IMPACT OF RENEWABLE(DISTRIBUTED GENERATION) ENERGY IN POWER QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

       Long transmission is one of the main cause for electrical power loss. Even a high school kid may know this fact these days. But the power quality problem is not only due to these losses. Approximately 70 to 80% of all power quality problem can be attributed to faulty connections or wiring(a research says not me). Also some other things like harmonics, transients, electromagnetic interference and LPF(low power factor)also damage power quality but they all share the remaining 20-30% only. So we will worry about them later.

DISTRIBUTED GENERATING STATION

      Okay then, now how we are going to take care of the power quality problems due to long transmission power losses. Are we going to "lay superconductors instead of aluminium alloys and copper conductors?" or "increasing voltage level to extreme levels and implementing HVDC?". These things may happen(exclude that superconductor idea please), but with very large investment. This remedy measures also will look reasonable when we implement them for new long power transmission projects. Then what about the older lines staying out there wasting not only the power but also our money(for losses too we are paying the electricity boards).

       To resolve this problem we got to ask the help of renewable energy. The solar, wind, wave and some other power plants scattered all over a country can not only help us to meet the growing demands with depleting fossil fuels. They were like a bonus to us in resolving power quality problems. The irritating incidents like switching off of T.V's while watching a football game and shutting down of A.C in a hot day due to low voltage problems and faulty lines may end now. Integrating these scattered power houses(Distributed Generation) with the existing system surely can deliver us a good quality power. If a feeder from centralized generating station to your area encountered fault, don't worry you will still get power from a near by distributed generating station. For that we need to install solar, wind or whatever that suits to your geographic location.

But we got to be too careful while designing these integration of centralized system with distributed power generating system. Improper designing in power electronic devices may inject harmonics into the system which will further destroy the power quality instead of making it up.

DISTRIBUTED GENERATING STATION IMAGE SOURCE - http://www.performanceenergy.com

DENMARK'S FLAG IS GOING TO FLY HIGH BY WIND POWER - a revolution

          Denmark set itself as a role model for the whole world on implementing renewable energy and reducing carbon emission. when we go through what Denmark actually did, they found the correct resource which is available in plenty in their country and utilized them properly. Currently Denmark's generation capacity from wind power is around 25-30%. Germany is way ahead in wind power generation by installing wind turbines every day. England and U.S(which planned to get 30% of total demand from wind) are also heading towards mass production of electricity from wind power.

WIND TURBINE

          Although Denmark is not at the top of wind power generation countries list, they were setting an example to other countries by planning to produce 50% of their total demand from wind power. If they do so they will be the first country to become highly eco friendly. They were also working on making peoples to use electric cars and to further reduce the carbon emission. An island in Denmark called Samso have enough wind turbines to supply the whole island with 10% surplus in hand. The achievement in this island is that every turbine is owned by the local peoples in that island.

LARGE NUMBER OF TURBINES INSTALLED
TO FORM WIND FARM

          I'm not really flattered just because of the Denmark's plan of "50% from Wind". I really amazed by the Denmark's electricity export ability. Although Denmark is a small country, it is holding one third of the world wind power industry.  I also feel proud to be an Electrical Engineer. The reason is that you can't send the wind power to neighboring countries just because you got plenty of them, but you can send any energy to any area by changing them into "Electricity". While living in a country where there is a plenty of "Electricity Scarcity" with 3-5 hours power cut a day(now there is no current in my town, thank god i got my laptop), Denmark really looks like a role model in utilizing the resources we have without disturbing our eco system. I believe that Denmark's wind power will never let their flag down.

CURRENT(ELECTRICITY) FROM COW DUNG - REDUCE THE CARBON EMISSION UP TO 8%

        "Do you know the fact that the amount of methane released by the cow's around the world is almost than that emitted by the vehicles that uses fossil fuels(car, train, flights, etc) all around the world". Methane is the most dangerous greenhouse gas that traps the heat in our atmosphere as 20 times that of CO2. They remain in atmosphere for around 15 years. Now, there is a way for every one of us to reduce the carbon emission without spending a cent. Yeah, becoming a vegetarian is the solution but are we ready to be a vegetarian. "NO", i can hear the answer hidden inside most of you. Then how we could reduce the carbon emission. Just collect the cow dungs. 

        It is not a hard job i think so. As it will be a routine in a farm to collect the cow dung to keep the farm clean. Collecting the cow dung from the farms all around us is simple and low cost. This collected cow dung is then stored in a large tank where it is mixed with proper algae or fungi for the process of biological fermentation. In this part the micro-organisms take care of everything for the generation of electricity.

THOUSAND YEAR OLD METHOD OF TURNING
COW DUNG INTO FUEL

       Although in India cow dung is dried and used as one of the primary domestic fuel for the production of heat. The high carbon emission from directly burning them makes it risky and we cannot fully utilize the energy. At this time we are left with two choices. The first choice is turning into vegetarian which most of us don't even try. The second choice is supporting the bio plants or building one of our own. If we start utilizing the whole of the cow dung all around the world we can reduce the carbon emission by 8% which will be a great achievement.

TIDAL POWER - SO PROMISING FUTURE

             Got "Shocked", but not by electricity just by hearing the amount of electricity that can be generated by tidal energy as the source but with a huge investment(that may give shock to most of the investors). Why "TIDAL"? you may ask. Tidal energy sounds more interesting when we think of why we need to invest a huge amount of money for tidal and why not for other renewable's. There exists a big explanation for it.

     Tidal power generation has lot of disadvantages associated with it like High Initial Capital Investment, Limited Locations, It's Effect on Marine Life, Long Gestation Time, Difficulty in Transmission of Tidal Electricity, Weather Effects(storms and typhoons), etc. When considering advantages like No Fuel, Long Life, High Energy Density, High Load Factor attracts big investors(Siemens and Vatten fall) toward it and it's Predictable nature, Renewable, Non-Polluting and Carbon Negative gets the most of the governments attention towards it.

     The Danish government spent £1.3 billion to establish onshore wind, which currently brings £2.7bn per year in revenue. A properly capitalized wave and tidal sector could create 43,500 direct jobs and generate a potential £4.2bn per year in revenue for the  UK economy - a report says.

     

     Renewable UK’s State of the Wave and Tidal Industry report, released at the conference, states that the UK is still leading the world with the largest installed wave and tidal generating base of 2.4 MW, a further 27 MW with planning consent, 77.5 MW of projects in planning, and 700 MW expected in the Pentland Firth area by 2020.

     In total, Renewable UK forecasts 1-2 GW of wave and tidal energy installations in the UK by 2020. Then installing tidal power in India not only helps the unemployment problems out here but also can supply the uninterrupted power to the whole nation(in Tamil Nadu there is daily power cut for 3-5hrs and so on in other states may fade out) when we utilize the most of the tidal energy available here. Finally tidal power sounds so promising.

REDUCING POWER(ELECTRICITY) LOSSES WITHOUT ANY TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE!!!!!

            "To utilize 1KW of electric energy(electricity) we need almost 2KW of equivalent input power"- it means we are utilizing power that can power us for two centuries in just a century(100 years). It may surprise many of the normal peoples but adding an another KW of the input power to 2KW for getting just a KW of power at the consumer side does not surprise any of the electrical engineers(especially in India). This is due to the fact that the electrical engineers know how much losses there exists in the normal electricity generating stations and in transmission/distribution networks.

        Instantly you may rise a question "Why don't the Engineers and Scientists work on it and get a solution to reduce the losses?". This question may sound right but what actually they were doing is working on it and they were reducing the loses bit by bit using new technologies. They need lot more years to take care of these losses, certainly we can reduce some losses right from this moment. "How can we?" you may ask and my answer to this is "JUST SAVE ELECTRICITY".

        Yeah, just wasting the electricity also adds up with the losses of electricity. If i am right then we can also reduce the losses without even having a bit of technical knowledge about electricity. All we got to do is just SWITCH OFF the things that consumes electricity when it is not in use, no matter what it is. 

I know how the peoples in India are suffering from Electricity or Power scarcity(because i'm too suffering from that). But most of the Indians were not concerned about energy conservation. All i could imagine is if we don't save the Electricity right now(with fast depletion of natural resources and vast development of industries)  we may give our descendants a dark life as gift.

 I think it is the time to change the inefficient electrical appliances with new efficient ones and start conserve electricity.