Wheeling Charges Methodology for Deregulated Electricity Markets using Tracing-based Postage Stamp Methods

MW-mile and Postage-stamp methods is traditionally used by electric utilities to determine a fixed transmission cost among users of firm transmission service. MW-Mile method is charging the users by determining the actual paths the power follows through the network. However, this method is not sufficient to recover the total transmission system cost. To recover the total transmission system cost, the Postage Stamp Method is adopted. This method is simple but its main drawback is that the charges paid by each user do not reflect the actual use of the network but based on the average usage of the entire network. This paper proposes a new wheeling charges methodology using tracing-based postage stamp methods. The proposed method allocates transmission costs among the generators proportional to the total power delivered to the load through transmission lines. The proposed method incorporates with generalised generation distribution factors to trace the contribution of each generator to the line flow. One unique feature of the proposed method is the consideration of the local load on the power flow allocation. Two case studies of 3-bus and IEEE 14-bus systems are used to illustrate the proposed method. Results show that the proposed method provides fair and equitable wheeling charges to generators reflecting the actual usage of the transmission system

An Analysis of Energy Mix in Peninsular Malaysia in Line with the Malaysia's Existing Energy Policy

This paper considers dynamic changes of energy-mix available in Peninsular Malaysia with respect to the Malaysia’s energy policies and evaluates these on experimental basis. This research applied a Data Mining approach; Self Organizing Map (SOM) Algorithm for trend cluster analysis time series data. The approach can provide a number of capabilities to uncover relationships between data attributes, uncover relationships between observations, predict the outcome of future observations and learn how to best react to situations through trial and error by using reinforcement learning. Based on the experiment, the test results have shown that the application is able to accommodate large sets of data and produced the trend lines graphs thus at the same time, a clearer picture of scenarios and the latest trend of energy mix applied in Peninsular Malaysia were successfully obtained; it is shown that Malaysian government should increase the execution and improvement in the realization and implementation of energy policy in Malaysia. Besides, Malaysia still has a lot of potential in order to fully utilise renewable energy resources.

Adjunctive buccal and palatal corticotomy for adult maxillary expansion in an animal model

Objective: This study aimed to explore the usefulness of adjunctive buccal and palatal corticotomy for adult maxillary expansion in an animal model using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Methods: Twelve adult sheep were randomly divided into two groups (each n = 6): a control group, where no treatment was administered, and a treatment group, where buccal and palatal corticotomy-assisted maxillary expansion was performed. CBCT scans were taken before (T1) and after (T2) treatment. Differences in all transverse dental and alveolar dimensions, alveolar width at crest level, hard palate level, horizontal bone loss, interdental cusp width and inter-root apex were assessed using Wilcoxon signed-rank and Mann-Whitney U-tests. Kruskal-Wallis tests and pairwise comparisons were used to detect the significance of differences among the inter-premolar and inter-molar widths. Results: CBCT data revealed significant changes in all transverse dental and alveolar dimensions. The mean interpremolar alveolar width showed an increase of 2.29 to 3.62 mm at the hard palate level, 3.89 to 4.38 mm at the alveolar crest level, and 9.17 to 10.42 mm at the buccal cusp level. Dental changes in the vertical dimension were not significant. Conclusions: Our findings based on an adult animal model suggest that adjunctive buccal and palatal corticotomy can allow for both skeletal and dental expansion, with the amount of dental expansion exceeding that of skeletal expansion at alveolar crest and hard palate levels by two and three folds, respectively. Therefore, this treatment modality is potential to enhance the outcomes of maxillary expansion in adults

The Economic Benefits of Generation Revenue Assessment in Pool-Based Market Model for Restructured Electricity Supply Industry

The electricity supply industry had undergo deregulation and restructuring toward becoming a more transparent and competitive electricity market environment. The pool market model is amongst the most preferred electricity market model. Even though it is a safe option to be more competitive and transparent electricity supply industry, there are issues on the welfare of the generators involved. This paper addresses the pricing issue in the pool market by extending the capacity payment mechanism in the single auction power pool. In the proposed model, the approach of minimum capacity payment involving the efficiency of the generators is introduced. A case study is conducted to illustrate the proposed model. An economic analysis is performed to highlight the merits of the proposed model with the pure pool in term of generation revenue

Push-out bond strength of luting agents to fibre-reinforced post: an in vitro study

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of various luting agents on bond strength of fibre-reinforced posts to root canal dentine. 40 extracted single rooted sound premolar teeth were root filled, decoronated and randomly divided into four groups. Fibre posts, Aestheti-Plus (TM) (Bisco,Inc. Schaumburg, IL, USA) were cemented using four luting agents: Group A (control): Elite 1000 Zinc phosphate (GC Corp, Japan), Group B: Calibra (TM) Esthetic Resin Cement (Dentsply Caulk, USA), Group C: RelyX ARC Adhesive Resin (3M ESPE), Group D: RelyX Unicem Aplicap (3M ESPE). Each roots were sliced into 2 discs representing the coronal and middle portions of the root canal giving rise to 20 specimens per group. Bond strength was determined using push-out tests and data were analyzed using SPSS version 14.0. The mean bond strength of Group A to Aestheti-Plus (TM) post was 7.71 MPa (+/- 2.51) and Group B was 5.69 MPa (+/- 3.23). Group C exhibited the lowest mean bond strength, 4.29 MPa (+/- 3.53) while the highest bond strength was obtained from Group D, 7.98 MPa (+/- 2.61). One way ANOVA showed significant interaction between all groups (p=.001). Post-hoc Bonferroni test revealed that bond strength of Group C was significantly lower compared to Group A (p=.008) and D (p=.004). In conclusion, the mean bond strength of Aestheti-Plus (TM) post to root canal dentine was highest when cemented with RelyX Unicem followed by Elite 100, Calibra and RelyX ARC. However, the bond strengths of Calibra and RelyX Unicem were not significantly different from Elite 100 (R)

Validation of cone beam CT scan for measurement of palatal depth in study casts

The purpose of this study was to validate the use of digital dental study casts obtained from Cone beam CT Scan (CBCT) against gold standard; that is traditional dental study cast measured with digital caliper. Thirty-four study casts of Malaysian Aborigines were selected from Centre of Malaysian Pribumi Studies Databank. Palatal depth of each study casts were measured using Mitutoyo digital caliper. Subsequently, all the study models were scanned using i-CAT CBCT and the palatal depth were measured using i-CAT software. Data were analysed using SPSS version 12.0 where Intraclass correlation and paired T-test were employed. There was no significant difference in palatal depth between CBCT and Mitutoyo digital caliper (p>0.05). Average measures for Intraclass Correlation is 0.753 indicate that it is consistently good. Within the limitation of this study palatal depth measurement produced by CBCT was as accurate as the digital caliper. However, more samples and parameters should be added to further substantiate the result of this study