Robust simulation is essential for reliable operation and planning of transmission and distribution power grids. At present, disparate methods exist for steady-state analysis of the transmission (power flow) and distribution power grid (threephase power flow). Due to the non-linear nature of the problem, it is difficult for alternating current (AC) power flow and threephase power flow analyses to ensure convergence to the correct physical solution, particularly from arbitrary initial conditions, or when evaluating a change (e.g. contingency) in the grid. In this paper, we describe our equivalent circuit formulation approach with current and voltage variables that models both the positive sequence network of the transmission grid and three-phase network of the distribution grid without loss of generality. The proposed circuit models and formalism enable the extension and application of circuit simulation techniques to solve for the steadystate solution with excellent robustness of convergence. Examples for positive sequence transmission and three-phase distribution systems, including actual 75k+ nodes Eastern Interconnection transmission test cases and 8k+ nodes taxonomy distribution test cases, are solved from arbitrary initial guesses to demonstrate the efficacy of our approach.

Currently, the development of the world population is characterised by two trends: absolute population growth and rapid urbanisation. Especially rapid urbanisation, taking place in Asia, Latin America and Africa, poses major pressure on the affected regions. The development of e.g. Asian countries today is stamped by a combination of urbanisation with high economic growth rates. Conventional centralised infrastructure of supply, treatment and disposal of water is not able to cope with the new challenges arising from these, in history incomparable, high growth rates. Therefore new approaches to infrastructure supply and treatment systems are required - for ecological, sociocultural and economic reasons. The semicentralised approach, focusing on integrated water supply and treatment structures for wastewater and waste on the neighbourhood level, offers one possible solution to the challenges imposed by rapid urbanisation and growing resource needs. The change from centralised to semicentralised supply and treatment systems will minimise the grave discrepancy between the rapid urban growth and the provision of supply and treatment infrastructure. Integrated semicentralised supply and treatment systems face the challenge of growing amounts of wastewater and solid waste combined with rising needs of water for private households and industrial use. The semicentralised approach offers a wide range of flexibility in implementation, energy self-sufficient operation, enormous saving potentials in water demands through intra-urban water reuse and further more advantages in comparison to centralised sectored solutions as practised today.

In membrane bioreactors (MBRs) for wastewater treatment the secondary clarifier is replaced by a membrane filtration. The advantage of this process is a complete removal of solids from the effluent and a small footprint due to possible high biomass concentrations (MLSS). As oxygen supply counts for more than 70% of total energy cost in municipal WWTPs the design of the aeration system is vital for efficient operation. In this respect the alpha-value is an important influencing factor. The alpha-value depends on the MLSS-concentration as shown in various publications and confirmed by own measurements in two full scale municipal MBRs with MLSS ranging from 7 and 17 kg/m3. Furthermore it must be taken into account that alpha-values are not static values; they vary with loading rates, surfactant concentrations, air flow rates, MLSS concentrations, etc. The average alpha-value at typical 12 kg/m3 MLSS for municipal MBRs is about 0.6 +/- 0.1. As submerged configured MBRs are equipped with an additional coarse bubble "crossflow" aeration system for fouling control, supplementary energy is consumed. Therefore MBRs need more energy compared to conventional treatment plants. Measurements of both aeration systems show that the fine bubble aeration system is more efficient by a factor of three concerning oxygen supply compared to the coarse bubble system.

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