Smart Power Management in OIC Countries: A Critical Overview Using SWOT-AHP and Hybrid MCDM Analysis

A conventional electrical grid mostly depends on the electrical power generated from fossil fuels. However, the pollutants from fossil fuels are the key factors for adverse climate change. Most of the developed countries of the world have already recognized the fact that the energy mix requires to be diversified by incorporating renewable energy. This is especially relevant for a good number of the member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), as much of their electric power is still generated from fossil fuels due to the relative abundance of fossil fuels in those countries. In order to integrate renewable energy sources into the hybrid energy mix, an existing conventional grid needs to undergo drastic changes. Alongside this, the population boom in the OIC member countries has caused higher demand for a steady supply of electricity that the conventional grids have long been struggling to cope with. With a view to solving this multifaceted problem, incorporation of the smart power management schemes is indispensable using a smart electrical grid, where information and communications technology is integrated into its major building blocks. This allows advanced applications of a grid, such as the formation of micro-grids, demand-side management, energy storage, high-tech power electronic converters, etc. As the smart grids are being adopted by many developed countries, it is high time for the OIC member countries to pay due attention to this development, if they have not already done so. This paper explains, with special focus on the OIC member countries, the various smart power management technologies, their operations and applications, and the benefits and challenges. Then, it goes on to carry out the Strength–Weakness–Opportunity–Threat with Analytical-Heuristic-Procedure (SWOT-AHP) analysis to evaluate its feasibility of incorporation and the underlying strategies appropriate for its implementation. Furthermore, a Hybrid Multi-Criteria-Decision-Making (MCDM) analysis is performed to evaluate the sequence of the emphasis that should be given on each of the technologies from those available for the smart power management initiative. Finally, the study reinforces the stance by drawing parallels from the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and highlights the importance of the smart grid in line with the global vision of SDG. This paper aims at assisting the decision-makers in implementing smart power management schemes in the OIC member countries, in particular, and other countries of the world, in general

Advancement of Routing Protocols and Applications of Underwater Wireless Sensor Network (UWSN)—A Survey

Water covers a greater part of the Earth’s surface. However, little knowledge has been achieved regarding the underwater world as most parts of it remain unexplored. Oceans, including other water bodies, hold substantial natural resources and also the aquatic lives. These are mostly undiscovered and unknown due to the unsuited and hazardous underwater environments for the human. This inspires the unmanned exploration of these dicey environments. Neither unmanned exploration nor the distant real-time monitoring is possible without deploying Underwater Wireless Sensor Network (UWSN). Consequently, UWSN has drawn the interests of the researchers recently. This vast underwater world is possible to be monitored remotely from a distant location with much ease and less risk. The UWSN is required to be deployed over the volume of the water body to monitor and surveil. For vast water bodies like oceans, rivers and large lakes, data is collected from the different heights/depths of the water level which is then delivered to the surface sinks. Unlike terrestrial communication and radio waves, conventional mediums do not serve the purpose of underwater communication due to their high attenuation and low underwater-transmission range. Instead, an acoustic medium is able to transmit data in underwater more efficiently and reliably in comparison to other mediums. To transmit and relay the data reliably from the bottom of the sea to the sinks at the surface, multi-hop communication is utilized with different schemes. For seabed to surface sink communication, leading researchers proposed different routing protocols. The goal of these routing protocols is to make underwater communications more reliable, energy-efficient and delay efficient. This paper surveys the advancement of some of the routing protocols which eventually helps in finding the most efficient routing protocol and some recent applications for the UWSN. This work also summarizes the remaining challenging issues and the future trends of those considered routing protocols. This survey encourages further research efforts to improve the routing protocols of UWSN for enhanced underwater monitoring and exploration

Post Covid-19 strategies for power and energy sectors of Bangladesh

Bangladesh has tremendous development potential across a wide range of socioeconomic sectors. Over the past decade, its energy and power sectors have grown consistently. However, the unexpected outbreak of COVID-19 threatens the continuation of progress. To successfully overcome and comply with the post-pandemic scenario, it is necessary to implement the appropriate strategies and action plans. The goal of this study is to suggest strategies that will result in the optimal development of Bangladesh’s power and energy sectors in the post-pandemic scenario and minimize COVID-19’s long-term effects as much as possible. For this purpose, the study first examines the growth of Bangladesh’s power and energy industry, and conducts the Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threats (SWOT) analysis. Then, utilizing the Analytical-Hierarchy-Process (AHP) and TOWS, the SWOT elements are ranked in order of importance so that the most crucial aspects that are useful for evaluating the current state and potential future consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic can be identified. Using the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) technique, the suggested strategies for the recommended guidelines are then ranked. The innovation in the methodology is that the SWOT-AHP-TOWS are used and then MCDM method is applied directly on the results of the former. This method of combining these two analysis tools is novel and, to the best of our knowledge, has not previously been utilized in any other publication. The findings are threefold — the quantitative results of the SWOT-AHP, the formulated TOWS strategies, and the ranking of the strategies by the MCDM. Lastly, these strategies are linked to the current nine global goals that Bangladesh is a part of, which benefit its power industry to grow after the COVID-19 pandemic