EEE 155 Introduction to Electric Power Systems

Week 1: Overview of electric power systems (EPS) and Power generation systems
Assessment

Name(s) and Student number(s):

Lanuza, Allen Lois Y.
2018 - 03712

Instructions
1. Accomplish the activities described below.
2. You may opt to do this assessment by yourself or in groups of at most three students in the same section.
3. You can use all resources you need and discuss it with peers for this assessment.
4. Submit your answers at the designated submission bin in UVLE before the prescribed deadline. You may
submit your work up to two weeks after the deadline (without penalty) before the submission bins close.

Completion criteria
This assessment forms part of the “top-up” requirements for EEE 155. Completing this assessment would merit a
0.25 point improvement in your final grade, provided that you satisfy all core requirements. To complete this
assessment, you need to get at least 80% in total.

Problem 1
[15 pts] Enumerate (using 1 to 2 keywords) and describe (in maximum 2 sentences) 15 most significant historical
milestones in the development of the electric power systems and the power industry in US-Europe and the
Philippines.
1. Water-power-driven Generation - Several power companies utilize this type of power source to operate
the arc light street lighting which is the first real application of electricity in the United States.
2. Direct Current Source - Thomas Edison pioneered the use of lower voltage direct current source to employ
the direct current power distribution which later benefits many companies and customers that uses electric
power lamp. Moreover, this specific milestone gives rise to the operation of the Pearl Street stream-electric
plant.
3. Transmission Lines - The first-ever transmission line was built in Germany in 1882 which operates at a
distance of 59 km at 2400 DC voltage.
4. Alternating Current Source - Due to the limitation of DC Source by Edison such as restricted distance
operation since DC voltage cannot be varied, Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse implemented the
Alternating Current (AC) Source to address this problem.
5. Hoover Dam power - At the time when the Hoover Dam power became available, The City of Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power and the Southern California Edison Company converted their operating
frequency from 50 Hz to the proposed standardized 60 Hz.
6. Generating Units - The significant growth in the utility industry has resulted from enhanced quality of
technology that leads to larger generating units and larger transmission facilities in the 1900s. From a
capacity of 1.5 MW in 1900, the generating units in the modern period can operate as high as 1425 MW.
7. Transmission Voltage - An escalation in the transmission voltage in the United States in the early 1900s had
been possible due to upgraded equipment and materials, better manufacturing methods, and advanced
engineering procedures. From 60kV transmission voltage in 1900, it reached up as high as 765kV in 1969.
8. Affordable Cost - Various technological advancements made generating and transmitting capacity at a
much lower unit cost which in effect, causes citizens of the United States to utilize a larger amount of
electricity.
9. Transmission Grids - Intermittent failures of equipment had become a dilemma due to varying peaks of
electric power usage of different systems. To address this problem, transmission grids covering the United
States and Canada were built to interconnect different electric power systems.
 10. Nuclear Reactor - Experimental Reactor Breeder 1 was the first reactor to produce electricity from a
nuclear reaction. It was constructed on December 1, 1951, in Idaho and began generating electricity in
1954.
11. Wind Turbine - Charles Brush, an inventor in Ohio, built a 60-foot wind turbine in 1888 that is capable of
generating electricity in his backyard. This development introduced the development of Grandpa’s Knob in
1941, the first wind turbine capable of generating 1.25-MW electricity for widespread use.
12. Photovoltaic Cells - The physicists of Bell Laboratories invented the first solar cell capable of producing
electricity from the sun’s energy made of silicon.
13. Transformers - The transformer built by Lucien Gaulard and John Dixon Gibbs created a significant
milestone in the development of electric power systems. The transformer was utilized to light 25 miles of
railway from one alternating-current generator in 1884.
14. La Electricista - La Electricista was the first electric company to provide electricity to Manila in late 1894
towards the end of the Spanish Era. The company had built a central power plant in Quiapo, Manila, and
served 3,000 electric light customers by 1903.
15. EPIRA - The Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 was signed into law to mandate the Energy
Regulatory Commission (ERC) in the Philippines to encourage market development, to ensure the choice of
the consumer, and to penalize abuse of market power in the revolutionized electric power industry.
[5 pts] Describe the motivations or context why the electric power system has evolved from its origin to the present
modern system.
The development of the electric power system has positively contributed to the lives of every individual
from the moment it had discovered up to the modern era. In the early 1800s, the generation of electricity was very
limited to certain people and only available to industrial sectors. Only business owners had access to electricity
because of its expensiveness and scarcity.
Improvements in equipment and technology and advanced techniques and methods induced a better
development in the power system. Larger generating capacity and larger transmission voltage became available
which addressed the solution to a limited amount of electrical energy available. Furthermore, these technological
improvements enhanced the caliber of the electric power system and at the same time lowered its costs to the
consumer.
This evolution of the electric power system primarily benefited residential customers because of the
efficient production of electricity at a lower cost and the commercial consumers as well because of relatively low
budget allocation for electricity compared to the period where it was just starting to develop.

[5 pts] Enumerate 5 most important restructuring reform mandates for the Philippine electric power industry under
the Republic Act No. 9186, the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 which is also known as the EPIRA
Law.
1. Educating the end-users and protecting their rights to be informed about the implementation of retail
access and its effect and the appropriate use of electric power.
2. Promotion of environmental awareness by mandating the participants in the generation, transmission,
and distribution sectors to comply with all the environmental laws and regulations implemented by the
Department of Environment and National Resources.
3. Strengthening the policies of rural electrification which includes enhancing the technical capability and
financial viability of rural electric cooperatives and reviewing and upgrading their existing policies.
4. Creating the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) which promotes competition, strengthen market
development, secure customer choice, and penalize abuse of market power.
5. Amending the existing policies of the Department of Energy (DOE) through the inclusion of monitoring
and supervising the restructuring of the electric power industry in the Philippines.
 Problem 2
[15 pts] Describe the function of each subsystem of an electric power system by completing the following table. Use
at most 15 words.

Subsystem Main
function
Generation A generation system is a facility that converts available energy resources to electrical
energy.
Transmission A transmission system delivers electricity from the generation to the
subtransmission system.
Subtransmission A substransmission system supplies electricity to distribution facilities.

Distribution A distribution system delivers electricity to the customer.

Utilization A utilization system turns the electricity delivered by the distribution system to
useful functions.
 Problem 3
[24 pts] Identify a location in the Philippines and the installed generating capacity of the following types of power
plants. Indicate whether the power generation facility is renewable or non-renewable.

Location Installed
Type of Power Plant (Municipality/City, Generating RE/Non-RE
Province) Capacity (MW)
Coal-fired thermal power plant Iloilo City, Iloilo 83.7 Non-RE

Geothermal power plant Calauan, Laguna 442.8 RE

Dam-type hydropower plant Marawi City, Lanao del Sur 80.5 RE

Run-of-river hydropower plant Loboc, Bohol 1.2 RE

Diesel power plant Alabel, Saranggani 59 Non-RE

Combined-cycle gas turbine power Limay, Bataan 648 Non-RE

plant
Solar PV power plant Manapla, Negros Occidental 48 RE

Wind power plant Bangui Bay, Ilocos Norte 18.9 RE