Opening of Ancillary Service Markets to Distributed Energy Resources: A Review

Electric power systems are moving toward more decentralized models, where energy generation is performed by small and distributed power plants, often from renewables. With the gradual phase out from fossil fuels, however, Distribution Energy Resources (DERs) are expected to take over in the provision of all regulation services required to operate the grid. To this purpose, the opening of national Ancillary Service Markets (ASMs) to DERs is considered an essential passage. In order to allow this transition to happen, current opportunities and barriers to market participation of DERs must be clearly identified. In this work, a comprehensive review is provided of the state-of-the-art of research on DER integration into ASMs. The topic at hand is analyzed from different perspectives. First, the current situation and main trends regarding the reformation processes of national ASMs are analyzed to get a clear picture of the evolutions expected and adjustment required in the future, according to the scientific community. Then, the focus is moved to the strategies to be adopted by aggregators for the effective control and coordination of DERs, exploring the challenges posed by the uncertainties affecting the problem. Coordination schemes between transmission and distribution system operators, and the implications on the grid infrastructure operation and planning, are also investigated. Finally, the review deepens the control capabilities required for DER technologies to perform the needed control actions

Constrained Collaborative Power Management

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A Tabu-search-based Algorithm for Distribution Network Restoration to Improve Reliability and Resiliency

Fault restoration techniques have always been crucial for distribution system operators (DSOs). In the last decade, it started to gain more and more importance due to the introduction of output-based regulations where DSO performances are evaluated according to frequency and duration of energy supply interruptions. The paper presents a tabu-search-based algorithm able to assist distribution network operational engineers in identifying solutions to restore the energy supply after permanent faults. According to the network property, two objective functions are considered to optimize either reliability or resiliency. The mathematical formulation includes the traditional feeders, number of switching operation limit, and radiality constraints. Thanks to the DSO of Milan, Unareti, the proposed algorithm has been tested on a real distribution network to investigate its effectiveness

Human metapneumovirus establishes persistent infection in lung microvascular endothelial cells and primes a th2-skewed immune response

Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is a major cause of lower respiratory tract infections. HMPV infection has been hypothesized to alter dendritic cell (DC) immune response; however, many questions regarding HMPV pathogenesis within the infected lung remain unanswered. Here, we show that HMPV productively infects human lung microvascular endothelial cells (L-HMVECs). The release of infectious virus occurs for up to more than 30 days of culture without producing overt cytopathic effects and medium derived from persistently HMPV-infected L-HMVECs (secretome) induced monocyte-derived DCs to prime naïve CD4 T-cells toward a Th2 phenotype. Moreover, we demonstrated that infected secretomes trigger DCs to up-regulate OX40L expression and OX40L neutralization abolished the pro-Th2 effect that is induced by HMPV-secretome. We clarified secretome from HMPV by size exclusion and ultracentrifugation with the aim to characterize the role of viral particles in the observed pro-Th2 effect. In both cases, the percentage of IL-4-producing cells and expression of OX40L returned at basal levels. Finally, we showed that HMPV, per se, could reproduce the ability of secretome to prime pro-Th2 DCs. These results suggest that HMPV, persistently released by L-HMVECs, might take part in the development of a skewed, pro-Th2 lung microenvironment

Anti-plasmodial activity of Ailanthus excelsa

The anti-plasmodial activity of Ailanthus excelsa stem bark was investigated. The methanolic extract inhibited in vitro growth of chloroquine-sensitive (D10) and resistant strains (W2) of Plasmodium falciparum (IC50 4.6 and 2.8 \u3bcg/ml, respectively). The effect was retained in the chloroform fraction (3.1 and 2.1 \u3bcg/ml, respectively). The anti-plasmodial activity could be ascribed to the impairment of haemoglobin degradation through the inhibition of plasmepsin II activity (IC50 of 13.43 \ub1 1.74 \u3bcg/ml) and of the haem detoxification to haemozoin