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Trends in the use of renewable energy sources to power buildings do not bypass objects for which maintaining a power supply is critical. This also applies to railway signal boxes. The aim of the research work was to test the multisource power supply system for a railway signal box with power electronic converter systems and a DC bus, built as part of the research project. The assumption for powering the railway signal box building was to use renewable sources, energy storage devices, and a 3 kV DC traction network as the second required power supply grid. Both power grids were connected by power electronic converters, and the power values of the converters were set based on the calculated power balance values using the values measured at the system nodes and the set constraints. The tests primarily tested the response of the power supply system to changes in load power and power generated by the photovoltaic source, as well as the charge level of the energy storage devices. The correctness of the control algorithm’s operation was assessed based on the recorded power values in the power supply system nodes. The tests were carried out for 60 scenarios that covered all normal and emergency operating conditions. During the tests, delays in response to changes in the power supplied to the converters and the values of circular power flow between the power grid connections were recorded. The recorded delays ranged from 2 to about 50 s and the circular power flows did not exceed 1500 W. Based on the results of the tests, it was found necessary to improve the power measurement system in the power supply system nodes and to improve the quality of communication and the transmission time of measurement data transmission time.

Overhead lines are used to transmit electricity from where it is generated to the receiving stations. The correct design of an overhead line affects public safety, because it should ensure the required clearances between conductors and the ground and objects located in the space under the overhead line. The temperature of conductors in overhead lines depends on the load current and weather conditions, and affects the sag and tension of the conductors. Calculations of sags and tensions of overhead conductors can be performed using simplified calculation methods that do not consider insulator sets. In some situations, this approach may cause calculation errors. This article discusses algorithms for calculating overhead conductor tensions and sags in the tensioning sections of high-voltage overhead lines, accounting for and excluding insulator sets. The analysis is carried out for different lengths of tensioning sections and various thermal and mechanical states of the conductors.

In the electrical installations of buildings, there is an increasing number of non-linear energy receivers, which introduce strong distortions of the load current of electronic energy meters. Since the readings of these meters are the basis for financial settlements of electricity consumers, it is very important to determine how much the distortion of the receiver current affects the correct operation of commonly used electronic energy meters. The article will present exemplary results and analyses of research work on the impact of individual current harmonics on the readings and errors of selected energy meters.

This study assessed hourly electricity consumption profiles in railway signal boxes located in Poland. The analyses carried out consisted of assessing the correlation among the hourly demand profile, weather indicators, and calendar indicators, e.g., temperature, cloud cover, day of the week, and month. The analysis allowed us to assess which indicator impacts the energy consumption profile and would be useful when forecasting energy demand. In total, 15 railway signal boxes were selected for analysis and grouped according to three characteristic repeatability profiles. On this basis, six of the signal boxes and one that did not fit into any of the groups were selected for further analysis. Four correlation research methods were selected for analysis: Pearson’s method, Spearman’s method, scatter plots, and distance covariance. The possibility of forecasting electricity consumption based on previously aggregated profiles and determining correlations with indicators was presented. The given indicators vary depending on the facility. Analyses showed different dependencies of the electricity demand profile. The ambient temperature and time of day have the greatest impact on the profile. Regarding the correlation with temperature, the results of the Pearson’s and Spearman’s coefficients ranged from approximately −0.4 to more than −0.8. The highest correlation coefficients were obtained when comparing the demand profile with the previous day. In this case, the Pearson’s and Spearman’s coefficients for all analysed objects range from approximately 0.7 to over 0.9.

Building energy efficiency has grown strong in a context of soaring energy prices, especially in Europe. The use of energy-saving devices strongly influences its improvement, but in many cases, it is far from sufficient., especially if the energy comes from renewable sources with forced production. In the case of buildings, these are usually photovoltaic (PV) sources. For this reason, energy management systems (EMS) are becoming increasingly popular as they allow the increase in self-consumption and reduce the size of energy storage. This article presents analyses of historical energy consumption profiles in selected small- and medium-sized buildings powered by renewable energy sources. The implementation limitations of this type of systems, depending on the profile of the building, were identified and guidelines were presented to assess low-cost solutions dedicated to small buildings and considering the actual conditions of existing systems. Statistical analyzes were conducted for the energy demand profiles of 15 different buildings. The analyzes consisted of the preparation of box plots for each hour of working days and the calculation of the relative standard deviation (RSD) index for annual profiles of 60 min periods. The analyzes showed that the RSD index has low values for commercial buildings (e.g., hospital 7% and bank 15%) and very high values for residential buildings—even over 100%. On this basis, it can be concluded about the usefulness of energy profiles for demand forecasting. The novelty of the proposed method is to examine the possibility of using measurement data as data to forecast energy consumption based on statistical analysis, dedicated to low-cost EMS system solutions.

This article introduces a device for the precise testing of the non-linearities of inductive voltage dividers and digitizers used in digital impedance bridges. The device is based on switched capacitors composed of an NP0 dielectric, in addition to high-quality microwave relays. The article discusses issue concerning the symmetrization of the device as one of the main ways to achieve a high accuracy. Furthermore, a temperature-stabilization system for the device is presented. The system uses a battery management system to estimate the quantity of the energy available in the supply battery. The article further discusses problems encountered with the design of heating elements, which are situated on a laminate with an aluminum substrate.

In this paper, a guarded active-arm bridge for high-resistance standards with programmable two-channel source of DC voltage is described. Both channels of this source are controlled from a common reference voltage. This ensures a high stability of the voltage ratio of both source channels. The presented results of tests of this source show that its use in the active bridge is more advantageous than the use of the two independent DC voltage sources. The bridge allows high accuracy in the comparison of the high-resistance standards in 1:1 ratio. The current state of knowledge about active-arm bridges is presented, the basics of the bridge operation are given, the two-channel DC voltage source used in the bridge and its test results are described, the measurement process that does not require transposition of the compared resistance standards is described, sample measurement results, and a plan for further work are given. The bridge is used in the resistance standard calibration system at the Central Office of Measures (GUM), Poland, in the range from 100 MΩ to 100 TΩ.

Various metrological aspects for the correct measurements of electrical energy that is consumed by energy-saving (mainly LED) single phase loads are discussed in this paper. One of the most important problems presented here concerns the question of how strong distortions of the current waveform, introduced by typical LED lighting, affects the operation of electronic energy meters. Measurement results for the energy consumption of different LED lamps used in households in various conditions, alongside comparative results that were obtained by electronic and electromechanical energy meters, were also offered and the appropriate conclusions were then drawn.