Forecasting Recharging Demand to Integrate Electric Vehicle Fleets in Smart Grids

Electric vehicle fleets and smart grids are two growing technologies. These technologies provided new possibilities to reduce pollution and increase energy efficiency. In this sense, electric vehicles are used as mobile loads in the power grid. A distributed charging prioritization methodology is proposed in this paper. The solution is based on the concept of virtual power plants and the usage of evolutionary computation algorithms. Additionally, the comparison of several evolutionary algorithms, genetic algorithm, genetic algorithm with evolution control, particle swarm optimization, and hybrid solution are shown in order to evaluate the proposed architecture. The proposed solution is presented to prevent the overload of the power grid

Monitoring and Fault Location Sensor Network for Underground Distribution Lines

One of the fundamental tasks of electric distribution utilities is guaranteeing a continuous supply of electricity to their customers. The primary distribution network is a critical part of these facilities because a fault in it could affect thousands of customers. However, the complexity of this network has been increased with the irruption of distributed generation, typical in a Smart Grid and which has significantly complicated some of the analyses, making it impossible to apply traditional techniques. This problem is intensified in underground lines where access is limited. As a possible solution, this paper proposes to make a deployment of a distributed sensor network along the power lines. This network proposes taking advantage of its distributed character to support new approaches of these analyses. In this sense, this paper describes the aquiculture of the proposed network (adapted to the power grid) based on nodes that use power line communication and energy harvesting techniques. In this sense, it also describes the implementation of a real prototype that has been used in some experiments to validate this technological adaptation. Additionally, beyond a simple use for monitoring, this paper also proposes the use of this approach to solve two typical distribution system operator problems, such as: fault location and failure forecasting in power cables.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Government of Spain project Sistema Inteligente Inalámbrico para Análisis y Monitorización de Líneas de Tensión Subterráneas en Smart Grids (SIIAM) TEC2013-40767-RMinisterio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, Government of Spain, for the funding of the scholarship Formación de Profesorado Universitario 2016 (FPU 2016

Increasing the Efficiency of Rule-Based Expert Systems Applied on Heterogeneous Data Sources

Nowadays, the proliferation of heterogeneous data sources provided by different research and innovation projects and initiatives is proliferating more and more and presents huge opportunities. These developments create an increase in the number of different data sources, which could be involved in the process of decisionmaking for a specific purpose, but this huge heterogeneity makes this task difficult. Traditionally, the expert systems try to integrate all information into a main database, but, sometimes, this information is not easily available, or its integration with other databases is very problematic. In this case, it is essential to establish procedures that make a metadata distributed integration for them. This process provides a “mapping” of available information, but it is only at logic level. Thus, on a physical level, the data is still distributed into several resources. In this sense, this chapter proposes a distributed rule engine extension (DREE) based on edge computing that makes an integration of metadata provided by different heterogeneous data sources, applying then a mathematical decomposition over the antecedent of rules. The use of the proposed rule engine increases the efficiency and the capability of rule-based expert systems, providing the possibility of applying these rules over distributed and heterogeneous data sources, increasing the size of data sets that could be involved in the decision-making process

Optimal Representation of Anuran Call Spectrum in Environmental Monitoring Systems Using Wireless Sensor Networks

The analysis and classification of the sounds produced by certain animal species, notably anurans, have revealed these amphibians to be a potentially strong indicator of temperature fluctuations and therefore of the existence of climate change. Environmental monitoring systems using Wireless Sensor Networks are therefore of interest to obtain indicators of global warming. For the automatic classification of the sounds recorded on such systems, the proper representation of the sound spectrum is essential since it contains the information required for cataloguing anuran calls. The present paper focuses on this process of feature extraction by exploring three alternatives: the standardized MPEG-7, the Filter Bank Energy (FBE), and the Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC). Moreover, various values for every option in the extraction of spectrum features have been considered. Throughout the paper, it is shown that representing the frame spectrum with pure FBE offers slightly worse results than using the MPEG-7 features. This performance can easily be increased, however, by rescaling the FBE in a double dimension: vertically, by taking the logarithm of the energies; and, horizontally, by applying mel scaling in the filter banks. On the other hand, representing the spectrum in the cepstral domain, as in MFCC, has shown additional marginal improvements in classification performance.University of Seville: Telefónica Chair "Intelligence Networks

Evaluation of MPEG-7-based audio descriptors for animal voice recognition over wireless acoustic sensor networks

This article belongs to the Special Issue State-of-the-Art Sensors Technology in Spain 2015Environmental audio monitoring is a huge area of interest for biologists all over the world. This is why some audio monitoring system have been proposed in the literature, which can be classified into two different approaches: acquirement and compression of all audio patterns in order to send them as raw data to a main server; or specific recognition systems based on audio patterns. The first approach presents the drawback of a high amount of information to be stored in a main server. Moreover, this information requires a considerable amount of effort to be analyzed. The second approach has the drawback of its lack of scalability when new patterns need to be detected. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes an environmental Wireless Acoustic Sensor Network architecture focused on use of generic descriptors based on an MPEG-7 standard. These descriptors demonstrate it to be suitable to be used in the recognition of different patterns, allowing a high scalability. The proposed parameters have been tested to recognize different behaviors of two anuran species that live in Spanish natural parks; the Epidalea calamita and the Alytes obstetricans toads, demonstrating to have a high classification performance.Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa, Junta de Andalucía, Spain TIC-570

Exploring Symmetry of Binary Classification Performance Metrics

Selecting the proper performance metric constitutes a key issue for most classification problems in the field of machine learning. Although the specialized literature has addressed several topics regarding these metrics, their symmetries have yet to be systematically studied. This research focuses on ten metrics based on a binary confusion matrix and their symmetric behaviour is formally defined under all types of transformations. Through simulated experiments, which cover the full range of datasets and classification results, the symmetric behaviour of these metrics is explored by exposing them to hundreds of simple or combined symmetric transformations. Cross-symmetries among the metrics and statistical symmetries are also explored. The results obtained show that, in all cases, three and only three types of symmetries arise: labelling inversion (between positive and negative classes); scoring inversion (concerning good and bad classifiers); and the combination of these two inversions. Additionally, certain metrics have been shown to be independent of the imbalance in the dataset and two cross-symmetries have been identified. The results regarding their symmetries reveal a deeper insight into the behaviour of various performance metrics and offer an indicator to properly interpret their values and a guide for their selection for certain specific applications.University of Seville (Spain) by Telefónica Chair “Intelligence in Networks

Ventajas de la gestión activa de la demanda (Demand management) en el control de Smart-grids

La gestión del sistema eléctrico por las utilities se ve afectado por varios factores, como un aumento del consumo, una mayor penetración de las energías renovables y la tendencia a la generación distribuida (para minimizar pérdidas asociadas al transporte y distribución). Obviamente, el consumo no es constante, produciéndose valles y picos. Habitualmente, dicha curva no se ajusta a la de generación, obligando a sobredimensionar la generación o desplegar sistemas de almacenamiento que amortigüen este desfase. Desafortunadamente, estas soluciones son costosas y finalmente repercuten en el cliente. Una solución en auge es aplicar los sistemas de “Demand Response” (DR), que convierten el consumo del cliente en un activo controlable por el operador del sistema de distribución, permitiendo ajustar de forma dinámica su consumo energético, adaptándolo a las necesidades de la red y mejorando la eficiencia. Para lograr esto debe establecerse una comunicación utility-usuario, mediante la cual pueda solicitarse una reducción del consumo en ciertas franjas horarias, aplicándole al cliente bonificaciones por ello. Por todo esto, se estima que la tecnología DR será clave en el futuro del sistema eléctrico, y en la cual el TIC-150, a través de la colaboración con diversas utilities de ámbito internacional, está trabajando activamenteThe management of the electric system is affected by many factors, such as the rising of the consumption, the growing of renewable energies and the apparition of distributed generation (in order to reduce losses in transmission and distribution). Obviously, the consumption is not constant. The consumption curve contains “valleys” (low demand periods) and “peaks” (high demand periods). Traditionally, the generation curve does not fit with the consumption curve, so the electric generation system must be oversizing, or electric storage must be installed. Unfortunately, these solutions are expensive and they increase customer bill. A new solution is applying Demand Response systems. They transform the consumption into an asset that the distribution system can manage, adjusting this consumption dynamically, adjusting it to the needs of the system and improving efficiency. Obviously, to achieve this objective there must exist a utility-customer communication. This allows to request a reduction of customer consumption when it is needed. Customers would reduce their bill thanks to this. This is why DR technology is expected to be key in the electric system future. The TIC-150 is collaborating actively with diverse international utilities in this field.Plan Propio de la Universidad de Sevilla Proyecto: 2017/0000096

Sistema inteligente inalámbrico para análisis y monitorización de líneas de tensión subterráneas en Smart-grids (SIIAM)

El mantenimiento de la infraestructura eléctrica supone un enorme coste para las compañías. Por ello, es una línea de investigación activa el desarrollo de sistemas de monitorización de dicha infraestructura. Lamentablemente, es inevitable que se sigan produciendo algunos desperfectos, debido a agentes externos y al propio desgaste de las instalaciones. Estos problemas provocan las “faltas” (que es la interrupción del suministro eléctrico en una zona afectada). Ante dichas faltas las compañías deben actuar con la mayor celeridad posible (identificando la posición de la falta y reconfigurando la red). No obstante, a pesar de los avances existentes en monitorización de líneas eléctricas, la localización de una “falta” no es un problema sencillo, requiriendo una gran inversión de recursos materiales y humanos. Una de las infraestructuras en las que más se agrava este problema es en las líneas de media tensión subterráneas, ya que su monitorización actualmente está poco desarrollada. Por ello, en el marco del proyecto SIIAM se han investigado diversas soluciones para la monitorización de este tipo de líneas de distribución, para las cuales actualmente se está finalizando el desarrollo de un prototipo preindustrial, que permita monitorizar y facilite la localización en caso de falta.The maintenance of electrical structure to guarantee the proper functioning of service, pose a huge cost for the electrical enterprises. This causes that monitoring of the electrical infrastructure becomes an active research line, so we can reach a fast error detection and reduce the electrical lines problems. Unfortunately, it is impossible to avoid damages in the system caused by external agents, that causes electrical installation wear away. These Problems produce “faults” (Interruption of energy supply over one affected area). The companies need to fix this fault quickly (The Company need to locate the fault and reconfigure the electrical network, trying to restore the energy supply to the bigger number of clients). However, the fault location need to employ a lot of workers and materials, despite nowadays the monitoring process is very advanced. This problem is worse in the medium voltage underground lines, because of fault monitoring devices are little developed here. In SIIAM Project, we have studied some solutions to fix monitoring problem of underground medium voltage lines. Currently, we have finished a prototype that can monitor and locate fault in medium voltage underground lines without the need to damage the cable or its shield.Plan Propio de la Universidad de Sevilla Proyecto: 2017/00000962Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España) TEC2013-40767-

Challenges for citizens in energy management system of smart cities

Much has been written about the rapidly emerging, the disruptive impact being detected on every aspect of how machines and their operational technology communicate with one another, with the underlying information technology platforms. Within the smart city exists an infrastructure of interconnected objects, people, systems, and information resources together with intelligent services to allow them to process information on the physical and the virtual world. In this paper, the authors talk about the advantages and the uses of these technologies in the smart city and the new challenges of citizens to reduce energy consumption and global warming. This paper attempts to address these new approaches and the requirements involved and to articulate it in a concise and concrete way. The aim is to assist decision makers, architects, developers, and implementers in changing the character of the smart city initiatives from ones based on simple transformation to ones involving play shifts in the way that devices are identified, management and controlled.Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain TEC2013-40767-