Between vision and practice:lack of alignment between AI strategies and energy regulations in the Dutch electricity sector

Different governmental institutions are publishing more and more visions, strategies, or proposed regulations related to artificial intelligence. This paper analyses how these visions or proposed regulations are put into practice. To this end, the proposed European Union Artificial Intelligence Act, the Dutch artificial intelligence strategy and the proposed new Dutch energy law are compared. Even though the new Dutch energy law was created parallel and published after the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act, it does not take into account the use of artificial intelligence in the electricity actor. Similarly, the focus points of the Dutch artificial intelligence strategy are ignored in the new Dutch energy law. Two issues emerge from this. First, it is questionable if and how visions, strategies and proposed regulations related to AI are translated into different sectors and related practices. Second, as the different acts and proposed regulations do not communicate or overlap, gaps develop between the different policies. It is unclear which institutions will fill in these gaps

Adaptive model based control for wastewater treatment plants

In biological wastewater treatment, nitrogen and phosphorous are removed by activated sludge. The process requires oxygen input via aeration of the activated sludge tank. Aeration is responsible for about 60% of the energy consumption of a treatment plant. Hence optimization of aeration can contribute considerably to the increase of energy-efficiency in wastewater treatment. To this end, we introduce an adaptive model based control strategy for aeration called adaptive WOMBAT. The strategy is an improvement of the original WOMBAT, which has been successfully implemented at wastewater treatment plant Westpoort in Amsterdam. In this paper we propose to improve the physics-based model by introducing automatic parameter adaptation. In an experimental model setup the adaptive model based control algorithm proves to result in better effluent quality with less energy consumption. Moreover, it is able to react to the varying circumstances of a real treatment plant and can, therefore, operate without human supervision

Public Values in Power:An Exploratory Framework Applied to the Case of the Netherlands

Artificial intelligence is increasingly applied in electricity systems. This development results in opportunities and pressures for incorporating public values. Public governments can steer the implementation of AI to safeguard certain values. To understand what values might be pressing to cover, this paper maps the visions of various actors in the Dutch electricity system regarding which public values should be safeguarded. For this analysis, actors in different elements of the electricity system were interviewed, and a narrative analysis of grey material published by several of these actors was conducted. Multiple actors within the electricity system identified sustainability, reliability, affordability, equity and equality, and balances of power as important values to prioritize. This does not mean other values can be disregarded. At its core, identification and non-identification indicate which public values are present and absent in the current debate about the future Dutch electricity system

Publication strategies and Open Science: a concealed conflict?:Blog

Over the past few years, the attention for Open Science has increased. Many University publication strategies, however, do not reflect this development. Research metrics (e.g. Journal Impact Factor, Eigenfactor score or Article Influence Score) are still at the core of such strategies, limiting academics in the way they are able to match their scholarly output(s) with open science principles. Instead, publication strategies could consider adopting a broader perspective

Two preconditioners for saddle point problems in fluid flows

In this paper two preconditioners for the saddle point problem are analysed: one based on the augmented Lagrangian approach and another involving artificial compressibility. Eigenvalue analysis shows that with these preconditioners small condition numbers can be achieved for the preconditioned saddle point matrix. The preconditioners are compared with commonly used preconditioners from literature for the Stokes and Oseen equation and an ocean flow problem. The numerical results confirm the analysis: the preconditioners are a good alternative to existing ones in fluid flow problems.