In warm climates, warm temperatures cause thermal stratification in hydropower reservoirs inhibiting mixing and leading to deoxygenation of waters at depth (hypolimnium). Turbines withdrawing water at depth result in low dissolved oxygen (DO) in the downstream flow having a large negative impact on the downstream riverine ecosystem. Legislation in the USA and elsewhere now requires hydropower operators to guarantee meeting minimum DO limits in downstream flows.

The Energy Planning department at BC Hydro looks at how the company can meet B.C.'s future electricity demand through conservation, generation and transmission, and through upgrades to existing infrastructure. As new resources require lead times to develop, BC Hydro must plan ahead so that the new resources are ready when we need them.

Protection systems perform vital function in power distribution systems to ensure safety of public and equipment during network faults, and usually designed assuming a single power source supply. Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) are fast becoming an integral part of most Electric Power Systems around the world. Improvement in reliability, efficiency, power quality, and reduction in greenhouse emissions are some of the reasons behind this.

A parallelized electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulation tool for power system transients will be developed in this research to accelerate the internal computation process. An EMT simulator uses a highly detailed representation for the Electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulation is a widely used and most accurate tool for power systems network simulations. EMT simulation is very important for various design, testing and analysis of power systems networks involved in generation, transmission and distribution of electrical energy.

Modelling the movement of water through a hydropower station is an important tool for understanding this very complex behaviour, where water is pushed and pulled through long tunnels and spinning turbines, resulting in a vast range of pressures and speeds. There are generally two types of models: 1-dimensional (1D) models, which are simple and cost-effective, but do not provide adequate detail for the more complex features in the power station. The second type is 3-dimensional (3D) models, which are very detailed but cost both time and money.

This field research project is a continuation of an on-going multi-year action-research program, undertaken in a large Manufacturer of Industrial products in the Energy Sector. Like many Canadian corporations, faced with pervasive globalization, economic uncertainty, fierce competition and strict legislations, this Family-owned Company aims at revitalizing its product lines, entering new specialized market niches and upgrading the technological level of its offering through the introduction of Internet of things (IoT).

The candidate will utilize his knowledge and experience in transmission line modelling to implement test cases required by BC Hydro to validate the results of measured induced voltages between the transmission lines and gas pipelines. The simulations will be performed using well-known computer packages available at power laboratories of the University of British Columbia as well as computer programs written by the candidate to implement the recently developed line model in his PhD work. Simulation results will be compared with the measurements.

Aqueous rechargeable lithium battery has received great attention recently due to the less toxicity, lower cost and higher safety compared to the non-aqueous systems. When using the commercially available lithium manganese oxide as active materials, there are demands in suppressing manganese dissolution and graphite consumption in the cathode. As a potential solution to achieve these goals, in this proposal, two dimensional graphene materials are integrated on the surface of the cathode, forming a hybrid cathode aqueous battery.

The performance of non-precious metal catalysts (NPMCs) for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has now reached a stage at which they can be considered as possible alternatives to expensive Pt, especially for low power applications. However, despite significant efforts on catalyst development in the past, only limited studies have been performed on NPMC-based electrode designs. Thus, it is required to develop an effective NPMC-based electrode that can correctly balance the complex parameters to maximize the performance it can bring.

This project will focus on researching Cell Broadcast solutions for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications (command and control operations). As an alternative to the Internet, Cell Broadcast is expected to offer great
advantages to both Utility providers as well as Commercial/Residential HVAC consumers due to its characteristics and it’s broadcasting nature over cellular control channels. Adopting Cell Broadcast will generate several communications-related challenges that will be studied and researched throughout the grant period.