Demand Response (DR) programs serve to reduce the consumption of electricity at times when the supply is scarce and expensive. Consumers or agents with flexible consumption profiles are recruited by an aggregator who manages the DR program. The utility informs the aggregator of an anticipated DR event. In response, the aggregator is required to deliver a target reduction in electricity consumpt...

Electricity demand response refers to consumer actions that change the utility load profile in a way that reduces costs or improves grid security. Residential demand response (RDR) can be treated as an energy resource which can be assessed and commercially developed. RDR prospectors require more detailed information about usage patterns and penetration for specific electrical appliances during ...

The smart grid is an electronically controlled electrical grid that connects power generation, transmission, distribution, and consumers using information communication technologies. One of the key characteristics of the smart grid is its support for bi-directional information flow between the consumer of electricity and the utility provider. This two-way interaction allows electricity to be ge...

We present a proactive energy management framework that integrates predictive dynamic building models and day-ahead forecasts of disturbances affecting efficiency and costs. This enables an efficient management of resources and an accurate prediction of the daily electricity demand profile. The strategy is based on the on-line solution of mixed-integer nonlinear programming problems. The framew...

We consider a possible determinant of regulatory decisions by public utility commissioners: the desire to remain in office. We examine regulatory exit, where a regulator leaves a commission during a term or is not re-appointed/re-elected. With data from US states, we empirically investigate several hypotheses motivated by a political agency model of regulatory decision-making. Our empirical res...

This paper proposes a swarm intelligence long-term hedging tool to support electricity producers in competitive electricity markets. This tool investigates the long-term hedging opportunities available to electric power producers through the use of contracts with physical (spot and forward) and financial (options) settlement. To find the optimal portfolio the producer risk preference is stated ...

The purpose of this paper is the following: firstly, to chart how much economic reform of CEE electricity industries has taken place to date; secondly, to discuss why progress has been so limited; and, thirdly, to consider the prospects over the next few years. In charting the economic progress to date, we will consider and discuss progress in electricity price unbundling and rebalancing; in ut...

In the paper we developed a multi-agent system, based on network flow model and KQML, called MASCAN—Multi-Agent System to support negotiation of Cost Allocation on Network. Such problem is very important to the utility industries, such as, electricity and gas, transportation and logistics industry. In our system, each agent represents a node in a network, it does not receive any centralized con...

U.S. regions are expected to follow the national trend towards investment in renewable energy as part of their electricity portfolio. The progress of energy portfolios that typically involves traditional methods, such as centralized nuclear and coal-fired generation, and towards cleanerand renewable-source generation will impact economic growth and public health. Renewable electricity productio...

The purpose of this paper is to minimize environmental life cycle impact when a detail process modelling is available. A methodology is presented to calculate the optimum operating conditions of an ethylene process utility plant. The overall environmental impact is calculated as a weighted sum of global warming, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical oxidation, ozone depletion, human toxi...