Aoife M. Foley

• BE(Hons) MSc PhD CEng FIEI
• Queen's University Belfast

Phase change materials (PCMs) can store high densities of thermal energy and possess strong heat transmission qualities. Given their diverse properties, these materials are well-suited for managing thermal energy in various applications This study focuses on battery thermal management systems (BTMS), where PCMs can regulate temperature variations i...

The prominent growth in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment is evident, with the number of global assets managed sustainably more than doubled over the last decade. This trend is expected to continue until 2030. This type of financial data is positive but given the United Nations stated 'climate emergency' and 'climate survival' i...

This study probes the notable gap between the theoretical endorsement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDGs 7, 12, and 13, and their tangible implementation in higher education curricula. We hypothesize that entrenched unsustainable practices in key academic disciplines, such as engineering and business, persist despite...

Energy poverty affects billions worldwide, including people in developed and developing countries. Identifying those living in energy poverty and implementing successful solutions require timely and detailed survey data, which can be costly, time-consuming, and difficult to obtain, particularly in rural areas. Through machine learning, this study i...

Attitudes towards renewable technologies and knowledge about energy consumption influences the adoption of sustainable energy systems across power, heat and transport. Research suggests that behavioural change strategies could accelerate the transition towards net-zero by reducing household energy consumption, increasing the uptake of energy effici...

Despite increasing policy emphasis on creating a more equitable society as a key component of the energy transition, there is still a dearth of assessments investigating the equity outcomes of decarbonisation scenarios and community scale Just Transition case studies, and those focusing on both energy and transport. This work seeks to fill this gap...

Concrete is the most highly used construction material globally. This is largely due to its durability, versatility and manufacture from inexpensive and readily available materials. Although concrete has become an essential and ubiquitous construction material for modern society, its use has significant environmental impacts. The full cement and co...

The impacts of climate change have prompted governments to pledge to introduce policies aiming to limit the increasing temperature. One of the strategies involves reducing and, eventually, eliminating internal combustion engines in favour of electric vehicles. This strategy has been implemented by many transportation services, and FREE NOW has pled...

Increasing integration of distributed energy resources (DER) in the electrical network has led distribution network operators to unprecedented challenges. This issue is compounded by the lack of monitoring infrastructure on the low voltage (LV) side of distribution networks at residential and utility sides. Non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) meth...

The migration to low-carbon technologies in secondary (low-voltage) distribution networks relies on high integration of distributed energy resources (DER), including distributed generation and low-carbon loads. The electrification of power and transport sectors has led to an increased deployment of solar photovoltaic systems and electric vehicles c...

Retail electricity markets require development to ensure efficient and equitable pass through of wholesale electricity costs to customers. Customer engagement has been heralded as a concept to improve the wholesale-to-retail link, better harness flexible demand loads and co-ordinate distributed renewable generation and storage. This study reviews t...

An inevitable consequence of the power system transition towards nearly 100% inverter-based resources is the loss of synchronous generators with their associated inertia, frequency, and voltage control mechanisms. Battery energy storage with different converter technologies, due to their fast-ramping capabilities, are expected to address these chal...

This paper is the editorial for the virtual special issue (VSI) of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (RSER) dedicated to 4 SDEWES Conferences held in 2020, namely: (i) the 2nd Latin American Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (LASDEWES 2020) held from February 9 to 12, 2020 in Buenos Aires, Argenti...

Ceramics are considered one of the greatest and earliest most useful successes of humankind. However, ceramics can be highly damaging to natural and social systems during their lifecycle, from material extraction to waste handling. For example, each year in the EU, the manufacture of ceramics (e.g., refractories, wall and floor tiles and bricks and...

As the offshore energy landscape transitions to renewable energy useful decommissioned or abandoned oil and gas infrastructure can be repurposed in the context of the circular economy. Oil and gas platforms, for example, offer opportunity for hydrogen (H2) production by desalination and electrolysis of sea water using offshore wind power. However,...

The maritime sector has been searching for efficient solutions to change energy consumptions patterns of ports and ships to ensure sustainable operation and to reduce CO2 emissions to support sustainable transport in line with International Maritime Organization (IMO) policy guidelines. Therefore, pursuing smart strategies by utilizing renewable en...

International policies and targets to globally reduce carbon dioxide emissions have contributed to increasing penetration of distributed energy resources (DER) in low-voltage distribution networks. The growth of technologies such as rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems and electric vehicles (EV) has, to date, not been rigorously monitored and record k...

As agricultural activity intensifies across Europe there is growing concern over water quality. Agricultural run-off is a leading cause of freshwater degradation. Simultaneously there is a continually increasing drive to promote renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Willow coppice planted as a riparian buffer has been suggested as a...

A shift to electric vehicles (EV) is seen as one of the main methods to decarbonise the transportation sector. However, issues have also been raised regarding charging infrastructure, EV reliability and range, as well as the battery environmental and social credentials. Notwithstanding governments, intergovernmental organisations, and research enti...

Global energy use has grown with the advance of human civilization such that we now use approximately 175,000 TWh of energy per year. This demand for energy provides essential services, from lighting homes to producing heat for industrial processes. Human demand for energy in the coming decades is highly uncertain. Climate change, the consequent ne...

Power systems with a high share of renewables require additional ancillary services to operate safely and reliably. System operators are introducing schemes to attract investment in technology which will provide ancillary services. Battery storage can provide some of these services but investment in equipment is required. This study investigates th...

Glass is a material inextricably linked with human civilization. It is also the product of an energy intensive industry. About 75%–85% of the total energy requirements to produce glass occur when the raw materials are heated in a furnace to more than 1500 °C. During this process, large volumes of emissions arise. The container and flat glass indust...

Future distribution grids are expected to face an increasing penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) and heterogeneous distributed energy resources (DERs). This demands a distributed energy management (EM) to manage power generation and delivery of energy sources to maintain power quality under the impact of EV charging, to save operating costs, and...

The use of hybrid systems for electrification of remote areas has been increased dramatically in recent years, and the optimal sizing of these systems is a significant challenge for cost-effectiveness and reliability. This paper aims to propose a predictable planning framework that increases the renewable energy penetration (REP) rate and minimizes...

Grid frequency support is one of the most challenging issues in wind rich islanded power systems. This problem becomes critical with the displacement of synchronous generators and their associated services (i.e., inertia and primary operating reserve). The services that are lost can be replaced by other sources, such as demand response schemes to e...

Through the long-distance transmission of electric energy, global interconnected power grids have become promising for the decarbonization of the power systems nowadays. However, the implementation of an extremely large-scale system may be controversial because practical examples are rare. In this paper, the interconnected power system among Centra...

This paper focuses on the transformations from the individual machine to the equivalent machine through the "correction" perspective of the inner-group machine. The machines are first classified as the real machine with equation of motion and the pseudo machine without equation of motion. Then, it is clarified that both individual machine and equiv...

This paper analyzes the mechanisms of the inner-group machine. It is first clarified that the inner-group machine is created from the difference between the equivalent system and the original system. The inner-group machine stability is analyzed based on the machine paradigms. In particular, strict correlation between the inner-group machine trajec...

This paper analyzes the mechanisms of the equivalent machine and also its advantages in TSA. Based on the two group separations, an equivalent machine is modeled through the equivalence of the motions of all machines inside each group. This "motion equivalence" fully ensures the modeling of the two-machine system and the corresponding Newtonian ene...

This paper analyzes the mechanisms of the superimposed machine and also its inherit problems in TSA. Based on the global monitoring of the original system trajectory, the transient energy is mistakenly defined as the superimposition of the transient energy of all machines in the system. This "energy superimposition" directly causes the superimposed...

The paper analyzes the mechanisms of the individual-machine and also its advantages in TSA. Based on the critical-machine monitoring of the original system trajectory, it is clarified that the individual-machine strictly follows the machine paradigms. These strict followings of the paradigms bring the two advantages of the individual-machine method...

Individual-machine, superimposed-machine and equivalent-machine can be seen as the three major perspectives of the power system transient stability. In this paper, the machine paradigms are established according to the common thinking among the three different machines. The machine paradigms comprise of the three components, i.e., trajectory paradi...

Non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) techniques represent an opportunity to increase the flexibility and resilience of the electrical system. However, there is limited research and practical work focused on implementing these methods for distributed energy resources on distribution networks. Non-intrusive load monitoring can contribute to demand-si...

The increase of distributed energy resources, namely rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems and electric vehicles (EV), has brought new technical challenges related to the operation and planning in low-voltage distribution networks. The modification of electrical network dynamics has exposed a lack of observability in this side of the electric system re...

The inevitable battery ageing is a bottleneck that hinders the advancement of battery-based energy storage systems. Developing a reliable health assessment strategy for battery pack is important but challenging when the joint requirements of computational burden, modelling cost, estimation accuracy, and battery equalisation are considered. This pap...

In this third paper, the fundamental mechanism of individual-machine transient stability is explained through Newtonian mechanics. The original Newtonian system with variant gravity is developed. This system is formed by a ball and the Earth. It is found that the Newtonian energy conversion strictly holds inside the system, and the equal area crite...

This paper proposes a control scheme for variable speed wind turbines that provides both operating reserve and frequency-droop regulation via rotor speed control. The control scheme is compared to conventional rotor speed control and pitch angle frequency-droop control techniques. Simulation results performed using the IEEE 39-bus power system mode...

While Soft Open Point (SOP) shows its strong capability to control load transfer and regulate network voltage profile in a distribution network, there are limited considerations of the high investment costs of these special electric devices. This gap may hinder optimal planning of an SOP and even affect its wide usage in a distribution network. Thi...

In many countries distributed energy resources (DER) (e.g. photovoltaics, batteries, wind turbines, electric vehicles, electric heat pumps, air-conditioning units and smart domestic appliances) are part of the ‘Green Deal’ to deliver a climate neutral society. Policy roadmaps, despite providing a framework and penetration targets for DER, often lac...

This paper proposes a frequency-droop control scheme for wind turbines using rotor speed control. The control scheme is proposed as a better alternative to conventional frequency-droop control techniques. When conven-tional frequency-droop control is used, the frequency response produced by the wind turbine is dependent on the method of power track...

From farm to fork, food and beverage consumption can have significant negative impacts on energy consumption, water consumption, climate change, and other environmental subsystems. This paper presents a comprehensive, critical and systematic review of more than 350,000 sources of evidence, and a short list of 701 studies, on the topic of greenhouse...

This review investigates the state of the art in metrics used in energy (or fuel) and transport poverty with a view to assessing how these overlapping concepts may be unified in their measurement. Our review contributes to ongoing debates over decarbonisation, a politically sensitive and crucial aspect of the energy transition, and one that could e...

Vaccination now offers a way to resolve the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is critical to recognise the full energy, environmental, economic and social equity (4E) impacts of the vaccination life cycle. The full 4E impacts include the design and trials, order management, material preparation, manufacturing, cold chain logistics, low-temperature sto...

Special Issue Contextualization: Transportation electrification is becoming an inevitability across all modes of transport from cars, vans, trucks and buses to even ships and more recently planes. It is envisaged that these transport loads will have the ability to generate and supply additional system services using their on-board battery energy s...

An accurate control-oriented electrothermal model is of great importance for onboard temperature monitoring and efficient performance management of lithium (Li)-ion batteries in automobile applications. This article presents a control-oriented electrothermal model for pouch-type electric vehicle batteries. This model uses the Chebyshev–Galerkin (CG...

In this second paper, the individual-machine potential energy surface is established. The constant-θi angle surface of the machine is found in the angle space. Because the individual-machine potential energy is strictly zero in this angle surface, the constant-θi angle surface has a significant effect on the shape of the individual-machine potentia...

Due to internal mass transfer resistance, the dynamic response of fuel cells often lags the demand power in vehicular powertrains. In this study, an intelligent hydrogen pressure control method based on short-term vehicular power demand prediction is proposed to enhance mass transfer inside diffusion layer and improve dynamic performance. Sensitivi...

The individual-machine-equal-area-criterion method already shows potential in the transient stability assessment of multimachine systems. This two-paper series systematically analyzes the transient characteristics of the system trajectory from a genuine individual-machine transient energy perspective. In the first paper, the stability property that...

Development of wind power in China, a key measure to mitigate China’s carbon emissions and achieve global climate goals, faces serious curtailment issues. In an interlinked electric power system, a strategic allocation of wind power capacities offers an important means to take advantage of geographical smoothing effects and enhance accommodation of...

This paper is an editorial for the virtual special issue (VSI) of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (RSER) dedicated to the 14th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES 2019) held from October 1, 2019 to October 6, 2019 in Dubrovnik. The VSI published both high quality review papers and original...

Renewable energy is projected to play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and in realising the climate change goals. Large scale development of variable renewable energy, which is regarded as non-dispatchable, requires additional power system quality services such as voltage regulation, frequency regulation and inertial response....

Battery packs are applied in various areas (e.g., electric vehicles, energy storage, space, mining, etc.), which requires the state of health (SOH) to be accurately estimated. Inconsistency, also known as cell variation, is considered a significant evaluation index that greatly affects the degradation of battery pack. This paper proposes a novel jo...

Cities across the globe recognise their role in climate mitigation and are acting to reduce carbon emissions. Knowing whether cities set ambitious climate and energy targets is critical for determining their contribution towards the global 1.5 °C target, partly because it helps to identify areas where further action is necessary. This paper present...

This chapter gives the brief introduction to the management of energy in smart grids focusing on the hybrid renewable energy systems, load and generation forecasting, new grids structure, and smart technologies. The classification of smart infrastructure systems and smart energy management systems is provided and discussed with focus on both demand...

This Virtual Special Issue contains extensions of some of the papers presented at the 22nd Conference of Process Integration, Modelling and Optimisation for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction (PRES′19) in Crete, Greece on the 20 to 23 October 2019 related to the scope of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. The works are not limited to revi...

The focus of this study is to show that by understanding the food-energy-water nexus, potential unforeseen negative outcomes can be avoided in the pursuit of sustainable development. To do this, this paper uses a novel approach to compare a combined farm and short rotation coppice willow system, in which the willow was planted as a riparian buffer,...

The EU27 countries exert significant influence on the global patterns of the CO2-Emissions-Water-Energy (CWE) nexus. However, whether the associated benefits are similar for all countries is unclear. In this paper, an EU27 multiregional input-output model, at a sector level to identify the inter-regional and -sectoral CWE flows, and clarify the reg...

The marine transaminase, P-ω-TA, can be employed for the transamination from 1-aminotetralins and 1-aminoindanes with differentiation of stereochemistry at both the site of reaction and at a remote stereocentre resulting in formation of ketone products with up to 93% ee. While 4-substituents are tolerated on the tetralin core, the presence of 3- or...

This research investigates three frameworks for data centers to deliver fast frequency response services from their UPS storage systems, HVAC cooling units, and the ability of off-gridding the entire data center during transient frequency events. The aim of this is to provide dynamic injection during transients in real time for grid operators and f...

The long-term economic viability of offshore wind power is not only reliant on reducing installation, commissioning, and operations and maintenance costs, but also on the elimination of subsidies and grants. Current economic analyses use historical price and cost data to predict the levelised cost, net present value, payback period and internal rat...

Power systems operating at a high level of converter-based renewable generation impose significant challenges om power system frequency dynamics. Synchronous generator displacement reduces the overall system inertia and frequency response capability to disturbances. This research investigates the potential of energy storage to provide frequency ser...

State of charge management in battery energy storage systems will be imperative to ensure that frequency regulating services can be provided when required. Two state of charge controllers are proposed in this paper. One controller was designed to meet the charge/discharge requirements imposed on assets providing enhanced frequency response. The con...

Energy storage systems will play a key role in the power system of the twenty first century considering the large penetrations of variable renewable energy, growth in transport electrification and decentralisation of heating loads. Therefore reliable real time methods to optimise energy storage, demand response and generation are vital for power sy...

Generation from synchronous machines in European power systems is decreasing as variable renewable energy penetration increases. Appropriate levels of system rotational inertia to ensure system stability, previously inherent in synchronous areas across Europe, can no longer be assumed. This work investigated the impact different levels of minimum i...

An accurate wind turbine power curve (WTPC) plays a vital role in wind power forecasting and wind turbine condition monitoring. There are two major shortcomings of current WTPC models that prevent more accurate WTPC estimation, limited nonlinear fitting ability and the lack of in-depth understanding of the complex characteristics of WTPC. This pape...

Existing power systems are facing new challenges in maintaining the security of the power system as the penetration of variable renewable energy technologies, such as variable speed wind turbines, increases. System non-synchronous generation replaces conventional generators as penetration of renewable increases. This affects system rotational inert...

Electric vehicles play a crucial role in reducing fuel consumption and pollutant emissions for more sustainable transportation. Lithium-ion batteries, as the most expensive but least understood component in electric vehicles, directly affect vehicular driving range, safety, comfort, and reliability. However, the overall performance of traction batt...

Lidar based wind measurement is an integral part of wind farm control. The major issues and challenges in power maximization include the potential losses due to wake effect observed among wind turbines. This manuscript presents a wake management technique that utilizes lidar simulations for wake redirection. The proposed methodology is validated fo...

The mission of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (RSER) is to communicate the most significant and relevant critical thinking in renewable and sustainable energy research and development, bringing together the research community, the private sector and policy and decision-makers. The aim of the journal is to share problems, solutions, novel...

The Beibu Gulf Economic Rim of China is a key economic region in China as demonstrated by the “Beibu Gulf Cities Development Project” (2017) that plans to build a “Blue Livable Gulf” to balance environmental protection while providing sustainable economic development. This region has significant energy needs and is predicted to exhibit rapid growth...

This editorial in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (RSER) is a virtual special issue (VSI) dedicated to the three conferences on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) held in 2018. These included the 13th SDEWES Conference (30 September to the 4 October in Palermo, Italy), the 3rd South East European SDEW...

Distributed energy resources (DER) such as photovoltaics, battery storage, small-scale wind turbines and electric vehicles create technical challenges in distribution networks by changing the behaviour of the network from passive to active. Understanding the properties of the DER in the network, including their electrical connection location, is vi...

Cities are gaining prominence committing to respond to the threat of climate change, e.g., by developing local climate plans or strategies. However, little is known regarding the approaches and processes of plan development and implementation, or the success and effectiveness of proposed measures. Mainstreaming is regarded as one approach associate...

Energy storage systems will play a key role in the power system of the twenty first century considering the large penetrations of variable renewable energy, growth in transport electrification and decentralisation of heating loads. Therefore reliable real time methods to optimise energy storage, demand response and generation are vital for power sy...

This paper is an Editorial for the special issue (SI) of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (RSER) devoted to the 12th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES), held from the 4th to 8th October 2017 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The key focus of RSER is to publish critical thinking across the wide field...

Conventional unit commitment is a mixed integer optimization problem and has long been a key issue for power system operators. The complexity of this problem has increased in recent years given the emergence of new participants such as large penetration of plug-in electric vehicles. In this paper, a new model is established for simultaneously consi...

Further growth in renewable energy and planned electrification and decentralization of transport and heating loads in future power systems will result in a more complex unit commitment problem (UCP). This paper proposes an adaptive approach to load leveling problem using novel dynamic models based on the Volterra integral equations of the first kin...

Anaerobic digestion (AD) for biogas production forms one of the fundamental building blocks of the bioeconomy, and a research programme has been under way in Northern Ireland, which culminated in the publication of a Biogas Research Action Plan 2020 in 2014. One important element of this programme was the identification of the need for an evidence...

Northern Ireland will fall into energy deficit by 2021 (Eirgird Group, 2016). Between 2009 and 2013, 25% of Northern Ireland’s electricity demand was imported from Scotland (Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, 2016). This overreliance on imported energy is avoidable as Northern Ireland is a prime candidate for a 100% renewable energy sy...

The Paris Agreement aims to limit global mean temperature rise this century to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. This target has wide-ranging implications for Europe and its cities, which are the source of substantial greenhouse gas emissions. This paper reports the state of local planning for climate change by collecting and analysing i...

Frequency stability in power systems is achieved by active power control, which aims to balance grid generation with load demand. Historically, grid balancing services have been provided by synchronous thermal generating units. As wind penetration levels increase on the power system, it is essential that wind turbine generators (WTGs) provide robus...

Probabilistic wind power forecasting has become an important tool for optimal economic dispatch and unit commitment of modern power systems with significant renewable energy penetrations. Ensemble forecasting based on Monte Carlo simulation is commonly used by many grid operators, but other probabilistic approaches, such as multi-step iterative win...

The aim of this work is to create a novel cloud-based mechanical-power electronic coupled fault diagnostic tool which will identify service and equipment requirements and optimise logistics of technicians and crew of transfer vessels proactively, rather than reactively, to reduce operational and maintenance costs. This paper presents the first stag...

In recent years in the offshore wind industry, auction prices for energy have declined in Denmark, Germany and England. This decline can be linked to three main issues 1) access to the offshore grid network, 2) bigger turbines and 3) improved development, installation and commission experience. Nonetheless, an aspect of offshore wind requiring furt...

В данной работе на основе интегральных динамических моделей предлагается универсальный подход к проблеме рационального использования аккумулирования энергии для разных характеристик аккумуляторных батарей, таких как: КПД, емкость, уровень заряда, ограничения на скорость зарядки и разрядки, максимальное количество циклов разрядки. Предлагаемый подхо...

Frequency stability in power systems is achieved by active power control, which aims to balance grid generation with load demand. Historically, grid balancing services have been provided by synchronous thermal generating units. As wind penetration levels increase on the power system, it is essential that wind turbine generators provide robust, reli...