Smart Grid as a chance for distributed generation

Nowadays power system faces up to various problems and challenges, like e.g. decreasing resources of fossil fuels, ineffective large power plants and transmission lines, as well as increasing demand on energy and quality of energy services and protection of environment. At the same time the number of distributed energy resources in the distribution network increase rapidly. Distributed generation have a lot of advantages but also disadvantages, which may seriously hinder and threaten functioning of the traditional power system. The conception of Smart Grid may bring the solutions of integration of the distributed generation into the distribution network. In this paper it will be described how Smart Grid may be a key for further development and better integration of increasing number of distributed energy resources

What do people think about electric vehicles? An initial study of the opinions of car purchasers in Poland

Road transport causes one fifth of the EU's total emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), which are especially high in cities. A suggested solution to this situation is the introduction of electric vehicles (EV). However, evidence from European countries shows that, without any governmental support, the sales of EVs are low in comparison to other vehicles. Our pilot study, conducted in Wroc±aw (Poland), shows that car purchasers in Poland are aware of the difference between pure electric and hybrid vehicles (HEVs). As most car purchasers buy on the second-hand market, the potential for sales of EVs and HEVs still seems limited. Our study confirmed that consumers have a generally positive opinion about EVs. However, they expect that the purchase of EVs should be subsidized

Impact of social interactions on demand curves for innovative products

Empirical studies suggest that word-of-mouth strongly influences the innovation diffusion process and is responsible for the "S" shape of the adoption curve. However, it is not clear how word-of-mouth affects demand curves for innovative products and strategic decisions of producers. Using an agent-based model of innovation diffusion, which links consumer opinions with reservation prices, we show that a relatively strong word-of-mouth effect can lead to the creation of two separated price-quantity regimes, with a nonlinear transition between them. A small shift of the product's market price can result in a drastic change of the demanded quantity and, hence, the revenues of a firm. Using Monte Carlo simulations and mean-field treatment we demonstrate that word-of-mouth may have ambiguous consequences and should be taken into account when designing marketing strategies

Linking Consumer Opinions with Reservation Prices in an Agent-Based Model of Innovation Diffusion

We extend a recently developed agent-based model of innovation diffusion by linking the opinions of potential consumers with their market behavior via the concept of reservation prices. Through a dynamic mechanism that takes into account social influence, the agents in our model can both increase or decrease their product appraisal. Considering complete graph network structures and using mean-field treatment we find that the model can exhibit a plethora of scenarios, observed empirically but not attainable within the classical Bass model. We also show the existence of a critical market price above which the innovation cannot diffuse