Towards a foundation for holistic power system validation and testing

Renewable energy sources and further electrificationof energy consumption are key enablers for decreasing green-house gas emissions, but also introduce increased complexitywithin the electric power system. The increased availability ofautomation, information and communication technology, andintelligent solutions for system operation have transformed thepower system into a smart grid. In order to support thedevelopment process of smart grid solutions on the system level,testing has to be done in a holistic manner, covering the multi-domain aspect of such complex systems. This paper introducesthe concept of holistic power system testing and discuss first stepstowards a corresponding methodology that is being developed inthe European ERIGrid research infrastructure project.Comment: 2016 IEEE 21st International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA

Evaluation of Communication Infrastructures for Distributed Optimization of Virtual Power Plant Schedules

With the transition towards renewable energy resources, the impact of small distributed generators (DGs) increases, leading to the need to actively stabilize distribution grids. DGs may be organized in virtual power plants (VPPs), where DGs’ schedules must be coordinated to enable the VPP to act as a single plant. One approach to solving this problem is using multi-agent systems (MAS) to offer autonomous, robust, and flexible control methods. The coordination of such systems requires communication between agents. The time required for this depends on communication characteristics, determined by the underlying communication infrastructure. In this paper, we investigate communication influences for the wireless technologies CDMA450 and LTE Advanced on the fully distributed optimization heuristic COHDA, which is used to perform optimized scheduling for a VPP. The use case under consideration is the adaptation of schedules to provide flexibility for regional congestion management for delivery on a regionalized ancillary service market (rAS). We investigate the scalability of the VPP and the effects of disturbances in the communication infrastructure. The results show that the optimization duration of COHDA can be influenced by the underlying communication infrastructure and that this optimization method is applicable to a limited extent for product delivery of rASs

An evaluation of the beyondblue depression training program for aged care workers

Background: The prevalence of depression among older people receiving care is high, yet the rate of treatment of this disorder is low. One way to improve the pathway to care is to train care staff to recognize the symptoms of depression and raise their confidence in responding to them. In this study we evaluated the efficacy of the beyondblue Depression Training Program to achieve this aim.Methods: Staff (N=148) from low level care facilities and community care facilities in metropolitan Melbourne completed the beyondblue Depression Training Program, while staff in other facilities (N = 96) acted as controls. Pre-program, post-program and follow-up questionnaire data were collected and referrals for depression by staff were recorded.Results: Training improved carers&rsquo; knowledge about depression, their self-efficacy in responding to signs of depression and their attitudes towards working with depressed aged care recipients. In addition, training increased the number of referrals for depression made by carers.Conclusion: Training aged care staff in depression can improve the pathways to care for depressed care recipients, and has the potential to improve the quality of life of older people.<br /

CPES Testing with mosaik: Co-Simulation Planning, Execution and Analysis

The complex nature of cyber-physical energy systems (CPES) makes systematic testing of new technologies for these setups challenging. Co-simulation has been identified as an efficient and flexible test approach that allows consideration of interdisciplinary dynamic interactions. However, basic coupling of simulation models alone fails to account for many of the challenges of simulation-based multi-domain testing such as expert collaboration in test planning. This paper illustrates an extended CPES test environment based on the co-simulation framework mosaik. The environment contains capabilities for simulation planning, uncertainty quantification and the development of multi-agent systems. An application case involving virtual power plant control is used to demonstrate the platform’s features. Future extensibility of the highly modular test environment is outlined

Satisfaction with general practitioner treatment of depression among residents of aged care facilities.

Objective: This article investigates consumer perspectives on the treatment for depression among older people in residential facilities. Method: Aged care residents who were aware of being treated for depression in the past 6 months (24 women and 7 men, mean age = 83 years) participated in an interview that assessed their perspective on treatments. Results: Although more than half of the participants in the sample reported overall satisfaction with the medical treatments received for depression, qualitative data provided indications of unsatisfactory service delivery, including perceptions of low treatment efficacy, short consultation times, the failure to assess affective symptomatology, and negative responses to residents&rsquo; disclosure of symptoms. Discussion: The findings are discussed in relation to previous research on consumer satisfaction with health services and issues that may be pertinent to the elderly depressed. Training for general practitioners providing treatment in aged care is indicated