Methodology to assess prosumer participation in European electricity markets

The emergence of distributed generation and the electrification of demand have opened the possibility for prosumers to participate in electricity markets, receiving economic benefits on their bills and contributing to the reduction of carbon emissions, aligning with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7. Consumers and prosumers can participate through implicit and explicit demand flexibility and (collective) self-consumption. This study analyses the potential markets in which prosumers can participate and indicates whether these are currently open. The markets studied include day-ahead, intraday, ancillary services, adequacy services, constraint management, and local flexibility markets. Additionally, collective self-consumption is analysed as a service through which prosumers can participate in the electricity market. Previous studies are usually focused on a single market or in a single country, making impossible a complete comparison. This analysis has been done in Spain, Italy, Croatia, and the United Kingdom as representative countries to obtain a methodology to assess countries' openness to prosumer participation in electricity markets, comparing regulatory frameworks and assigning scores based on their prosumer inclusion across various markets. This work updates current literature reviews with the changes and a new description of local market designs in Spain. This methodology can be used to compare other countries' grade of openness. The results of this study show that the analysed countries can be categorised into three groups: almost open, partially open, and closed markets. Analysing the differences, recommendations on the following steps to foster user participation are suggested for each group

BIOVID: Micro espacios audiovisuales sobre biodiversidad

Se han realizado, editado y publicado microespacios de video alojados en la web www.ucm.es/segbiodiversidad/videos sobre aspectos relacionados con la biodiversidad, ecología y metodologías de seguimiento de aves, murciélagos, artrópodos y flora del campus de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Effects of intubation timing in patients with COVID-19 throughout the four waves of the pandemic : a matched analysis

The primary aim of our study was to investigate the association between intubation timing and hospital mortality in critically ill patients with COVID-19-associated respiratory failure. We also analysed both the impact of such timing throughout the first four pandemic waves and the influence of prior non-invasive respiratory support on outcomes. This is a secondary analysis of a multicentre, observational and prospective cohort study that included all consecutive patients undergoing invasive mechanical ventilation due to COVID-19 from across 58 Spanish intensive care units (ICU) participating in the CIBERESUCICOVID project. The study period was between 29 February 2020 and 31 August 2021. Early intubation was defined as that occurring within the first 24 h of intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Propensity score (PS) matching was used to achieve balance across baseline variables between the early intubation cohort and those patients who were intubated after the first 24 h of ICU admission. Differences in outcomes between early and delayed intubation were also assessed. We performed sensitivity analyses to consider a different timepoint (48 h from ICU admission) for early and delayed intubation. Of the 2725 patients who received invasive mechanical ventilation, a total of 614 matched patients were included in the analysis (307 for each group). In the unmatched population, there were no differences in mortality between the early and delayed groups. After PS matching, patients with delayed intubation presented higher hospital mortality (27.3% versus 37.1%, p =0.01), ICU mortality (25.7% versus 36.1%, p=0.007) and 90-day mortality (30.9% versus 40.2%, p=0.02) when compared to the early intubation group. Very similar findings were observed when we used a 48-hour timepoint for early or delayed intubation. The use of early intubation decreased after the first wave of the pandemic (72%, 49%, 46% and 45% in the first, second, third and fourth wave, respectively; first versus second, third and fourth waves p<0.001). In both the main and sensitivity analyses, hospital mortality was lower in patients receiving high-flow nasal cannula (n=294) who were intubated earlier. The subgroup of patients undergoing NIV (n=214) before intubation showed higher mortality when delayed intubation was set as that occurring after 48 h from ICU admission, but not when after 24 h. In patients with COVID-19 requiring invasive mechanical ventilation, delayed intubation was associated with a higher risk of hospital mortality. The use of early intubation significantly decreased throughout the course of the pandemic. Benefits of such an approach occurred more notably in patients who had received high-flow nasal cannul

Prognostic implications of comorbidity patterns in critically ill COVID-19 patients: A multicenter, observational study

Background The clinical heterogeneity of COVID-19 suggests the existence of different phenotypes with prognostic implications. We aimed to analyze comorbidity patterns in critically ill COVID-19 patients and assess their impact on in-hospital outcomes, response to treatment and sequelae. Methods Multicenter prospective/retrospective observational study in intensive care units of 55 Spanish hospitals. 5866 PCR-confirmed COVID-19 patients had comorbidities recorded at hospital admission; clinical and biological parameters, in-hospital procedures and complications throughout the stay; and, clinical complications, persistent symptoms and sequelae at 3 and 6 months. Findings Latent class analysis identified 3 phenotypes using training and test subcohorts: low-morbidity (n=3385; 58%), younger and with few comorbidities; high-morbidity (n=2074; 35%), with high comorbid burden; and renal-morbidity (n=407; 7%), with chronic kidney disease (CKD), high comorbidity burden and the worst oxygenation profile. Renal-morbidity and high-morbidity had more in-hospital complications and higher mortality risk than low-morbidity (adjusted HR (95% CI): 1.57 (1.34-1.84) and 1.16 (1.05-1.28), respectively). Corticosteroids, but not tocilizumab, were associated with lower mortality risk (HR (95% CI) 0.76 (0.63-0.93)), especially in renal-morbidity and high-morbidity. Renal-morbidity and high-morbidity showed the worst lung function throughout the follow-up, with renal-morbidity having the highest risk of infectious complications (6%), emergency visits (29%) or hospital readmissions (14%) at 6 months (p<0.01). Interpretation Comorbidity-based phenotypes were identified and associated with different expression of in-hospital complications, mortality, treatment response, and sequelae, with CKD playing a major role. This could help clinicians in day-to-day decision making including the management of post-discharge COVID-19 sequelae. Copyright (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd

Synergies of electric urban transport systems and distributed energy resources in smart cities

Transport systems and buildings are among the bigger energy users inside cities. Abundant research has been developed about these systems (facilities and transport). However, synergies among them are commonly overlooked, not taking advantage of the possible benefits of their joint coordination and management. This paper presents a linear programming model to find the optimal operation and planning of distributed energy resources (DER) in a residential district, while considering electric private and public transport systems, in particular electric vehicles and metro. Hence, the main contribution of this paper is the analysis of synergies of such an interconnected scheme. It has been assumed that part of the metro regenerative braking energy can be stored into electric vehicles' (EVs') batteries, so that it can be used later for other trains or for the EV itself. Several case studies have been proposed using data from a residential district and a metro line in Madrid. The obtained results show important cost savings in the overall system, especially a significant power cost reduction for the metro system

Review of Positive and Negative Impacts of Electric Vehicles Charging on Electric Power Systems

There is a continuous and fast increase in electric vehicles (EVs) adoption in many countries due to the reduction of EVs prices, governments&rsquo; incentives and subsidies on EVs, the need for energy independence, and environmental issues. It is expected that EVs will dominate the private cars market in the coming years. These EVs charge their batteries from the power grid and may cause severe effects if not managed properly. On the other hand, they can provide many benefits to the power grid and get revenues for EV owners if managed properly. The main contribution of the article is to provide a review of potential negative impacts of EVs charging on electric power systems mainly due to uncontrolled charging and how through controlled charging and discharging those impacts can be reduced and become even positive impacts. The impacts of uncontrolled EVs charging on the increase of peak demand, voltage deviation from the acceptable limits, phase unbalance due to the single-phase chargers, harmonics distortion, overloading of the power system equipment, and increase of power losses are presented. Furthermore, a review of the positive impacts of controlled EVs charging and discharging, and the electrical services that it can provide like frequency regulation, voltage regulation and reactive power compensation, congestion management, and improving power quality are presented. Moreover, a few promising research topics that need more investigation in future research are briefly discussed. Furthermore, the concepts and general background of EVs, EVs market, EV charging technology, the charging methods are presented

Regulatory framework and business models for charging plug-in electric vehicles: Infrastructure, agents, and commercial relationships

Electric vehicles (EVs) present efficiency and environmental advantages over conventional transportation. It is expected that in the next decade this technology will progressively penetrate the market. The integration of plug-in electric vehicles in electric power systems poses new challenges in terms of regulation and business models. This paper proposes a conceptual regulatory framework for charging EVs. Two new electricity market agents, the EV charging manager and the EV aggregator, in charge of developing charging infrastructure and providing charging services are introduced. According to that, several charging modes such as EV home charging, public charging on streets, and dedicated charging stations are formulated. Involved market agents and their commercial relationships are analysed in detail. The paper elaborates the opportunities to formulate more sophisticated business models for vehicle-to-grid applications under which the storage capability of EV batteries is used for providing peak power or frequency regulation to support the power system operation. Finally penetration phase dependent policy and regulatory recommendations are given concerning time-of-use pricing, smart meter deployment, stable and simple regulation for reselling energy on private property, roll-out of public charging infrastructure as well as reviewing of grid codes and operational system procedures for interactions between network operators and vehicle aggregators.Plug-in electric vehicles Business models Electric vehicle aggregators

Non-invasive sensor, device, system and method for determining training parametres during the performance of physical exercises

[ES] Sensor, dispositivo, sistema y método no invasivo para determinar parámetros de ejercicio durante la realización de un ejercicio físico. Sensor (1) no invasivo en forma de anillo para determinar la saturación de oxígeno en sangre y la frecuencia cardiaca de un individuo que realiza ejercicio físico que comprende un emisor de señales para su transmisión a través del tejido y del volumen sanguíneo arterial del dedo del individuo, un receptor de las señales transmitidas y una primera unidad de comunicación (4) que envía inalámbricamente estas señales a una segunda unidad de comunicación (9) de un dispositivo electrónico remoto (7). En el dispositivo (7) se determina la concentración máxima de lactato en caso de realización de un ejercicio progresivo e intenso y el intervalo de frecuencia cardiaca de entrenamiento a partir del valor de las desaturaciones de oxígeno del volumen sanguíneo arterial. La invención se refiere también a un sistema que comprende un sensor (1) y un dispositivo (7) así como al método para determinar zonas de trabajo mediante dicho sistema.[EN] A non-invasive, ring-shaped sensor (1) for determining blood oxygen saturation and heart rate of a person performing a physical exercise comprises a signal transmitter that transmits signals through the tissue and the arterial blood volume in the finger of the person, a receiver for receiving the transmitted signals and a first communication unit (4) that sends these signals wirelessly to a second communication unit (9) of a remote electronic device (7). In the device (7) the maximum lactate concentration, in the case of the performance of a progressive and intense exercise, and the training heart rate range are determined on the basis of the oxygen desaturation value in the arterial blood volume. The invention also relates to a system that comprises a sensor (1) and a device (7), as well as to the method for determining working zones using this system.Peer reviewedConsejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, Universidad Complutense de MadridB1 Patente sin examen previ

Sensor, dispositivo, sistema y método no invasivo para determinar parámetros de entrenamiento durante la realización de un ejercicio físico

[EN] A non-invasive, ring-shaped sensor (1) for determining blood oxygen saturation and heart rate of a person performing a physical exercise comprises a signal transmitter that transmits signals through the tissue and the arterial blood volume in the finger of the person, a receiver for receiving the transmitted signals and a first communication unit (4) that sends these signals wirelessly to a second communication unit (9) of a remote electronic device (7). In the device (7) the maximum lactate concentration, in the case of the performance of a progressive and intense exercise, and the training heart rate range are determined on the basis of the oxygen desaturation value in the arterial blood volume. The invention also relates to a system that comprises a sensor (1) and a device (7), as well as to the method for determining working zones using this system.[ES] Sensor, dispositivo, sistema y método no invasivo para determinar parámetros de ejercicio durante la realización de un ejercicio físico. Sensor (1) no invasivo en forma de anillo para determinar la saturación de oxígeno en sangre y la frecuencia cardiaca de un individuo que realiza ejercicio físico que comprende un emisor de señales para su transmisión a través del tejido y del volumen sanguíneo arterial del dedo del individuo, un receptor de las señales transmitidas y una primera unidad de comunicación (4) que envía inalámbricamente estas señales a una segunda unidad de comunicación (9) de un dispositivo electrónico remoto (7). En el dispositivo (7) se determina la concentración máxima de lactato en caso de realización de un ejercicio progresivo e intenso y el intervalo de frecuencia cardiaca de entrenamiento a partir del valor de las desaturaciones de oxígeno del volumen sanguíneo arterial. La invención se refiere también a un sistema que comprende un sensor (1) y un dispositivo (7) así como al método para determinar zonas de trabajo mediante dicho sistema.Peer reviewedConsejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, Universidad Complutense de MadridA1 Solicitud de patente con informe sobre el estado de la técnic