SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES

MSc in Energy

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B51GK

Demand Management and Energy Storage

Semester 2 – 2016/17

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April/May 2017

Duration: 2 Hours

Candidates must answer all questions in both Sections.

(A breakdown of marks is provided as a guide within each question)

Additional Information:
Only approved University Calculators may be used
No extra materials are allowed to be brought into the exam.
 B51GK

Section A – Multiple Choice

1. A community plans to develop a small scale hydroelectric facility. It is anticipated

that the facility will supply electricity to 800 homes, where the average power
consumption per home is 1.5 kW. The effective head of the dam is 6 m and the
generator efficiency is 80%. What is the minimum flowrate of the river to achieve
the necessary power rating for the hydropower plant? Use g = 10 m/s2 in your
calculations

Answers:

a) 0.04 m3/s

b) 1.2 m3/s

c) 25 m3/s

d) 50 m3/s

(4 marks)

2. A home owner replaces a 60 W incandescent bulb with a 4 W LED. If the bulb is

on for an average of 4 hours per day. With a tarrif of 12 p/kWh, and a cost of 2 £
for the LED, what is the payback period for the LED? Round your result up to full
days. Note: 1 MJ = 0.278 kWh

Answer:
a) 12days
b) 75 days
c) 297 days
d) 1071 days
(4 marks)

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3. Various energy efficiency measures result in savings of 900 kWh of electricity

per year. If all of this electricity is generated by burning coal in a thermal
generating station at a net efficiency of 40%, calculate the annual reduction in
CO2 emissions from energy savings . Use a heat of combustion for pure carbon
(32.8 MJ/kg) as an approximation for coal. Note that burning of one kg of carbon
completely will produce 3.67 kg of CO2. Round your result up to full kilos.
Note: 1 kWh = 0.278 MJ

Answers:
a) 28
b) 69 kg
c) 102 kg
d) 927 kg
(5 marks)

4. A Smart utility vehicle requires 0.9 MJ/km at the wheels. If a battery/motor drive
system has an efficiency of 92%, what is the mass of Li-ion batteries required to
provide a range of 500 km? Note: Use a specific energy of 0.58 MJ/kg for the
Lithium ion batteries.

Answers:

a) 98 kg
b) 490 kg
c) 845 kg
d) 862 kg

(4 marks)

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5. A compressed air energy storage facility has a capacity of 1 GWh and converts
gas pressure to electricity with an efficiency of 75%. Assume that the expansion
of the gas is isothermal. If the energy stored per unit volume in compressed air is
given by:
𝐸𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑃𝑓
= 0.0278 𝑙𝑛 ( )
𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑃𝑎
where E/V is in kWh/m3.
Pf is maximum pressure in the facility and
Pa is atmospheric pressure, take it as 1.013 bar.

If the maximum pressure in the facility is 8 MPa, what is its volume?

Answers:
a) 8.2 mio m3 (8.2 x 10 6 m3)
b) 10.9 mio m3 (1.09 x 10 7 m3)
c) 18.2 mio m3 (1.82 x 10 7 m3)
d) 23.2 mio m3 (2.32 x 10 7 m3) (5 marks)

6. A home is heated with (100% efficient) electric heat at a total energy expenditure
of 2.4 × 105 kWh per year at a cost of $0.10 per kWh. If the heating system is
replaced with an ideal heat pump with a coefficient of performance of 8. The
coefficient of performance (COP) is defined as
COP = Qh/W
where
Qh is the heat transferred from the cold reservoir to the hot reservoir and
W is the work input.
What is the cost savings per year?

Answers:

a) $ 21,000.00
b) $ 24,400.00
c) $ 30,000.00
d) $ 19,200.00
(5 marks)

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7. To have a stable electricity supply, your domestic off-grid system needs 8 kWh
from energy storage. Assuming the efficiency of both the inverter and rectifier is
95% each and the round trip efficiency of the batteries is 75%. What battery
capacity is needed?

Answer:
a) 8 kWh
b) 8.42 kWh
c) 8.86 kWh
d) 10.67 kWh
(2 marks)

8. To have a stable electricity supply, your domestic off-grid system needs 8 kWh
from energy storage. Assuming the efficiency of both the inverter and rectifier is
95% each and the round trip efficiency of the batteries is 75%. How much
electricity is required to charge the battery capacity needed?

Answer:
a) 8.42 kWh
b) 11.81 kWh
c) 11.23 kWh
d) 14.23 kWh

(2 marks)

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9. Which of the parameters listed below is NOT a requirement for fast response
systems?

Answers:
a) Response within 10 minutes
b) min. ramping speed of 25 MW/min
c) minimum power of 50 MW
d) minimum duration of 15 min

(2 marks)

10. At what current and for how many hours will a 30 Ah battery be completely
discharged at a C/3 rate?

Answers:

a) 10 hours /3 Ampere
b) 3 hours /10 Ampere
c) 0.5 hours (30 minutes) /10 Ampere
d) 0.1 hours/30 Ampere
(3 marks)

11. A small pumped hydroelectric facility has an upper reservoir that is 100m × 100m
with an average depth of 10 m and a head of 150 m. Assume the PHS runs at a
steady output power of 5 MW and an efficiency of 85 % (and no re-fill during that
period). How long can you generate before the reservoir is completely empty?
Note: Use g = 10 m/s2 in your calculations; round result to the closest full hour.

Answers:

a) 1 hour
b) 5 hours
c) 7 hours
d) 8 hours
(4 marks)
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12. For designing a stressed disc flywheel (shape factor K = 0.931), which of the
following materials would you choose to achieve the highest mass energy
density?

Answers:
a) Carbon fibre, density = 1550 kg/m3, Tensile strength = 1500 x 106 N/m2
b) E-class fibre, density = 1900 kg/m3, Tensile strength = 1100 x 106 N/m2
c) S-class fibre, density = 1900 kg/m3, Tensile strength = 1750 x 106 N/m2
d) Kevlar fibre, density = 1400 kg/m3, Tensile strength = 1800 x 106 N/m2

(3 marks)

13. A super-capacitor has a volume of 0.092 litre, a voltage of 2.85 V between plates
and a capacity of 900 Farad. What is its energy density?
Note: the results should be in kJ/litre

Answer:

a) 7.3 kJ/l
b) 13.94 kJ/l
c) 39.73 kJ/l
d) 12550 kJ/l

(3 marks)

14. Which of the following Renewable Energy Generators has the higher capacity
factor?

Answer:

a) Solar
b) Hydro
c) Wind on-shore
d) Geothermal
(2 marks)

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15. A super-conduction magnetic energy storage (SMES) device has an inductance

of 0.75 H and an operating current of 140 A. What is the energy stored in the
device?

Answers:
a) 52.5 Joules
b) 78.75 Joules
c) 7350 Joules
d) 14700 Joules
(2 marks)

End of Section A
Marks total in Section A: 50

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Section B

Question 1:

(b) What are the limitations of the renewable energy resources when it comes
to electricity grids?
(6 marks)

(c) Name 2 advantages each for decentralised and centralised electricity

grids.
(4 marks)

(d) Explain the main difference between base load power plant and the peak
load power plant, giving an example of each of them.
(5 marks)

(e) The graph over the page shows the effect of a particular variable tariff in
Italy. It was aimed to achieve both peak clipping and load shifting. Did it
succeed?

/Cont…
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If you think it succeeded, suggest an improvement. If you think it did not

succeed, suggest an alternative.
(8 marks)

(f) Explain the meaning of a load factor of 0.8 mean in a large, national
electricity grid.

(2 marks)

(Total marks for Question 1: 25)

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Question 2:

a) Is electricity generated by a pumped hydro storage scheme a form of renewable

electricity generation?
(2 marks)

b) There are different forms of energy storage:

i.e. Thermal, Mechanical, or electrical (electro-chemical) storage
i. Which energy does each of these storage mediums use?
ii. Give one example technology for each form of energy storage.

(5 marks)

c) Plot a graph that gives the rated power output of a technology over the time it
can provide this power output for the following five energy storage technologies:

(i) Pumped Hydro Storage

(ii) Pumped Heat Energy Storage
(iii) Flow batteries
(iv) Supercapacitors
(v) Advanced flywheels

(11marks)

d) Briefly discuss the validity of the following statement:

“Installing wind turbines increases the CO2 emissions of an electricity grid, as
there will be fossil fuel back up plants running idle in case the wind stops.”

(7 marks)

(Total marks for Question 2: 25)

End of Section B
Total marks of Section B: 50
END OF PAPER

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