An Evolutionary Analysis of Investment in Electricity Markets

Electricity markets are being liberalised and open to private competition in several countries. These liberalized electricity markets are very complex as the interactions between demand and supply are subject to several technicalities arising from the commodity being traded: electricity. One of these technicalities is that generators cannot store electricity: this fact implies that it needs to generate its production real-time. A second problem with this market are the different generation technologies used at different levels of demand, which implies that at different times of the day different generation costs are supported to meet demand: due to ramp-rate constraints, capacity available, and fixed and start-up costs. In this paper we analyze the issue of investment and the electricity system’s long-term security in an industry where a regulator controls the short-term prices, imposing a perfect competition outcome for “low†demand hours and a price cap at times where load is shed. We look at the following research questions: a) How does the oligopolistic structure of the market interact with the value of the different technologies? b) How do players define their investment strategies? c) How do the regulatory policies affect the investment in generation? Do they work similarly under perfect competition and oligopoly? d) Can markets invest enough capacity to ensure the long run security of the market? The main results of our analysis are following: 1. The impact of a given investment on the market price is independent of the player investing. 2. The impact of an investment on price is a function of the technology in which the investment takes place and of the cycle to which the price refers to. 3. The impact of price caps on the evolution of the market structure is non-linear, it cannot be too low or too high. 4. An oligopolistic electricity market fails to deliver the needed investment unless the regulators intervene. 5. The higher the reserve margin the higher the total investment. However, this instrument by itself was not able to provide the incentive needed to ensure the long-term security of the system, as in any of the experiments analyzed the peak demand is not completely satisfied. 6. Even a slight increase in demand, due to the reserve margin, leads to important changes on the relative value of the different technologies. 7. The main task of the regulatory authorities is to define a level of capacity payments that give the necessary incentive to investment, at the minimum cost: Capacity Payments are very important in shaping the generation structure. 8. Uncertainty reduces the value of Peak plants: this result clearly contradicts any common sense in these matters, as one would expect the presence of price uncertainty to be beneficial to Peak plants. The proportion invested in baseload plants increases with uncertainty of the energy price, decreasing the investment in shoulder plant.agent-based, electricity markets, evolution, investment, regulation, simulation

A Segurança no Espaço Aéreo

Este trabalho perante a ameaça do uso da aviação civil como arma, propõe analisar como se processa no sistema de segurança nacional a sua prevenção e o seu combate e se a Força Aérea dispõe dos meios para cumprir o estabelecido pela Directiva Operacional 015/ CEMGFA/02 “Defesa Aérea em tempo de Paz”. A metodologia usada foi a de uma intensa pesquisa documental de forma a identificar as ameaças, que potenciam o uso de uma aeronave como arma, e saber como o sistema de segurança as previne e as reprime. Para a aviação comercial tem sido criada legislação que materializada através de medidas e de procedimentos colocam Portugal no mesmo nível dos outros países da EU. O Regulamento 2030/2002 da Comissão e do Parlamento Europeu, estabeleceu uma série de regras comuns a todos os países membros no domínio da segurança da aviação civil que tem sido aplicado no sistema nacional de segurança aeroportuária. O sistema nacional, na aviação geral, apresenta algumas vulnerabilidades que, se devidamente exploradas, podem possibilitar que uma aeronave possa ser usada como arma. A obrigatoriedade de submissão de plano de voo e do estabelecimento de comunicações rádio bilaterais com os órgãos ATS, no espaço aéreo não controlado, da FIR de Lisboa seria dar um passo muito importante no controlo do espaço aéreo nacional. Para a Força Aérea a grande lacuna detectada é a impossibilidade de aplicar a Directiva Operacional, acima referida, a todo o país, devido à inexistência de sensores radar, nos Arquipélagos dos Açores e da Madeira e que impossibilitam o combate a uma situação “Renegade” nessas regiões autónomas. No âmbito da prevenção, é fundamental reajustar alguma da legislação de forma a estabelecer a Autoridade Aeronáutica Nacional e assim garantir uma efectiva articulação entre a segurança interna e a segurança externa, fundamental no combate a esta ameaça transnacional. Abstract: The purpose of this study is to analise the national security system and verify if it’s prepared to prevent the trhreat of a civilian aircraft could be used as a weapon and the Portuguese Air Force have the means to fulfill the established by the CHOD Operational Directive 015/2002 “ Air Defense in Peace Time”. The methodology used was to perform an intense research of the documentation to detect the faults that can it be explored, by who intend to hijack an aircraft and use it as a weapon. For the commercial aviation, Portugal is in the same level of the others countries of the EU, because it was been materialized, in measures and in procedures, the legislation created by international organizations. The Regulation (EC) 2030/2002 established a series of common rules to all of the countries members, in the domain of the security of the civil aviation that has been applied in the national system of airport security. The national system presents some weaknesses that itself properly explored, namely in the general aviation, can enable that an aircraft can be used as a weapon. The submission of the flight plan and the establishment of bilateral radio communications with ATC for the all Lisbon FIR, would be very important to control the mainland air space. For the Air Force the big gap is the absence of radars at Azores and Madeira islands, fundamental for the Command and Control of national airspace, and without C2 it will be impossible to dealing with a “renegade” situation in those regions. It´s fundamental to establish the National Aeronautic Authority in order to guarantee an effective articulation between the internal and external security, fundamental to prevent an fight this transnational threat

Understanding the Footprint of the RBV in International Business Studies: the Last Twenty Years of Research

International business (IB) research has evolved substantially over the past four decades incorporating new concerns and theoretical contributions. During the past two decades, the Resource-Based View (RBV) has gained the preference of many IB scholars and has gradually become one of the dominant theoretical perspectives for studying IB decisions and operations. The 1991 article “Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage” by Jay Barney is recognized as a fundamental contribution to the Resource-Based View (RBV). In this paper we assess the influence of the RBV, proxied by Jay Barney’s (1991) article, on IB research over the twenty years period, from 1991 to 2010. In this bibliometric study of the articles published in the leading journal for IB research – Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) – we conduct citation and co-citation analyses, the networks of co-authorship, and delve into the analysis of the key research topics. Beyond understanding the extant research we also contribute to i identifying future research avenues.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

futebol clube de Arouca and the low number of paying members

Futebol Clube de Arouca achieved one of the most amazing accomplishments in the history of Portuguese Football by ascending from the lower regional divisions to the First Portuguese Football Division in just seven seasons. However, the number of paying members in the club did not follow the club’s growth, and so, this project intended to solve this problem by understanding the reasons behind it and presenting solutions that can tackle the challenge proposed. This project was addressed using the Value Creation Wheel (Lages, 2016) which was a crucial framework to reach the final solution of creating a Family Pack for members of Futebol Clube de Arouca. This pack gives families the possibility of having different benefits including discounted annual membership fees and lower prices on tickets and club related products

A protecção do ambiente : modelos de regulação e instrumentos

Recurso Didáctico nº 5A definição e a execução da política de protecção do ambiente socorre-se de inúmeros instrumentos administrativos e normativos, uns específicos do ambiente e outros utilizados simultaneamente por diversas áreas científicas. A organização e a composição desses instrumentos, em concreto, possibilitam a identificação de modelos de regulação da protecção do ambiente