Architectures for smart end-user services in the power grid

Abstract-The increase of distributed renewable electricity generators, such as solar cells and wind turbines, requires a new energy management system. These distributed generators introduce bidirectional energy flows in the low-voltage power grid, requiring novel coordination mechanisms to balance local supply and demand. Closed solutions exist for energy management on the level of individual homes. However, no service architectures have been defined that allow the growing number of end-users to interact with the other power consumers and generators and to get involved in more rational energy consumption patterns using intuitive applications. We therefore present a common service architecture that allows houses with renewable energy generation and smart energy devices to plug into a distributed energy management system, integrated with the public power grid. Next to the technical details, we focus on the usability aspects of the end-user applications in order to contribute to high service adoption and optimal user involvement. The presented architecture facilitates end-users to reduce net energy consumption, enables power grid providers to better balance supply and demand, and allows new actors to join with new services. We present a novel simulator that allows to evaluate both the power grid and data communication aspects, and illustrate a 22% reduction of the peak load by deploying a central coordinator inside the home gateway of an end-user

Reference catalogue for ICT services in healthcare : model for ICT service management, controlling and benchmarking : version 1.0

Translation of the German original

Technological national learning in France : from minitel to internet

In France, the development of the Internet has been influenced by the evolution of the inherited information technology. France had many of the elements needed for the Internet to flourish: excellent engineering schools, participation of scientists and academic researchers in data networks, financial markets with venture capital companies, supportive government, and high incomes. Thus, France had many of the components that constitute the American, or even the Silicon Valley, model. And yet, the internet economy did not begin until some years after the United States, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Many have argued that the monopoly of France Telecom slowed the Internet's development in France. In this chapter, we shall show that it was instead France's early lead in electronic commerce that hindered this development.internet;politique économique;développement;technologies de l'information de la communication;évolution de la structure de marché;frontière public/privé

Review of the environmental and organisational implications of cloud computing: final report.

Cloud computing – where elastic computing resources are delivered over the Internet by external service providers – is generating significant interest within HE and FE. In the cloud computing business model, organisations or individuals contract with a cloud computing service provider on a pay-per-use basis to access data centres, application software or web services from any location. This provides an elasticity of provision which the customer can scale up or down to meet demand. This form of utility computing potentially opens up a new paradigm in the provision of IT to support administrative and educational functions within HE and FE. Further, the economies of scale and increasingly energy efficient data centre technologies which underpin cloud services means that cloud solutions may also have a positive impact on carbon footprints. In response to the growing interest in cloud computing within UK HE and FE, JISC commissioned the University of Strathclyde to undertake a Review of the Environmental and Organisational Implications of Cloud Computing in Higher and Further Education [19]

First experiences with Personal Networks as an enabling platform for service providers

By developing demonstrators and performing small-scale user trials, we found various opportunities and pitfalls for deploying personal networks (PNs) on a commercial basis. The demonstrators were created using as many as possible legacy devices and proven technologies. They deal with applications in the health sector, home services, tourism, and the transportation sector. This paper describes the various architectures and our experiences with the end users and the technology. We conclude that context awareness, service discovery, and content management are very important in PNs and that a personal network provider role is necessary to realize these functions under the assumptions we made. The PNPay Travel demonstrator suggests that PN service platforms provide an opportunity to develop true trans-sector services

Hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control: a study at construction site

Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) is an Act to make further provisions for securing the safety, health and welfare of persons at work, for protecting others against risks to safety or health in connection with the activities of persons at work, to establish the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, and for matters connected therewith. This study focuses on infrastructure construction in Pagoh Education Hub. In present days, despite of knowledge in OSHA act, workers often proceed the work without considering any safety precaution or act at workplace as stated in OSHA Act. Due to ignorance of workers and employee on OSHA Act, workers are exposed to danger and hazard at their workplace causing them minor or worst fatal injury. The data collection was carried out through site investigation using Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA), HIRARC form and interview session with several workers in the constructio. The main objective of this study is to support the idea to coordinate and redefined the practice of occupational safety and health as workers discipline at their workplace based on existing potential hazard. This study was conducted to identify the hazard that occur at the workplace and analyse the safety precaution taken by the workers and employer to avoid accidents. As a result, this study listed several suggestions to improve the practice of occupational safety and health among workers in the workplace

The Strategy of the Commons: Modelling the Annual Cost of Successful ICT Services for European Research

The provision of ICT services for research is increasingly using Cloud services to complement the traditional federation of computing centres. Due to the complex funding structure and differences in the basic business model, comparing the cost-effectiveness of these options requires a new approach to cost assessment. This paper presents a cost assessment method addressing the limitations of the standard methods and some of the initial results of the study. This acts as an illustration of the kind of cost assessment issues high-utilisation rate ICT services should consider when choosing between different infrastructure options. The research is co-funded by the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme through the e-FISCAL project (contract number RI-283449)