Doaa Khalil Ibrahim

Increasing energy demand worldwide has resulted in more penetration of renewable sources for developing non-polluted electric energy despite their prices are not economically competitive to traditional generation systems due to intermittent nature of renewable resources. Energy storage systems are used to counteract the intermittent nature of renewable sources. Therefore, the optimal sizing and design of stand-alone renewable generating systems is a significant concern to get a more cost-effective system. This paper focuses on achieving the optimum design and size of a microgrid to meet the load requirements and reducing the total cost including capital, investment, operational and maintenance costs. For this aim, the sizing problem is formulated to be solved using three well-known metaheuristic algorithms, namely, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) and Cuckoo Search Optimization (CSO). The employed microgrid comprises hybrid renewable energy sources of PV/Wind systems integrated with a hybrid energy storage system of Battery and FC/Electrolyzer set for supplying AC loads located in Zafarana, Egypt. On the basis of real meteorological data of the studied location, the produced energies from the renewable sources are estimated using MATLAB developed algorithms. The simulation results showed that the optimized design using CSO can robustly and efficiently yield the optimal design of a microgrid.

A new Power Management Regulation Control (PMRC) integrated with Demand Side Management (DSM) strategies is proposed to enhance the Energy Management System (EMS) of a stand-alone hybrid microgrid. The microgrid combines Wind and PV systems as Renewable Energy Sources (RES) with a hybrid Energy Storage System (ESS) of Battery and Fuel Cell/Electrolyzer set. Towards achieving Net Zero Energy Supply, such microgrid is adequate in remote and isolated new communities with AC controllable critical and noncritical loads. The proposed PMRC implies two-levels of control based on Multi-Agent System (MAS). The first level keeps the output power of each source in its maximum available output power by applying maximum power point tracking (MPPT) techniques. The second level is based on making proper decisions for achieving the power balancing regulation and coordination between the available and the reserve power of the RES and ESS under different operating modes. Valley Filling, Energy Conservation and Load Shifting are applied as DSM strategies to improve loads sustainability during system contingencies. Considering the battery as the most expensive part in the microgrid, the effectiveness of the proposed strategy is further verified by determining the maximum permissible estimated battery lifetime during the operation in all possible scenarios. Extensive simulation studies for various scenarios of microgrid operation in a year were carried out using Matlab/ Simulink with realistic typical wind speed, solar irradiation data and restricted by the status of available ESS.

By 2017, Egypt is expected to finish its sixth hydropower plant which is associated with the new Assiut barrage. Based on any hydraulic structure's design, there is enormous kinetic energy created downstream of the gates. This super power water jet generated under dams/barrage gates creates a destructive scouring effect downstream of the gates. In this work, a novel approach for hydrokinetic energy application is presented. The new approach proposes installing a farm of hydrokinetic turbines on the stilling basin of the spillways of the barrage's gate. This approach does not only magnify the total electric energy which was untapped in the past but also dissipates the enormous kinetic energy downstream of the gates. The total expected captured electric power from the barrage reaches 14.88 MW compared to 32 MW rated value of the existing hydropower plant.

Hydrokinetic energy, referring to the energy contained in moving water, is a renewable energy source that gained much consideration in the past years and expected to play a significant role in the future. The energy is initiated in all moving water masses, but is significantly economic to convert for water masses moving with high velocity. Nonlinear characteristics of water speed and generator model in hydrokinetic energy conversion systems require an optimal controller for achieving optimal performance and high efficiency of the system. Here, the field oriented control method is proposed to set the PI controllers which their coefficients are optimized based on Biogeography- Based Optimization technique (BBO). In order to use BBO to solve this problem, the problem has to be formulated as an optimization problem. Numerous simulation studies are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed controller scheme. Achieved results for different patterns of water speed changes in time domain show the capability of the proposed control.

Internal and external measures assuring quality in Egyptian higher education institutions and the improvement in higher education as a result are discussed in this study. Effect of QA processes on internal mechanisms and the role of such QA processes in policy making at both the institutional and national levels are also investigated with reference to some case studies. Internal mechanisms are implemented through QA units in colleges/institutes, QA centers in universities, and projects for QA and qualifying for accreditation financed by the "Ministry of Higher Education". These projects are managed by a "Steering Committee for The Program of Continuous Improvement and Qualifying for Accreditation". The need for continuous improvement urged faculties to adopt certain policies to deal with points of weakness where some faculties intended to have a formal system to deal with student complaints, to handle resistance to change among faculty staff and administrative personnel, and to think of strategies for dealing with the bureaucracy. The needs of higher education systems in Egypt for external and internal QA measures are evident and therefore, several proposals for ensuring sustainability are suggested. "The National Authority for QA and Accreditation of Education" plays a pivotal role in external evaluation of QA activities in higher education institutions. Its basic principles are inspired from the good systems and practices aimed to assure quality of education. Cooperation of Egyptian higher education institutions with QA agencies are also discussed in this paper while referring to means of identification and dissemination of good practice for the purpose of continuous improvement.

This paper presents a differential protection approach for large high quality power transformers that have
low inrush currents of about 3.14 times rated currents. Such transformers have low second harmonic level, which results in conventional differential protection malfunction. A scheme for internal faults and inrush currents discrimination based on both discrete Fourier transform DFT and discrete Wavelet Transform
DWT is proposed. The proposed method has been designed based on the percentage of the sum of wavelet transform coefficients D1 and fundamental differential current (based on a 1 kHz sampling
rate). It has been tested by extensive EMTP/ ATP simulations for different faults and switching conditions on El Tebbin Power Plant 220/21 kV generator/power transformer. It is proved that it has a high capability for discrimination even in the case of inrush with low second harmonic content and internal fault currents with high second harmonic component. All tests proved that the proposed scheme is reliable, accurate, and fast.

This paper proposes a particle swarm optimization (PSO) method for solving the economic dispatch (ED) problem in power systems. Many nonlinear characteristics of the generator are considered for practical generator operation, such as ramp rates, prohibited operating zones, and non smooth cost functions. The feasibility of the proposed .method is demonstrated for two different systems, and is compared with both Genetic Algorithm (GA) method and another PSO method in terms of the cost optimization and computation time where an improvement in both terms is achieved.