ISE - Comunicações em actas de encontros científicos internacionais
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- Agent-based simulation of retail electricity markets: Bilateral contracting with demand responsePublication . Lopes, Fernando; Algarvio, Hugo; Ilco, Cristina; Sousa, JorgeThe novelty of the evolving electric power industry implies that researchers lack insight into numerous open problems. There is a growing need for advanced modeling approaches that simulate the behavior of electricity markets over time. Accordingly, this article looks at using software agents to help manage the complexity of electricity markets, particularly retail markets, towards ensuring long-term capacity sustainability. The article focuses on bilateral trading and describes some important features of an agent-based system for bilateral contracting with demand response. Special attention is devoted to two strategies for promoting demand response: a “volume management” strategy, for Buyer agents, and a “price management” strategy, for Seller agents.
- Agent-based simulation of retail electricity markets: Bilateral trading playersPublication . Lopes, Fernando; Algarvio, Hugo; Coelho, HelderThe electricity industry throughout the world, which has long been dominated by vertically integrated utilities, has experienced major changes. Deregulation, unbundling, wholesale and retail wheeling, and real-time pricing were abstract concepts a few years ago. Today market forces drive the price of electricity and reduce the net cost through increased competition. As power markets continue to evolve, there is a growing need for advanced modeling approaches. Accordingly, this article looks at using software agents to help manage the complexity of electricity markets, particularly retail markets. The article focuses on bilateral trading and describes some important features of an agent-based system for bilateral contracting. Special attention is devoted to the characteristics and negotiation behaviour of Buyer and Seller agents.
- Analysis of processing systems involving reaction and distillation : the synthesis of ethyl acetatePublication . Filipe, Rui M.; Castro, Pedro; Matos, Henrique A.; Novais, Augusto Q.The integration of reaction and separation into a single process unit, i. e., reactive destillation, may offer several advantages over conventional systems that use a reactor followed by a distillation column. In this paper we explore the operational characteristics of reactive distillation and highlight some of this potential benefits, using the production of ethyl acetate as an illustrative example. With this aim, the two types of system are compared employing different reactor types and a number of performance indicators, such as yield, conversion, purity, specific energy consumption and residence time. A sensitivity analysis is carried out on some variables and parameters, in order to explore and define the distillation columns operating conditions. As expected, results point to a clear advantage of reactive distillation allowing for the azeotrope to be surpassed and for the overcoming of chemical equilibrium, favouring an increase in conversion and product purity, along with reduced operating costs.
- Assessing the industrial effects of the deployment of renewable energy technologies: when product identity mattersPublication . Barbosa, Juliana; Fontes, Margarida; Bento, NunoABSTRACT: Investment in renewable energy technologies (RET) produces impacts on economic activity and job creation that are fundamental to increase the social acceptability of those technologies. Previous research that attempted to measure the impacts of RET has mainly focused on its effects in energy production and climate mitigation, but surprisingly little is known about the potential of RET to transform the industrial structure of an economy. This paper proposes a methodology to understand and measure the industrial transformative impact of RET. The paper draws on contributions from the sustainability transitions literature and from the economic literature that analyses the socioeconomic impacts of RET, and combine them with the economic complexity literature in order to address two main gaps: the lack of measurement of industrial transformative effects in the first; and the assumption of product homogeneity in the second that precludes an assessment of more structural impacts. We develop a conceptual approach to the way technology deployment can lead to changes in the industrial structure, centered on the notion of product heterogeneity intrinsic to the economic complexity literature. We advance three main dimensions along which to measure the changes in the industrial structure driven by modifications in the basket of products being produced due to the development of the technology value chain: sophistication, connectivity, and competitiveness. We also propose a more precise delineation of the industrial value chain of the technology, by considering the actual weights of each sector to the technology and the technology to each sector. This approach is applied to the case of wind energy in Portugal (a successful fast follower), compared with three other main wind energy producers (Spain, Denmark, Germany). The results show a strong relationship between the deployment of the technology and the sophistication and the competitiveness of the Æcloud of productsÆ composing the industrial value chain. The paper proposes a novel analytical framework and measurement tools that can support a timely assessment of the effects of sustainable energy technologies in the industrial structure, with relevance for policy.
- Berlenga Island : sustainable smart microgridPublication . Pinto, Claúdia; Santos, Ricardo Jorge; Faria, Gonçalo; Ferreira, Luís Tiago; Joyce, A; Cativo, NunoABSTRACT: EDP Distribuição is EDP Group Distribution System Operator, operating in the regulated distribution business in Portugal. It holds the concession for most of the high, medium and low voltage distribution grid concessions across mainland Portugal. The Berlenga Island is classified as a UNESCO natural reserve, making it a heavily protected area. Currently, the island is supplied through diesel generators, this kind of generation bears obvious environmental and safety risks regarding maritime transportation, transfer and storage of diesel fuel. Furthermore, this system involves high operation and maintenance costs. The Berlenga Project aims to provide a sustainable and viable alternative to this energy scenario, combining renewable generation, energy storage and demand side management through smart grid technology. Tackling environmental, regulatory and business model issues will be key to deliver the results of this project.
- Bilateral negotiation in a multi-agent supply chain systemPublication . Lopes, Fernando; Coelho, HelderA supply chain is a set of organizations directly linked by flows of services from suppliers to customers. Supply chain activities range from the ordering and receipt of raw materials to the production and distribution of finished goods. Supply chain management is the integration of key activities across a supply chain for the purposes of building competitive infrastructures, synchronizing supply with demand, and leveraging worldwide logistics. This paper addresses the challenges created by supply chain management towards improving long-term performance of companies. It presents a multi-agent supply chain system composed of multiple software agents, each responsible for one or more supply chain activities, and each interacting with other agents in the execution of their responsibilities. Additionally, this paper presents the key features of a negotiation model for software agents. The model handles bilateral multi-issue negotiation and incorporates an alternating offers protocol, a set of logrolling strategies, and a set of negotiation tactics.
- Building a bridge: social networks aand technological regimes in biotechnology and softwarePublication . Salavisa, Isabel; Fontes, Margarida; Sousa, Cristina; Videira, Pedro
- Building innovation networks : the process of partner selection by young knowledge-intensive firmsPublication . Sousa, Cristina; Fontes, MargaridaThis paper addresses partner selection in innovation networks. It builds on the existing literature to develop an integrative framework that encompasses the main factors identified as influencing selection of innovation partners by young knowledge-intensive firms. It considers that both persistence and novelty are present in the network building process and that to fully understand the selection of innovation partners both aspects have to be considered. A framework is developed that integrates several arguments advanced in the literature to explain partner selection, namely social capital, imprinting and inertia for tie persistence, and network embeddedness and proximity for new tie selection. Using a rare event logit model, we estimate the likelihood of selecting a partner to access resources vital for innovation (both in aggregated terms and distinguishing between three resources - knowledge, complementary assets and credibility). The model is tested using data about the partnerships established by young Portuguese biotechnology firms, purposefully collected through questionnaire-based face-to-face interviews, complemented with documentary information. The results highlight the advantages of adopting an integrated framework that takes into account a variety of complementary explanations for both persistence and novelty, that tend to be addressed separately. They also uncover different network building strategies in terms of partner selection to access the different types of resources needed for innovation.
- Building innovation networks in sciencebased young firms : the selection of knowledge sourcesPublication . Sousa, Cristina; Fontes, MargaridaThe paper investigates the strategic choices made by young science-based firms’ regarding the selection of knowledge sources. Drawing on two streams of research – on alliances and on social networks – two different dimensions of this strategy are considered: the activation of the entrepreneurs’ social capital (versus the intentional inclusion of new knowledge sources) and the persistence of ties from start-up to the early growth phase. The data collected for a subset of the Portuguese biotechnology sector are analysed with a view to answer to four research questions: i) To what do extent firms’ rely on entrepreneurs’ personal networks, activating their social capital to access scientific and technological knowledge at start-up; ii) To what extent are new actors added to knowledge networks at start-up; iii) Are there differences between existing and new ties in terms of strength and formalisation?; iv) Is there tie persistence in knowledge networks between the start-up and the early growth phases? The results obtained confirm the consideration of the strategies underlying network building is vital for an understanding of the configuration of young science-based firms’ knowledge networks. They reveal the existence of different network building strategies and appear to indicate a tendency for continuity of attitudes over the companies’ life. They also suggest that differences in the network building strategies may be the behind the somewhat contradictory results presented in the literature about the network configuration that is more favourable for innovation
- Co-evolutionary dynamics of policy and system development : the case of marine renewable energy technologiesPublication . Fontes, Margarida; Karadzic, Vanja; Pereira, Tiago Santos; Bento, NunoABSTRACT: The transition to a sustainable energy system is a major societal challenge requiring profound trans-formations in existing socio-technical systems (Markard et al, 2012). These processes have been addressed by the sociotechnical transitions literature that called the attention to the role played by radically new technologies, being developed in niches, which have strong transformative potential (Kemp et al, 1998; Schot and Geels, 2007). These technologies and the socio-technical systems de-veloping around them often need temporary protection against the selection pressures of the estab-lished regimes (Smith and Raven, 2016); and supportive policies are a fundamental mode of protec-tion (Kivimaa and Kern, 2016). In the case of sustainable energy technologies, policy support is fur-ther justified by the need to accelerate the transition process (which is usually a long term process), given the urgency of fighting against climate change (IPCC, 2014).