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TECH TALK
e-newsletter | H2 2016-17
ELECTRIC VEHICLES &
THEIR INTEGRATION IN
THE UTILITY GRID

INTRODUCTION:

The world is exhausting its

reserves of fossil fuels and in
effect this has increased the
demand of using alternate
energy resources. Amongst
the famous alternative fuel
ideas, electric vehicles have
paved into the market and
have attracted considerable
workforce in R&D and quite
a few industrial players as
well. This makes
battery-electric vehicles a
prospective solution to the
existing energy crisis,
especially in the developing
countries where
nonrenewable energy
resources are limited and
the demand for
environmentally friendly
alternatives is high. The
whole idea helps to
decrease the carbon foot
print and hence adverse
effects of global warming.

The concept of electric vehicles is not new and in history these vehicles can be traced back to early 19th century
when the first crude version of electric carriage was made by a Scottish businessman. Since then the electric
vehicles industry has seen highs and lows. The introduction of highly efficient battery technologies such as lithium
ion and high frequency high power IGBT based power modules have made these vehicles viable for commercial
production.
 ELECTRIC VEHICLES &
THEIR INTEGRATION IN
THE UTILITY GRID

For the previous three decades the electric vehicle industry has seen an upward slope and newer and better electric
vehicles have been introduced by tesla and its other counter parts.
Due to all the progress by the EV industry, this area has gained attention of governments, automobile industry and
consumers.

Government – mainly due to low carbon foot print legislations and changing climate issues
Automobile industry – depleting fossil fuels and long term association with consumers through innovationConsumers
– Low operating and maintenance cost Finally, according to a research by “Electric power research institute”, by
2020, up to 35% of the total vehicles in the United States would be electric vehicles.

Frame work

The electric vehicles can operate in various

energy sharing modes, that are:

• Grid to vehicle – The vehicle draws power

through grid and charges its battery bank
• Vehicle to grid – The vehicle supplies to the
grid and discharges its battery bank
• Vehicle to vehicle – The vehicles share their
power through local sharing center
• Vehicle to home – The vehicles absorb/deliver
power to local home grid

Concept:

The grid electric vehicles generally can charge

themselves and/or inject energy to the grid at
instances of high demand. The stable operation
of this system and efficient power transaction
requires substantial information exchange.

This concept requires three elements:

• Power connection to the grid
• Communication with the grid
• Effective bidirectional metering
Technical details:

Power converter:
The concept of GEV is based on the fact of efficient power processing and hence state of the art power
electronic converter are required. The converter requires two degenerate part, that are, AC-DC conversion
and DC-DC conversion. The AC-DC converter enforces active power factor correction and DC-DC converter
regulates the battery charge/discharge current.

Communication:
The key function of the communication network is to facilitate GEV participation in offering various ancillary
services and therefore requires a reliable and secure two-way communication network
The communication system generally communicates
• Load shifting – peak shaving and valley filling
• Renewable energy integration
• Reserve power supply
• Regulation – frequency and voltage
• Reactive power support

Charging Strategies:
GEVs when connected to the grid need proficient
charging strategy, such that, vehicle penetration
does not deteriorate the grid quality. To regulate
vehicle charging various utility companies offer dual
tariff as a way to reduce peak load. Similarly, the
GEV owners are encouraged to deliver power to the
grid during peak hours and this coordination helps to
optimize the power demand and reduced grid
parameters deviation.
Benefits of GEVs
• The average vehicle usage is 10% of the time daily and generally are parked
at home or parking lots. This idea further enhances the benefits of a
commonly owned product.
• GEVs provide various ancillary services:
• Voltage and frequency regulation
• Spinning reserves
• Reactive power support
• Peak shaving/valley filling
• Energy balancing
• Replacement of large scale energy storage systems
• GEVs are extremely environment friendly due to minimum greenhouse gas Challenges
emission • Battery degradation – as
• Managing grid reliability the prime concept of
• Balancing supply and demand GEVs is charging and
• Provide fast backup in case of generation failure discharging the batteries,
• GEVs make renewable energy integration much simpler by providing energy therefore battery life
buffer (like charging through solar during day time and providing back to grid decreases and additional
during night) costs are incurred.
• Resizing transformers
Challenges and transmission
• Battery degradation – as the prime concept of GEVs is charging and conductors.
discharging the batteries, therefore battery life decreases and additional costs • Investment cost of
are incurred. communication system
• Resizing transformers and transmission conductors. • Energy loss due to
• Investment cost of communication system conversion while charging
• Energy loss due to conversion while charging and discharging and discharging
PLUME ABATEMENT
TECHNOLOGY FOR
COOLING TOWER
Cooling is essential to industrial and commercial
processes that require heat dissipation. Utilizing
an open wet system, wet cooling towers rely on
the latent heat of water evaporation to
exchange heat between the process and the air
passing through the cooling tower.
As the water evaporates, a stream of saturated
exhaust air the plume leaves the tower. The
plume is visible when the water vapor it
contains condenses in contact with cooler
ambient air.
What is PLUME?
In the cooling towers, at the air discharge, water
droplets can be formed by condensation of
warm humid discharge air by contact with the
colder ambient air upon leaving the equipment.
This type of condensation is the visible plume
that often can be seen rising above evaporative
cooling equipment during the winter season.
The air that comes from a cooling tower is
visible for essentially the same reason breath
can be seen on a cold day. The air leaving the
tower is warm and filled with moisture; on a
cold, humid day, water drops in the air
condense and create a visible plume.
The water vapor caused by condensation
contains droplets of pure water and is harmless.
However, in certain locations plume should be
avoided because of the safety problems it could
create. Sight restrictions or ice formation on the
ground could create life-threatening situations.
It could also mistakenly be seen as smoke from
a fire. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to
take appropriate measures to minimize or
ideally eliminate the formation of plume.
Causes of Plume Formation
• Poor performance of drift eliminators
• High TDS in cooling water due to chemical leakages at
plant
• High humidity of ambient and discharge air enhances
plume potential and vice versa.
• Large temperature difference between discharge and
ambient air increases plume potential and vice versa.
• High heat load/ air flow ratio provides large
temperature difference and high plume potential and
vice versa (Typically heat load/ air flow ratio for
evaporative coil products is smaller.).
• Next to equipment selection, plume formation is a
function of the actual heat load and climatic conditions
and needs to be evaluated over a wide band of
operating conditions.
Plume Formation
• Air enters.
• Air picks up heat and water in the evaporative fluid
cooler.
• Ambient air serves as heat sink for the discharge air.
• Intersection of saturation line leads to visible plume.
• Large intersection area: more plume; small intersection
area: less plume.
• Temperature and relative humidity of the entering air
influence the condition of the discharge air:
• Dry ambient air: discharge air has low relative humidity
and high temperature.
• Wet ambient air: discharge air has high relative
humidity and lower temperature.
• Warm ambient air: discharge air has lower relative
humidity and higher temperature.
• Cold ambient air: discharge air has higher relative
humidity and lower temperature.
 EFFECTS OF
PLUME

Plume from a cooling tower can pose following

issues: Plume is a cloud of water
• It may affect visibility and safety as well as vapor produced by a cooling
public perception.  tower. It occurs when warm,
• Loss of process water due to plume formation. moist air is cooled by the
• There is a chance of nearby equipment ambient air.
erosion/corrosion due to this plume.
• Plume can cause dampening and visibility issues
on adjacent roadways.
• Even though the cooling tower plume is made up
of water vapor, a community may perceive it as
unwanted or smoke-related. This may affect the
use of nearby land or decrease property values.
• Permitting can be a long and costly process.
Eliminating the visible plume may enhance a
smooth permitting process.
• In many countries of the world there are
ordinance passed for visible plume, visible
plumes are considered as a hinder, all possible
measures must be taken to minimize or eliminate
the occurrence of plume.

Plume Abatement Technology in Cooling

Towers

The visible plume released to atmosphere is not

hazardous and toxic while it may result in
misconception of a fire accident or a hazardous
pollutant for the local people. Therefore, there
are strict regulations/ordinances to reduce and
eliminate plume from cooling towers in some
countries and regions. Generally, there are two
methods to reduce or prevent plume.

Coil Based Plume Abatement System

Wet/Dry Hybrid Cooling Towers
COIL BASED PLUME
ABATEMENT SYSTEM

In this method it is needed to heat the

exhaust air from cooling towers directly
to a certain sub-saturated point
preventing the mixing point of the
exhaust air and the ambient air to fall in
the super-saturation region.

This tower combines the normal

evaporative portion with a finned-tube
dry surface heat exchanger section. In
such unit, the saturated discharge air
leaving the evaporative section is
mixed within the tower with the warm,
relatively dry air off the finned-coil
section to produce a sub-saturated air
mixture leaving the tower. The heating
means may be natural gas burners,
solar collectors or steam coils,this
method is termed as “Coil Based
Plume Abatement System”

Limitations of Coil Based Plume Abatement
• Coil based systems require continuous
maintenance to operate efficiently. This includes
cleaning coils and maintaining or repairing
dampers, valves, piping and actuators.
• Coil systems are also heavier which may require
additional foundation requirements and, if water
quality is not optimum, coil materials can become
very expensive.
• Humidity and a wet section creates warm and
humid air. The two airflows then mix and the air is
discharged with reduced humidity to avoid
creating a plume when meeting ambient air. This
technology has been effective in reducing of
plumes, but current towers can be difficult and
costly to maintain. Many owners seek improved
water savings and reduced environmental impact,
plus the energy needed to run the towers can be
high.
• Discharge air of open cooling towers is generally
higher saturated than discharge air of evaporative
coil product
COIL BASED PLUME
ABATEMENT SYSTEM

Parallel Path Way Plume Abatement System traditional large cooling tower by both condensing
evaporated water and decreasing make up water
In this method combination of wet-dry hybrid cooling requirements.
towers is used. The cooling tower with plume • Parallel path wet/dry technologies have been the
abatement is an evaporative cooling tower combined common plume abatement solution on the market for
with a dry heat exchanger, used to abate the cooling more than 30 years. Outside air is pulled into
tower plume. separated areas where a dry section heats the air to
reduce.
• Latest plume abatement towers work by passing
• A lower pump head, which can be used because
outside air through a lower warm, wet section of the
there are no coils, reduces the net auxiliary power
tower where it is heated. Above that, cool, ambient air
usage of the cooling tower system that in turn lowers
flows through ducts. The two then pass through pairs
costs.
of plates where they are warmed and moisture is
• There is no coil replacement or fin cleaning required,
removed through condensation. The two types of air
which reduces maintenance needs and costs and the
are then mixed and leave the tower without a visible
need for related operator monitoring and training.
plume. Plume Abatement Coils Large surface area
plume abatement coils are installed in the air
discharge of the evaporative coil products and piped
in series with the “wet” coil.
• By using a series of heat exchanger modules in the
tower plenum, ambient air condenses much of the
moisture before it exits the tower, thereby reducing
the plume.

Limitations:
To be effective they must have low air and fluid side
pressure drops. This results in:
• Significant extension of dry operation capacity.
• Effective increase of discharge air temperature to
reduce / eliminate plume during wet operation.

Advantages
• Greater Design Flexibility
Available as a new installation or as a retrofit to an
existing cooling tower
• Additional sensible heat transfers during wet
operation which saves water and treatment costs.
• In addition, the system offers the potential to save up
to 10 to 30% of the water used annually by a
 OVERALL
ADVANTAGES OF
PLUME ABATEMENT

• Water Conservation • Treated Water

Water is increasingly becoming a scarce and valuable
commodity. Removing water from the vapor plume
can help decrease water-related costs and help the
environment.
• Minimized Drift losses
For companies that are conscious of their drift rate,
the technology provides a reduction in emissions in
the drift leaving the cooling tower
The water savings come from the condensate that is
removed as the air passes through the plates in the
tower and then “recaptured” or returned to the tower.
Because this water is high quality, it can be used in
other areas. It also can save money on water
treatment equipment.

• Retrofit
Plume Abatement System can be added to existing
cooling towers in many cases, making plume
abatement even more economical. Because it can be
installed into existing cooling towers, the system can
also lower costs by negating the need for complete
system replacement.

• Environmental Protection
Plume abatement saves environment from getting
affected due to dissolution of unwanted chemicals in
water getting evaporated. The air leaving the fan is
mainly composed of water drops, but there are some
solids included in the drift that come from the
circulating water in the tower. These solids are
classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as
particulate emissions. With this technology, the drift is
captured in the condensate when it leaves the
condensing modules, or plates, reducing the already
small amount of particles in the drift.

• Safety
It decreases hazards associated with visibility
reduction due to plume formation.

• Maintenance Cost
Maintenance cost related to plume abatement
decreases by using this system.
 www.ici.com.pk

Editorial Group
Muhammad Azhar Zaman
Manufacturing Support & Business Development Manager (Corp. Tech)
Yasser Khalil
Manager E&I (Corp. Tech)
Syed Adnan Ali
Manufacturing Support Engineer (Corp. Tech)

Contact us:
azhar.zaman@ici.com.pk
Yasser.Khalil@ici.com.pk
Adnan.Ali@ici.com.pk