Strategy and sustainability

EMASEmmagatzament, adaptació i distribució de material elèctri

NEW FEM MODEL FOR THERMAL ANALYSIS OF MEDIUM VOLTAGE FUSES

ABSTRAC

Deregulation and environmental differentiation in the electric utility industry

This paper analyzes how economic deregulation impacts firm strategies and environmental quality in the electric utility industry. We find evidence that the deregulation introduced to this historically staid industry has stimulated environmental differentiation. Differentiation is most likely to appear where its point of uniqueness is valued by customers, and we confirm this relationship in our sample. Specifically, utilities that served customers who exhibited higher levels of environmental sensitivity generated more green power. The tendency for firms to differentiate in this way is lessened if they are relatively more dependent on coal-fired generation or relatively more efficient. Thus, there is evidence that firms sort themselves into either differentiation or low-cost strategies as the competitive realities of a deregulated world unfold. Deregulation and the ensuing environmental differentiation illustrate how utilities exploited formerly unmet customer demand for green power. The result has been greater levels of renewable generation and, hence, a cleaner environment.Publicad

Exploring knowledge management perspectives in smart city research: a review and future research agenda

There is a growing body of literature calling for work on the emerging role of smart cities as information hubs and knowledge repositories. This article reviews the existing smart city literature and integrates knowledge management perspectives to provide an overview of future research directions. By demonstrating the multi-stakeholder relationships involved in smart city development, it takes a crucial step towards looking into the role of knowledge management in future smart city research. Eighty-two peer-reviewed publications were analyzed covering smart city studies in various research domains. The systematic review identifies five different themes: strategy and vision, frameworks, enablers and inhibitors, citizen participation, and benefits. These themes form the basis for developing a future research agenda focused on knowledge sharing and co-learning among cities via three research directions: socio-technical approaches, knowledge sharing perspectives and organizational learning capabilities. The paper also proposes a series of knowledge-driven policy recommendations to contribute towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals

A NOVEL APPROACH FOR THE THERMAL ANALYSIS OF AIR INSULATED SWITCHGEAR

ABSTRACT The international standard IE

CONSIDERATIONS FOR A WIDE-AREA POWER QUALITY MONITORING SYSTEM THE NEED FOR IMPROVED AWARENESS

ABSTRACT Power quality monitoring has evolved from device-specific analysis of an event to system-wide benchmarking and reporting. Whether THE NEED FOR IMPROVED AWARENESS While the 2003 blackouts in Europe and America brought media attention to power quality and reliability, the need for increased awareness of the state of the grid has been growing for much longer and with much less dramatic symptoms. As new distorting loads are added, system total harmonic distortion (THD) increases, degrading the life of both industrial and consumer hardware and approaching fuse limits. Rapid voltage changes (Flicker) at the edge of human perception lead to eye strain and reduced worker productivity. And an immediate cost is borne by the economy, where the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that "power outages and power quality disturbances cost the economy from $25 to$180 billion annually. There are also operational problems in maintaining voltage levels." If this economic loss is to be reduced, we must first understand the state of the grid today. To gather the necessary intelligence, a Wide-Area Power Quality analysis (WAPQ) system uses power quality monitors distributed throughout the grid to monitor, record and in some cases alarm on power quality phenomena. While this level of monitoring is useful for a minute-to-minute operational view, system software is required to deal with the volume of data and convert it to actionable information. In addition to the information obtained on overall grid status, a WAPQ system improves the ability of power quality departments to respond to customer complaints. Portable or temporarily installed power quality monitors have been used for this analysis in the past. When the problem observed by the customer was caused by a quasistationary and persistent condition, such as harmonics, or by periodic events, such as line-switching or motor start-up, installing a portable PQ monitor and evaluating its data would provide the necessary information to the customer. This approach, however, is not effective for spurious events which may not repeat after the installation of the portable device. Without information on these events, it is not possible to evaluate the source of a problem or the potential damage such an event may have caused to equipment. WAPQ systems can be effectively used to address one or more of three main needs: Standards compliance, System reliability improvements, and Customer satisfaction