Scenarios for the development of smart grids in the UK: literature review

Smart grids are expected to play a central role in any transition to a low-carbon energy future, and much research is currently underway on practically every area of smart grids. However, it is evident that even basic aspects such as theoretical and operational definitions, are yet to be agreed upon and be clearly defined. Some aspects (efficient management of supply, including intermittent supply, two-way communication between the producer and user of electricity, use of IT technology to respond to and manage demand, and ensuring safe and secure electricity distribution) are more commonly accepted than others (such as smart meters) in defining what comprises a smart grid. It is clear that smart grid developments enjoy political and financial support both at UK and EU levels, and from the majority of related industries. The reasons for this vary and include the hope that smart grids will facilitate the achievement of carbon reduction targets, create new employment opportunities, and reduce costs relevant to energy generation (fewer power stations) and distribution (fewer losses and better stability). However, smart grid development depends on additional factors, beyond the energy industry. These relate to issues of public acceptability of relevant technologies and associated risks (e.g. data safety, privacy, cyber security), pricing, competition, and regulation; implying the involvement of a wide range of players such as the industry, regulators and consumers. The above constitute a complex set of variables and actors, and interactions between them. In order to best explore ways of possible deployment of smart grids, the use of scenarios is most adequate, as they can incorporate several parameters and variables into a coherent storyline. Scenarios have been previously used in the context of smart grids, but have traditionally focused on factors such as economic growth or policy evolution. Important additional socio-technical aspects of smart grids emerge from the literature review in this report and therefore need to be incorporated in our scenarios. These can be grouped into four (interlinked) main categories: supply side aspects, demand side aspects, policy and regulation, and technical aspects.

Podpora kritičnemu multi-organizacijskemu sodelovanju v primeru odziva na katastrofične dogodke

The past two years have shown both the power of nature and the complexity of preparing for and responding to extreme events such as earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes/typhoons, and floods. These events, and future catastrophic events, will require coordination and collaboration between multiple government and non government organizations across national and state borders. This collaboration will require the discipline necessary to share common processes and procedures, and the agility to improvise plans and actions as situationally required. Information technology must be used to create an eRegion, enabling the shared situational assessments and adequately supporting the collaborative, distributed decision making to produce required decisions and future action plans. The role of information technology in developing these capabilities is discussed in the context of two seismic scenarios, the US New Madrid Seismic Zone, and the Adriatic Seismic region.Zadnji dve leti smo bili priča tako môči narave kot tudi zapletenosti priprav na odziv in tudi samemu odzivu na nekatere ekstremne dogodke kot so potresi, cunamiji, orkani/tajfuni in poplave. Ti in pa bodoči katastrofalni dogodki bodo zahtevali usklajevanje in sodelovanje med mnogimi vladnimi in nevladnimi organizacijami prek nacionalnih in državnih mejá. To sodelovanje bo zahtevalo disciplino, ki je potrebna pri delitvi skupnih postopkov in procedur in pa prožnost pri improviziranju načrtov in ukrepov z ozirom na situacijo. Za vzpostavitev e-regije se mora uporabiti informacijska tehnologija, s čimer bi se omogočilo skupno ocenjevanje situacije in ustrezna podpora medsebojnemu sodelovanju in porazdelitvi pri sprejemanju odločitev, kar naj bi pripeljalo do ustreznih odločitev in bodočim akcijskim načrtom. Vloga informacijske tehnologije pri razvoju teh zmožnosti je obravnavana v kontekstu dveh potresnih scenarijev, v ameriški potresni coni New Madrid in v jadranski potresni regiji

An Assessment of PIER Electric Grid Research 2003-2014 White Paper

This white paper describes the circumstances in California around the turn of the 21st century that led the California Energy Commission (CEC) to direct additional Public Interest Energy Research funds to address critical electric grid issues, especially those arising from integrating high penetrations of variable renewable generation with the electric grid. It contains an assessment of the beneficial science and technology advances of the resultant portfolio of electric grid research projects administered under the direction of the CEC by a competitively selected contractor, the University of California’s California Institute for Energy and the Environment, from 2003-2014

Requirements volatility in multicultural situational contexts

Requirements volatility refers to additions, deletions, and modifications of requirements during the system development life cycle. Different approaches in software development, including Agile and DevOps, have addressed requirements volatility by increasing user participation throughout the whole development process. In this paper, we analyse requirements volatility from a situational context angle with the aim to increase understanding of the role of culture and cultural diversity in a multicultural requirements elicitation process. Research on the situational context in Requirements Engineering (RE) is rather limited, despite the recognized importance of RE and requirements elicitation for improving the quality of the final system and software product. This paper builds on an extensive literature review demonstrating the importance of raising awareness and understanding of the role of culture and cultural diversity for requirements volatility, as one of the most significant situational factors in the requirements elicitation process, with the aim to improve the whole systems development process as well as the resulting products and services. The paper concludes with the presentation of the Requirements Cultural Volatility Framework which aims to reveal potential conflicts that may occur in requirements elicitation on a multiplicity of cultural dimensions, The framework proposes actions to be taken in order to address the conflicts and point out expected benefits on each dimension

EU BORDER SECURITY – THE DRIVERS AND BARRIERS OF BORDER GUARDING AUTHORITIES MOTIVATION IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION. CASE OF LATVIA

With the dynamic development of modern society, ensuring the security and control of the state border is the simultaneous goals of both internal and external security of the country. Consequently, it is vitally important to identify and develop tools and ways to address emerging challenges. In the current climate, private and public organizations are required to be up-to date with technological advancements in order to provide competitive, relative and effective solutions and services for inhabitants in all areas. Technological innovation is an important and even compulsory element of the modern organization, which stimulates continuous development and potential growth. There are many innovative ideas within other industries and universities where joint funds could be sort to allow the delivery of innovative solutions that would benefit such law enforcement agencies as border guarding authorities.  A significant problem is that there appears to be a lack of interest from the respective law enforcement organizations in participating in consortiums, which is necessary for submission of any proposal. Jon Freemans` Analytical framework for understanding of innovation process used to under pin the main concepts of the research proposed in this thesis. This research involved a series of interviews and questionnaires designed to analyse the perceptions of the drivers and barriers of the State Border Guard of Latvia. From detailed results analysis, a list of general recommendation been established for Border Guarding Authorities in order to improve its motivation for participation in the projects related development of the technological innovation in the field of border security by conducting internal measures and improving network/connection building outside of the organization

How Could People and Communities Contribute to the Energy Transition? Conceptual Maps to Inform, Orient, and Inspire Design Actions and Education

Energy Transition (ET) is crucial for sustainable development, impacting inclusive pros perity and social justice. Knowledge development, innovative solutions, and awareness actions become crucial as energy systems transform. ET necessitates behavioural and cultural changes involving individuals in responsible decision making. The active engagement of all societal actors, including people and communities is essential. The article is authored by a university research team specializing in Design for Sustainability, Service Design, and Design for Experience, and it addresses two central research questions: (i) how can individuals and communities contribute to ET? and (ii) how can design theories, methods, and expertise contribute to generating knowledge and solutions for ET? The research employs a multidisciplinary literature review and case study analysis. It is structured into two main sections. The first section examines ET, drawing upon European Union (EU) official documents and academic literature to outline its values, objectives, actors, initiatives, and challenges, focusing on the role of citizens and communities. The second section explores the design’s contributions, summarizing relevant philosophies and solutions aligned with ET goals, challenges, and bottlenecks. Conceptual maps were created to address the knowledge gap on ET objectives and guidelines, providing design-oriented reference knowledge and principles. The purpose of the research is to define a conceptual framework made up of maps to guide researchers, designers, and design educators in understanding the complexity of ET and to inspire their intervention proposals

User-Centered Context-Aware Mobile Applications―The Next Generation of Personal Mobile Computing

Context-aware mobile applications are systems that can sense clues about the situational environment and enable appropriate mechanisms of interaction between end users and systems, making mobile devices more intelligent, adaptive, and personalized. In order to better understand such systems and the potentials and barriers of their development and practical use, this paper provides a state-of-the-art overview of this emerging field. Unlike previous literature reviews that mainly focus on technological aspects of such systems, we examine this field mainly from application and research methodology perspectives. We will present major types of current context-aware mobile applications, and discuss research methodologies used in existing studies and their limitations, and highlight potential future research

Designing an institutional network for improving farm animal welfare in the EU

Improvements in the welfare of farmed animals in the EU have been achieved by legislation, increased welfare capacity in the food chain, greater public awareness, welfare measurement tools and dissemination of best practice. However, pressure for improvement grows. The EC recognises that delivering improved welfare would best be achieved by increasing welfare capacity, including establishing a Network of Welfare Reference Centres to provide support for welfare research, knowledge transfer and policy design. Designing a structure for this Network presents a challenge, as it would have multiple functions, interact with diverse stakeholders and operate in a complex environment. Here, we describe the use of a novel strategic planning approach to design an optimal structure for this Network. Our evaluation found that no existing structure was ideal, but that by taking functional units from several existing models, an optimal model could be identified

The explosion at institute: Modeling and analyzing the situation awareness factor

In 2008 a runaway chemical reaction caused an explosion at a methomyl unit in West Virginia, USA, killing two employees, injuring eight people, evacuating more than 40,000 residents adjacent to the facility, disrupting traffic on a nearby highway and causing significant business loss and interruption. Although the accident was formally investigated, the role of the situation awareness (SA) factor, i.e., a correct understanding of the situation, and appropriate models to maintain SA, remain unexplained. This paper extracts details of abnormal situations within the methomyl unit and models them into a situational network using dynamic Bayesian networks. A fuzzy logic system is used to resemble the operator's thinking when confronted with these abnormal situations. The combined situational network and fuzzy logic system make it possible for the operator to assess such situations dynamically to achieve accurate SA. The findings show that the proposed structure provides a useful graphical model that facilitates the inclusion of prior background knowledge and the updating of this knowledge when new information is available from monitoring systems