be converted into electrical energy by means of an appropriate turbine. In this paper, four locations in Algeria

(Constantine, Ouargla, Adrar, and Tamanrasset) were considered as case studies to describe the SCPP mechanism in detail. Numerical simulation of an SCPP which has the same geometrical dimensions was performed to estimate the power output of SCPP in these regions. Using the CFD software FLUENT we simulated a two-dimensional axisymmetric model of a SCPP with the standard k-ε turbulence model. The simulation results show that the highest power output produced monthly average value 68–73 KW over the year and the highest hourly power produced in June is around 109–113 KW.     

Application of environmental risk assessment for strategic decision-making in coastal areas: case studies in China

Environmental risk assessment (ERA) is a powerful technical tool for analyzing potential and extreme adverse environmental impacts, and has found wide application in supporting decision-making processes over the last two decades. However, to date there has been no interrelated application of ERA to support the processes of strategic decision-making (SDM), especially in coastal areas.

In this paper, we attempt to verify the feasibility of the proposed integrated ERA–SDM approach and its methodology by applying it to two case studies (in Xiamen Bay and Luoyuan Bay) of the principal coastal functional zoning (PCFZ, a kind of SDM and similar to the coastal and marine spatial planning in western). The results show that the integrated ERA–SDM approach could integrate ERA into the entire SDM process, directly support the PCFZ, and avoid or mitigate dire environmental risk that can be introduced by SDM processes.     

On causes of illegal waste dumping in Slovakia

This paper examines the determinants of illegal waste dumping at the county level in Slovakia (in 77 of 79 counties), using a truncated regression model. It analyzes a unique data-set composed of illegal dumping data provided by the TrashOut platform and sociodemographic data from the national statistical authority.

This study shows that a higher level of expected overall waste production results in a higher rate of illegally dumped waste and a higher number of illegal dumping sites. More precisely, income has a positive impact on the rate of illegal waste dumping, poverty influences the rate of illegal dumping negatively and a higher level of education does not result in more responsible waste management. On the contrary, higher education has a positive influence on the rate of dumping. A negative relationship between costs of illegal waste disposal and dumping rate, as well as a positive relationship between costs of legal waste disposal and dumping rate has been revealed.     

Book reviews

Saving the Coast: California's Experiment in Intergovernmental Land Use Control

Melvin B. Mogoluf

D. D. Heath and Co., Lexington, Mass. 1975, xiii + 136 pp., ISBN 0–669–97394–7

The Planning and Design of Rural Roads: The Implications of Landscape & Recreation

David N. Skinner

Scottish Tourist Board/Countryside Commission for Scotland. Price: £4.00

Comparative Land Use Planning and Regulation

Urban Planning Development Series No. 12, University of Washington, Seattle, 1975, 120pp.

’Modern Political Geography‘

R. Muir

Macmillan, 1975, 262pp., Paper cover £2.95; Hard cover £6.95.

Discussion Paper No. 10: “The Layfield Report and Local Government Finance"

G. C. Cameron (ed)

Discussion Papers in Planning, University of Glasgow

Assessment of Major Industrial Applications

Department of the Environment (1976) Research Report 13, H.M.S.O., £2

The Economic Impact of Tourism: a case study in Greater Tayside

D. M. Henderson (1975)

University of Edinburgh: Tourism and Recreation Research Unit

’Urban modelling: algorithms, calibrations, and predictions‘

M. Batty

Cambridge University Press, London, 1976, 381 pages, £17.50

’Urban fields‘

S. Angel and G. M. Hyman

Academic Press, London, 178pp., 1976, £5

Rural Planning Problems

Gordon E. Cherry (Ed.)

Leonard Hill, London, 1976, £6.95

’Living in Cities‘

Charles Mercer

Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 240pp.

Shopping Centres—Planning, Development and Administration

Edgar Lion

Wiley: 1977, 198pp., £9.00.

The Home of Man

Barbara Ward

Penguin Books (Paperback) and Andre Deutsch (Hardback), June 1976, 294 pp., Indexed, 18 photographs, Paperback £1, Hardback £3.75

Runcorn New Town. Master Plan Amendment No. 2

Runcorn Development Corporation, 1975

Available from The Development Corporation, Runcorn New Town, Runcorn, Cheshire, WA7 5AR, 26 pp., Maps and Plans, Illustrated     

Reviews

THE COASTLINE OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 2nd Edition: 1965.

by J. A. Steers

Published by Cambridge University Press. Price: £5. 5s.

TOWN CENTRE MAPS—a guide to their preparation in Kent.

Prepared by the County Planning Officer. Price: 7/6.

DANISH PLANNING LEGISLATION: A SURVEY

Ministry of Housing, Copenhagen, October 1963

ECONOMIC STUDY OF THE PITTSBURGH REGION

Vol. 1. Region in Transition.

Vol. 2. Portrait of a Region.

Vol. 3. Region with a Future.

University of Pittsburgh Press. Price: $8.

TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING IN ENGLAND AND WALES

by J. B. Cullingworth.

Published by George Allen and Unwin Ltd. 1964. Price: £1. 16s.

POPULATION PATTERNS—THEIR IMPACT ON REGIONAL PLANNING

by David Grove.

Published by the Building Research Group, Kumasi

University of Science and Technology. Price not given.

THE NEW TOWNS OF BRITAIN

Published by H.M.S.O. 1964. Price: 2/9.

REGIONAL SHOPPING CENTRES

A Planning Report on North‐West England; by the Department of Town and Country Planning, University of Manchester. Published by the Department. Price not given.

THE TOWNS OF GHANA—THE ROLE OF SERVICE CENTRES IN REGIONAL PLANNING.

by David Grove and Laszlo Huszar.

Ghana Universities Press 1964. Price: £1. 6s.

CITY OF LIVERPOOL; REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENT PLAN

City Planning Policy Report, Part 1.

Analysis and Preliminary Conclusions. September 1964.

DERELICT LAND

Civic Trust, London. Price: 7/6.

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION—A Select List of Books and Periodicals Published for The British Council by Longmans Green & Co. Ltd. Price: 5/‐.

PARKING SPACE FOR CARS, ASSESSING THE DEMAND

by G. J. Roth

University of Cambridge, Department of Applied Economics, Occasional

Papers 5. 1965. Price: 10/6d.     

Reviews

NEIGHBORHOOD GROUPS AND URBAN RENEWAL

by J. Clarence Davies 111

Columbia University Press, 1966

THE CITY PLANNING PROCESS — A POLITICAL ANALYSIS

by Alan Altshuler

Cornell University Press, 1965

RECLAIMING DERELICT LAND

by J. R. Oxenham

Faber & Faber. Price 42/‐.

GARDEN CITIES OF TOMORROW

by Ebenezer Howard, ed. with preface by F. J. Osborn and with an introductory essay

by Lewis Mumford.

Faber and Faber, Price 7/6.

INDUSTRIAL MOVEMENT AND THE REGIONAL PROBLEM

by G. C. Cameron and B. D. Clark.

University of Glasgow Social and Economic Studies, Occasional Paper No. 5. Price 21/‐     

Reviews

REGIONAL PLANNING: A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW

JEREMY ALDEN and ROBERT MORGAN

Leonard Hill Books, Intertext, London, 1974. £6.

MAN‐MADE FUTURES: READINGS IN SOCIETY, TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN

NIGEL CROSS, DAVID ELLIOTT and ROBIN ROY (EDS.)

Hutchinson Educational in association with Open University Press, London, 1974. 365 pp., cased £5, paperback £2.75.

CITY OF BIRMINGHAM STRUCTURE PLAN: WRITTEN STATEMENT

NEVILLE BORG (City Engineer)

City of Birmingham, 1973.

DESIGNING FOR HUMAN BEHAVIOUR: ARCHITECTURE AND THE BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES

(Community Development Series. Series Editor, Richard P. Dober.)

JON LANG, CHARLES BURNETTE, WALTER MOLESKI and DAVID VACHON (EDS.)

Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Inc., Stroudsburg, Pa., 1974. 352 pp., S20 (U.K. price not stated).

THE BOOK OF GARDEN ORNAMENT

PETER HUNT (ED.)

J. M. Dent & Co., London, 1974. £9.75.

AMENITY AND URBAN PLANNING

DAVID L. SMITH

Crosby Lockwood Staples, London, 1974. 198 pp. £4.50.     

Reviews

MATHEMATICAL MODELS OF THE ECONOMY AND OTHER ESSAYS

Richard Stone

Chapman and Hall, 1970, 335 pp. £5.

ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING FOR CHILDREN'S PLAY

Arvid Bengtsson

Crosby Lockwood and Son Ltd. £4.50.

DESIGN WITH NATURE

Ian L. McHarg

Natural History Press, New York, $19.95.     

Reviews

A DEVELOPING STRATEGY FOR THE WEST MIDLANDS

Report by The West Midland Regional Study, 1971. N.p.s

ARCHITECTURE BY TEAM

W. W. Caudill

Van Nostrand Reinhold, N.Y. £9.00

KINETIC ARCHITECTURE

William Zuk and Roger H. Clark

London: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1970

164pp. including plates and diagrams. £7.50

LANDSCAPE AND ANTIQUITY: Aspects of English Culture at Sourhead 1718 to 1838

Kenneth Woodbridge

Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1970. £5.00

A HISTORY OF GARDENS AND GARDENING

Edward Hyams J. M. Dent, London. £7.50     

Modelling built-up land take in Europe to 2020: an assessment of the Resource Efficiency Roadmap measure on land

Land taken by artificial surfaces has an impact on the quality of life and ecosystems. To reduce possible negative impacts of land take, the European Commission proposed setting a milestone objective for 2020 in terms of future rates of land take.

This paper describes a methodology to model the impacts of the 2020 land-take milestone proposed in the RERM in the European Union 27 MS. An integrated modelling framework was configured to assess the spatial impact of two land-take scenarios: a ‘Reference’ scenario, which is driven by demographic and economic trends, and a ‘Target 0’ scenario that follows the 2020 land-take milestone proposed in the RERM. We conclude that the implementation of the 2020 land-take milestone, by reducing future land take in Europe, will foster more efficient use of land (less land taken for the same activity levels) and minimise negative impacts on non-artificial land uses.     

Applying the concept of State of Good Repair to the management of ecological infrastructure

At any time, the condition of ecological infrastructure is related to the availability of funds to support operational management programmes. Environmental management outcomes are therefore often coupled to general economic conditions. When general economic conditions are favourable, investment in environmental management is often greater. This implies that environmental management frameworks need to be able to cope with the waxing and waning of economic conditions while still delivering acceptable environmental management and service delivery outcomes. At the onset of budget cuts, environmental managers therefore need effective ways of assessing the near and far future trade-offs of curtailing particular programmes in a defensible and internally consistent manner.

Operators of large civil infrastructure assets face the same problem. In response, the asset management community has developed the State of Good Repair approach. The objective of the preliminary consideration presented here was to determine whether this engineering management approach has any merit in environmental management.     

Reviews

Shadrach Woods, The Man in the Street, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1975

W. Houghton Evans, Planning Cities, London, Lawrence & Wishart, 1975, £7

R. Taylor, M. Cox & I. Dickens eds., Britain's Planning Heritage, London, Croom Helm for The Royal Town Planning Institute, 1975. £5.75 (hardcover) £3.50 (paperback)

Development Plan Evaluation and Robustness: Application of an Analytical Programme and a Review of Measures of Performance, Department of the Environment Research Report 5 Local Government Operations Research Unit Report C217, 1976. Gratis.

J. Appleton, The Experience of Landscape, London, John Wiley, 1975

J. D. Hunt & P. Willis eds., The Genius of the Place: The English Landscape Garden 1620–1820, London, Paul Elek, 1976. £12.50

N. Pevsner, Staffordshire, Harmondsworth, Middx., Penguin Buildings of England Series, 1974, £3.50 (hardcover)

R. Bailey & M. Brake eds., Radical Social Work, London: Edward Arnold, 1975. £4.25 (hardcover) £1.95 (paperback)

and

The Use of Action Research in Developing Urban Planning Policy: Report of Colloquium, Bristol, June 1975 London, Department of the Environment, 1975.

M. Harloe, Swindon: A Town in Transition, London, Heinemann for the centre for Environmental Studies, 1975.

D. W. Pearce ed., The Economics of Natural Resource Depletion, London, Macmillan, 1975.

J. B. Goddard, Office Location in Urban and Regional Development

B. Fullerton, The Development of British Transport Networks

B. T. Robson, Urban Social Areas

P. L. Knox, Social Well‐Being: A Spatial Perspective

Four volumes in the Theory and Practice in Geography series, edited by J. W. House, A. S. Gouldie & J. H. C. Patten and published by Oxford University Press, 1975. All paperback at £0.90.

James A. Swan & William B. Stapp eds., Environmental Education: Strategies Toward a More Liveable Future, Halstead Press — John Wiley, 1974.

A. G. Wilson & M. J. Kirkby, Mathematics for Geographers and Planners, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975     

Sustainability in the USA and New Zealand: explaining and addressing the implementation gap in local government

This paper describes the frustrating reality of sustainability implementation in the USA and New Zealand (NZ), an early adopter of sustainability mandates. Local government has a key role in implementation, but has been slow to uptake sustainable practices. We surveyed senior planners in small to medium-sized local government agencies in both countries to identify which features of local government support (or hinder) sustainability in practice.

Environmentally sustainable practices are not well entrenched in either country. In the USA, the framing of sustainability and public support are significant predictors of implementation. However, sustainability is rarely a priority. In NZ, local government capacity is the main driver of implementation. We recommend that planners promote sustainability values, reconcile economic development goals with sustainability (e.g., green economy model), and translate public support for sustainability into institutional priorities. NZ localities also need increased capacity and US localities need continued Federal and State support.     

Performance evaluation and emission characteristics of biodiesel-ignition enhancer blends propelled in a research diesel engine

This study details the effect of the Di-Methyl-Ether(DME) as a cetane improver on neat cashew nut shell biodiesel (CBD100) to assess the emission and performance engine characteristics. Four fuels, namely, diesel, biodiesel (Cashew nut shell Methyl Ester), a blend of CBD100-10% and 20% by volume of DME (CBD90DME10and CBD80DME20) are prepared and tested on a stationary research diesel engine. The experimental parameters for CBD80DME20 showed a 1.6% increase in thermal efficiency thereby reducing 4.1% of fuel consumption than the neat biodiesel at peak conditions. Experimental result exposed that 20% of DME reduces 3.4% CO, 4.2% HC and 8.8% NOx and 8.4% smoke emissions of CBD100. Based on the outcome of this work, it is clear that CBD80DME20 shall be employed as a substitute fuel for diesel engine.

Abbreviations: CI: Compression ignition; CBD100: Cashew nut shell Bio-diesel; DME: Di-methyl ether; CO: Carbon monoxide; BTE: Brake thermal efficiency; BSFC: Brake specific fuel consumption; CBD100: 100% Biodiesel; CBD90DME10: 90% biodiesel + 10% di-methyl-ether; CBD80DME20: 80% biodiesel + 20% di-methyl-ether; HC: Hydrocarbon; NO_x: Oxides of nitrogen.     

A contribution for the evaluation of the territorial impact of transport infrastructures in the early stages of the EIA: application to the Huelva (Spain)–Faro (Portugal) rail link

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure should predict and identify the major impacts of a project development that may cause specific spatial and temporal effects. Early in the EIA, the scoping stage provides all the relevant information on the impacts of the project alternatives. In particular, potential effects on the territorial network such as habitat connectivity loss and accessibility improvements should be taken into account in the various proposed layout alternatives when evaluating transport infrastructure projects. However, several authors have identified deficiencies in practice. The aim of this article is to provide a methodology for the assessment of these territorial impacts using adequate indicators in the early stages of the EIA procedure.

The proposed method is based on a comparison of a range of alternative layouts for a railway line linking two population centres, using indicators calculated with geographic information systems. The methodology was applied to a case study – the rail link between Huelva (Spain) and Faro (Portugal) – and the high speed rail (HSR) and conventional rail were evaluated in different layouts. The method was effective in spatially identifying significant impacts on accessibility improvements, which occurred closer to the cross border area. The conventional railway alternatives have similar accessibility values to the HSR. The results also reveal that connectivity loss is not limited to the area around the infrastructure, but extends throughout the territory. The results are at variance with the initiative proposed by Spanish and Portuguese transport decision-makers, and raise the possibility of selecting a conventional railway option. An adequate territorial evaluation methodology enables the new action to be correctly assessed, and supplies the information required to propose the most suitable alternative from a socio-economic and environmental standpoint, regardless of whether this proposal was initially included in the transport policy.