This letter proposes a boost dc-dc converter topology with the novel capability of canceling the input current ripple at an arbitrarily preselected duty cycle. This is accomplished without increasing the count of the number of components in contrast to other solutions available in the literature. In addition, the converter features a high voltage gain without utilizing extreme values of duty cycle or boosting transformers. These features make the converter ideal to process electric power coming from low-voltage power-generating sources, such as renewables. This paper provides details on the principle of operation via topological considerations and a mathematical model. The key factor of reactive component sizing is also discussed in detail. The converter was validated in the laboratory through the construction of a hardware prototype.

This paper describes the development of a freeware Smart Residential Load Simulator to facilitate the study of residential energy management systems in smart grids. The proposed tool is based on Matlab-Simulink-GUIDE toolboxes and provides a complete set of user-friendly graphical interfaces to properly model and study smart thermostats, air conditioners, furnaces, and various other household appliances, whose models are validated with actual measurements. Wind and solar power generation as well as battery sources are also modeled, and the impact of different variables such as ambient temperature and household activity levels, which considerably contribute to energy consumption, are considered. The proposed simulator allows to model the way appliances consume power and helps to understand how these contribute to peak demand, providing individual and total energy consumption and costs. In addition, the value and impact of generated power by residential sources can be determined for a 24 h horizon. This freeware platform is a useful tool for researchers and educators to validate and demonstrate models for energy management and optimization, and can also be used by residential customers to model and understand energy consumption profiles in households. Some simulation results are presented to demonstrate the performance and application of the proposed simulator.

The current difficulty in obtaining financial resources to acquire equipment for training personnel and the requirement of well-trained engineers in the industry looking toward sustainability, creates an opportunity to innovate in teaching tools, such as the proposed in this article, where a virtual world is projected, integrating the planning and design of a photovoltaic power plant (PV). The user can interact while immersed in the virtual scene as if the PV system were already installed, illustrating technical characteristics of selected equipment and its installation details, while the user is interacting with didactic activities focused on visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning. This paper summarizes an initiative within the teaching–learning context, which aims to show the advantages of using modern tools, such as virtual reality, to achieve teaching goals in a renewable energy course.

Complete stability analyses, including voltage, small perturbation and transient stability studies, and the associated models and controls of a series vectorial compensator (SVeC) are presented in this paper. It is also shown through detailed simulations that the SVeC is a competitive device against series power-flow controllers and it might be a better option for similar purposes where space and costs are at premium. Hence, a full comparative evaluation of this controller with respect to controllers used mainly for oscillation control in transmission corridors, namely, thyristor-controlled series capacitors (TCSC) and series static synchronous compensators (SSSC), is also presented for the first time. The IEEE 14-bus benchmark system and a 190-bus, 46-machine model of the Mexican grid are used for illustrative and comparison purposes. The results obtained show that the SVeC has better oscillation damping characteristics than the TCSC and SSSC, hence making these types of controllers a competitive alternative against existing series flexible ac transmission system (FACTS) controllers for dynamic series compensation of transmission lines.

This study aims to develop and evaluate an Augmented Reality (AR) application to teach power electronics to beginners. For this purpose, two topics were presented: The first was the design of a series-connected Resistance–Inductor–Capacitor (RLC) circuit in AR, the space-state equations of which were analyzed in an interactive way, and its assembly in a virtual protoboard to analyze the voltage and currents as measured by an oscilloscope. The second presented topic in AR was about Bidirectional Direct Current (DC)–DC converters, known as Buck–Boost; the aim was to study their behavior when energy is exchanged between two systems, usually photovoltaic panels, electric vehicles, and storage systems. The attitudes of the students towards the AR application was significantly better than those towards traditional teaching. The measurements of the developed skills indicated better cognitive performance when using AR technology. The designed AR tool was used in an industry course to explore the students’ opinions, who provided valuable feedback.