Rodrigo Palma-Behnke

University of Chile · Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica

This study show the experimental feasibility of the Solar thermal energy-based disinfection and inactivation of viruses, including the SARS CoV-2 from the different surfaces and utensils. A small prototype device is proposed and fabricated to serve the purpose. This device was tested in the field conditions using cotton clothes as a material/surfac...

Frente al problema de escasez hídrica forzada por el cambio climático en Chile, particularmente en la zona norte del país, se han instalado plantas desalinizadoras de distintos tamaños, con varias más en proceso de estudio y evaluación. La masificación de esta tecnología nos plantea el desafío de planificar su desarrollo futuro tomando decisiones...

Integrating thermal energy storage (TES) for solar systems is crucial for better performance. To ensure the completion of solar cooking activity under fluctuating solar irradiance and reduce the subsequent loss, the integration of thermal storage to a solar cooker can play a vital role. Thus, this paper reveals the thermal performance of a solar co...

Small productive processes (SPPs) have recently emerged as attractive alternatives to contribute to the socio-economic development of communities, primarily in rural contexts. However, SPPs have a complicated electrical behavior involving the interaction between various types of loads, such as, conventional, and complex ones. Further, the SPPs gene...

Increasing energy generation from variable and uncertain renewable resources leads to high demand for flexibility procurement from different energy sectors to maintain supply/demand balance in distribution power systems. Industrial energy systems are rapidly emerging as the primary contributor in providing the bulk of said flexibility to the electr...

Solar drying is one of the important application of out of several applications of solar thermal technologies. Solar drying is generally preferred for the drying of different agricultural products and several designs of such dryers are developed and investigated around the globe. However, the solar dehydration/disinfection of the cloths/utensils (c...

El objetivo general de este estudio es proporcionar recomendaciones detalladas y una hoja de ruta para establecer un esquema de instrumentos económicos y así ayudar a catalizar la transición energética necesaria para cumplir con la NDC de Chile y su compromiso de carbono neutralidad. Estas recomendaciones consideran especialmente el papel de los in...

The Atacama Desert presents the highest Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) levels on the planet and at the same time is one of its driest places on Earth. The region concentrates a large number of copper mining facilities and is currently considered as a hotspot for the deployment of solar technologies. The mining activity consumes large amounts of wat...

This document seeks to contribute to society and its decision-makers with the best available scientific evidence on Chile’s Renewable Energy (RE) Export Potential and the opportunities and challenges that such potential opens for Chile’s commitment to carbon neutrality. It also aims to provide a useful input for the dialogues that the country will...

This report seeks to open the box of emission pathways, by considering the multidimensional feasibility conditions-i.e. the technical, economic, political, social and institutional- that will enable the required far-reaching and systemic transformation towards the long-term goal. A detailed understanding of the transformations is indeed key to supp...

Chile aims to reach carbon neutrality. Its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) commits the country to reach net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 and sets targets for emissions to be reduced progressively over time. To comply with the goals of the NDC, line ministries have considered a set of sectoral transformations, such as closing...

The increasing integration of renewable energy sources into current power systems has posed the challenge of adequately representing the statistical properties associated with their variable power generation. In this paper, a novel procedure is proposed to select a proper synthetic time series generation model for renewable energy sources to analyz...

Small productive processes (SPPs) are promising drivers that promote the economic use of energy in microgrids (MGs). Both the complex nature of the SPPs and voltage variations make the operation of MGs challenging, since the quality of an energy management system's (EMS) decisions depend on its characterization. The aim of this work is to propose a...

To fulfil the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, the solar cooker is one of the key devices. The objective of this work is to propose a new design of solar cooker equipped with internal reflectors and a tracking-type bottom parabolic reflector (TBPR) which may help in attainment of SDGs. The performance of cooker is determi...

The Atacama Desert receives the highest levels of solar irradiance in the world with an annual average of 2500 kWh/m 2 for the global horizontal irradiance and 3500 kWh/m 2 for the direct normal irradiance. One of the challenges is the large portion of ultraviolet light. This part of the spectrum be detrimental for the encapsulant materials, reduci...

Transmission network expansion planning (TNEP) has become increasingly challenging due to the worldwide transformation of power systems, with the fast deployment of renewable energies as one of the key drivers. Given current socio-environmental concerns, building new lines to integrate new renewable energy sources may take several years and has a s...

Distributed generation (DG) has experienced extraordinary growth in installed capacity in many countries. DG can have a significant impact on both the investment and operational costs of distribution feeders. However, in many contexts, such impact is still not clear. Moreover, the impact of DG could be positive or negative and could be different fo...

This paper presents both an extensive literature review and a qualitative and quantitative study conducted on nearly 200 publications from the last six years (based on international experience and a top-down analysis framework with five classification levels) to establish the main trends in the field of centralized energy management systems (EMS) f...

The introduction of renewable energy resources into electrical systems and productive processes is a unique opportunity for the sustainable development of communities. Productive processes that use solar energy or PSPs have been conceived to improve the quality of life of rural communities in the Arica & Parinacota region in northern Chile. In this...

Energy Management Systems (EMS) are control schemes in charge of defining the optimal scheduling of dispatchable units in a microgrid. Output set points from the EMS could be exploited in other control loops that may benefit from the microgrids expected behavior improving their operation. In this context, this paper proposes a novel coupled operati...

The Chilean economy has historically been based on raw material extraction, and copper is Chile’s principal export. Nowadays, solar energy technologies have emerged as an opportunity to transition to a newer economy: a knowledge-based economy. This would be possible if both industries (mining and solar) focused on solving the present and future min...

Many people across Latin America still do not have access to reliable electricity. Although Chile exhibits a comparatively high electricity coverage, many barriers are still present for the development of sustainable energy supply solutions exploiting local renewable energy sources. To face this challenge, a coconstruction methodology is proposed,...

The fast construction times of projects based on variable generation technologies (VGTs) such as photovoltaic and wind generation, together with growing difficulties for building new transmission lines due to socio-environmental requirements, have opened new challenges in the development of sustainable power systems. Due to the complexity of the Tr...

Grinding is one of the most energy-demanding processes of copper mines. Declining ore grades and harder rocks will further intensify this demand. Periods of stressed copper prices, high energy costs and climate change mitigation targets additionally motivate the search for alternative energy sources in mining. In Chile, many copper operations are l...

In the first part of this work, a solar photovoltaic system with battery storage (PV-BESS) and grid backup system to supply a SAG mill was modeled. There, the overall framework, the optimization model, and the model for the solar forecast were presented. Here, in the second part, the impact of ore hardness variability and uncertainty is studied. De...

Energy storage systems can cost-effectively balance fluctuations from renewable generation. Also, hydropower dams can provide flexibility, but often cause massive fluctuations in flow releases (hydropeaking), deteriorating the ecology of the downstream rivers. Expanding transmission infrastructure is another flexibility source but is frequently pla...

This article focused on the estimation of the state of charge (SoC) of a Li-con Cell by carrying out a series of experimental tests at various operating temperatures and SoC. The cell was characterized by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests, from which the impedance frequency spectrum for different SoC and temperatures was obtained....

The increasing use of variable generation technologies (VGTs) in power systems, such as wind and photovoltaic generation, has introduced new challenges in the definition of capacity remuneration mechanisms for promoting system reliability. In this context, in this article we propose a novel framework for determining the capacity value of VGTs to co...

Este texto sobre sistemas eléctricos de potencia, con una intención y espíritu bastante osados, pretende ayudar a la formación del estudiante latinoamericano de Ingeniería Eléctrica. Para ello, parte por reconocer dos realidades que condicionan esta pretensión: La primera es que existen pocos textos en español, aplicados a nuestras realidades, que...

50-day free access: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1XwK7in8VSMzB Energy storage systems (ESS) are a structural solution for the integration of renewable energy systems. To plan the optimal combination of ESS, storage expansion planning approaches are commonly used. They tend to focus on balancing the energy fluctuations from renewable technologie...

Lithium-ion batteries are increasingly required in systems that need energy storage devices, such as portable devices, electric vehicles, non-conventional renewable energy, etc. The state of charge (SOC) of a lithium-ion battery is usually not observable (cannot be measured), then needs to be estimated from measurements of variables such as voltage...

International Standard for PV technologies such as IEC and UL have not been developed for specific applications like extreme climates such as the Atacama Desert, which is well known for extremely high irradiation levels and specific solar spectrum (in particular in the UV-B range), large amount of sun hours per day, clear-sky conditions, low ambien...

The Energy Center has developed a co-construction methodology to address the challenges of technology transfer-based on distributed generation projects- in the context of energy transitions in isolated locations. Based on the experiences developed between 2010 and 2017, this paper analyses the process of preparing the Co-construction methodology. N...

The multiyear Transmission Network Expansion Planning (TNEP) consists on determining the new facilities that should be added to a current transmission network in order to fulfill the expected future power requirements efficiently. Current approaches for DTNEP are strongly simplified and are not always able to cover key issues necessary for the prac...

This paper proposes a set of indicators to quantify the impact of conventional thermal generating unit cycling on its non-fuel variable costs (NFVC) due to generation mix changes in the system. A novel iterative cost adjustment framework is developed to evaluate the proposed indicators in order to assess the impacts of increasing installation of re...

The development of a proper protection system is essential for the secure and reliable operation of microgrids. In this paper, a novel adaptive protection system for microgrids is presented. The protection scheme is based on a protective device that includes two directional elements which are operating in an interleaved manner, namely overcurrent a...

The use of solar technologies should proliferate in Chile as half of the country has a solar irradiance (GHI) above 5 kWh/(m2d). Moreover, the Atacama Desert exhibits further advantageous conditions with 7 kWh/(m2d), clear skies and a large energy-consuming mining industry. Since 2012 the solar sector takes off, totalizing over 1600 MWe of solar po...

Lithium-ion batteries are attractive devices for energy storage for hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), Plug hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), electric vehicles (EV) and static batteries (BESS), due to its good energy and power density and high work cycles to high charging regimes. The ability to predict accurately the temperature of a battery and elect...

The task of electrifying isolated zones involves several requirements that must be attended. One option to fulfil this task is by using isolated microgrids to energize zones typically disconnected from the main grid. The high penetration of variable energy resources and their corresponding power-electronics-based interfaces make the operating condi...

The mining sector in Chile is facing a steady increase of energy consumption, which is mainly explained by the lower grades, the increase in rock hardness, and deeper mines. Although much of the mining activity in Chile is located in the Atacama Desert, where the solar radiation is high, the integration of solar energy in mining remains elusive. Th...

The arid northern regions of Chile are characterized by an intensive mineral mining industry and high solar irradiance levels. Besides Chile’s main mining products, copper,molybdenum and iron, the production of lithium carbonate from lithium containing brines has become strategically important due to the rising demand for battery technologies world...

Solar energy technologies are a promising option to lower the greenhouse gas emissions of energy generation. Using solar technologies in energy-intensive industries located in arid climate zones is an attractive alternative for that purpose. In this work, the environmental benefit of integrating solar energy in the Chilean copper industry is explor...

Increasing power system resilience at the distribution level is crucial due to the negative social impact of blackouts, as the undesired consequences get worse the longer the system restoration takes. Statistical records demonstrate that system recovery times after high-impact, low-probability events (e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods) are of...

Expansion planning models are often used to support investment decisions in the power sector. Towards the massive insertion of renewable energy sources, expansion planning of energy storage systems (SEP – Storage Expansion Planning) is becoming more popular. However, to date, there is no clear overview of the available SEP models in the literature....

Special protection schemes (SPSs) are an efficient alternative to increase the flexibility in the operation of power systems. The implementation of SPSs is often motivated by technical rather than economic reasons. The aim of this paper is, from the Chilean experience, to propose a novel framework for the analysis and development of SPSs in a conte...

In the paper a comparison between models of equivalent electric circuits (EEC) used to analyze cell systems lithium ion is performed. Models of electrical equivalent circuits are very attractive to analyze the performance of electro-thermal arrangements lithium ion cells, because of its simplicity and low computational cost compared to electrochemi...

Resumen—Uno de los efectos más notorios en la pérdida de rendimiento y capacidad de sistemas térmicos se produce por el efecto de la altura, la que provoca que la densidad de un fluido compresible y la presión atmosférica se vea disminuida considerablemente, lo que acarrea una reducción de potencia para sistemas eléctricos y térmicos. Ante esto, lo...

The increasing energy cost and greenhouse gas mitigation targets have a strong impact on the mining sector. Within the mining-milling processes, and specifically in mineral processing, the grinding operation is responsible for almost 50% of the energy consumption. At the same time, it is highly variable, which forces to arrange large power capacity...

The high penetration of renewables envisaged for future power systems will significantly increase the need for flexible operational measures and generation technologies, whose associated investment decisions must be properly planned in the long term. To achieve this, expansion models will need to incorporate unit commitment constraints, which can r...

Improved tools are required to deliver good information for decision-making on the potential socio-economic benefits of a transition to a low-carbon society. This article reports on modelling approaches to answer policy-relevant questions carried out research teams in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and South Africa. The teams link detailed models of...

This paper presents a new polyhedral approximation for the quadratic cost curve of thermal units for the unit commitment problem. The approximation is tight, can be represented by rational numbers, and its size grows logarithmically with respect to the required precision. In addition, the scalability is improved compared to the direct resolution of...

The Andes is the largest undeveloped geothermal region in the world. The Chilean case is the most puzzling because the country is largely dependent on imported fuels causing, among other issues, high energy prices and energy dependency. But even though it has large quantities of geothermal resources which have been explored since the 1920s, no geot...

HARE, a systematic tool to evaluate demand side measures to face sustained energy supply risk in hydrothermal power systems is presented in this paper. The main focus of the paper is to help centralized planners to systematically discuss, select, and plan the measures that better respond to the variety of critical situations that can arise due to e...

Microgrids have received much attention in recent years because of its potential to deliver economic, social, technical and environmental benefits. However, its implementation has major challenges in different areas to make them viable, such as control, energy management, and the development of protection schemes. The latter has several issues stil...

Lithium-ion batteries are attractive devices for energy storage for hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), Plug hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), electric vehicles (EV) and static batteries (BESS), due to its good energy and power density and high work cycles to high charging regimes. The ability to predict accurately the temperature of a battery and elect...

The two major hydrological basins in Chile, Maule y Laja, are used for both irrigation and electricity generation. In this presentation we discussed how the irrigation constraints are endogenously incorporated to the medium and long term hydrothermal coordination tool PLP and the resulting operation of the Chilean Central Interconnected System.

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Hydropeaking operations can severely degrade ecosystems. As variable renewable sources (e.g. wind power) are integrated into a power grid, fluctuations in the generation-demand balance are expected to increase. In this context, compensating technologies, notably hydropower reservoir plants, could operate in a stronger peaking scheme. This issue cal...

This paper analyses and compares the performance of a number of approaches implemented for the detection of capacity regeneration phenomena (measured in ampere-hours) in the degradation trend of energy storage devices, particularly Lithium-Ion battery cells. All implemented approaches are based on a combination of information-theoretic measures and...

In this paper, we consider the semi-continuous knapsack problem with generalized upper bound constraints on binary variables. We prove that generalized flow cover inequalities are valid in this setting and, under mild assumptions, are facet-defining inequalities for the entire problem. We then focus on simultaneous lifting of pairs of variables. Th...

This paper aims to analyse the economy-wide implications of a carbon tax applied on the Chilean electricity generation sector. In order to analyse the macroeconomic impacts, both an energy sectorial model and a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium model have been used. During the year 2014 a carbon tax of 5 US$/tCO2e was approved in Chile. This t...

Chile offers unique conditions for the development of solar energy solutions. The new government is drawing up an ambitious road map for the development of solar energy. Some visions include the positioning of Chile as a regional solar energy exporter. This article examines this trend, based on the development of the power sector, the power market,...