The Energy Switch

The Energy Switch
Author: Peter Kelly-Detwiler
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2021-06-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1633886670

The energy industry is changing, and it’s far more than just solar panels. Electric vehicles look to overtake gasoline-powered cars within our lifetimes, wind farms are popping up in unlikely places, traders are transforming energy into a commodity, and supercomputers are crunching vast amounts of data in nanoseconds while helping to keep our energy grids secure from hackers. The way humans produce, distribute and consume power will be cleaner, cheaper, and infinitely more complex within the next decade. In The Energy Switch, leading energy industry expert Peter Kelly-Detwilerlooks at all aspects of the transformation: how we got here, where we are going, and the implications for all of us in our daily lives. Kelly-Detwiler takes readers to the frontlines of the energy revolution. Meet Steve Collins, an executive from Commercial Development Corporation, the company that blew up two $570-million-dollar concrete cooling towers to create a staging ground for the new $70 billion U.S. offshore wind industry; Rob Threlkeld, a General Motors executive who convinced the auto giant to sign multiple 20-year renewable energy contracts worth hundreds of millions; Kevin McAlpin, a Texas homeowner who buys the power for his home on the electricity spot market – where prices can soar from less than one cent a kilowatthour to $9.00 over the course of a single day; Dr. Kristin Persson, who oversees a supercomputer that can process data at 30 quadrillion calculations per second, in the quest for better renewable energy and battery technologies; and John Davis, a Texas rancher who can keep his land intact, with help from the royalty payments from seven turbines spinning on his range. Energy creation and distribution has driven society’s progress for centuries. Today, people are increasingly aware that it is imperative that humans move towards a cleaner, digitized, and democratized energy economy. The Energy Switch is about that multi-trillion dollar transformation, told from the perspective of those leading us to that bright future.

POWER THEFT, Fourth edition

POWER THEFT, Fourth edition
Author: G. SREENIVASAN
Publisher: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2016-09-14
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 8120352815

Power theft is a silent crime that causes huge loss of revenue to power utilities. Despite advanced managerial and technical efforts to crack down on power thieves, power distribution entities are struggling hard to constrain the unscrupulous ways used to steal power. There is no panacea for curbing power theft, and utilities have to develop their own ways. This book presents a vivid account of technical and administrative solutions that can go a long way in nipping the problem in bud. The most striking feature of the book is that it uses suitable photographs to analyse the problems from various angles. It provides graphic description of the modus operandi of power thieves and uncovers their cleverness and imagination in pilfering electricity. This book is primarily intended for the undergraduate students of electrical engineering or electrical and electronics engineering. Besides, it is also useful for the professionals engaged in electricity distribution sector, power utilities, power training institutes, energy auditors and law enforcement authorities. WHAT’S NEW TO THE FOURTH EDITION? • Incorporates the latest developments and information of the field with updated data. • Covers a new chapter on Demand Side Management (DSM), which has now become a mandatory topic of assignment for utilities across the world. • Provides references to judicial decisions on ‘Mandatory Registration of FIR in Cognizable Offence’ and ‘Whether Amendment made to Electricity Act is applicable to pending cases’.

Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems

Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems
Author: Leonard Barolli
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 761
Release: 2021-06-29
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3030797252

This book includes the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Complex, Intelligent, and Software Intensive Systems, which took place in Asan, Korea, on July 1–3, 2021. Software intensive systems are systems, which heavily interact with other systems, sensors, actuators, devices, and other software systems and users. More and more domains are involved with software intensive systems, e.g., automotive, telecommunication systems, embedded systems in general, industrial automation systems, and business applications. Moreover, the outcome of web services delivers a new platform for enabling software intensive systems. Complex systems research is focused on the overall understanding of systems rather than its components. Complex systems are very much characterized by the changing environments in which they act by their multiple internal and external interactions. They evolve and adapt through internal and external dynamic interactions. The development of intelligent systems and agents, which is each time more characterized by the use of ontologies and their logical foundations build a fruitful impulse for both software intensive systems and complex systems. Recent research in the field of intelligent systems, robotics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and cognitive sciences is very important factor for the future development and innovation of software intensive and complex systems. The aim of the book is to deliver a platform of scientific interaction between the three interwoven challenging areas of research and development of future ICT-enabled applications: Software intensive systems, complex systems, and intelligent systems.

Non-payment in the Electricity Sector in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union

Non-payment in the Electricity Sector in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union
Author:
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 136
Release: 1999-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780821345429

"In Albania, consumers with guns stolen from the government threatened to shoot the utility officials who attempted to disconnect defaulting customers." This situation and others less dramatic, but every bit as corrupt, aggravated the utility non-payment issue and pushed it into the foreground. This study reviews the non-payment problem in the electricity sector in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union during 1990-1997. In addition to non-payment, the review also covers the problem of low cash collections and the preference in some countries for the use of cash substitutes such as barters, offsets, and promissory notes. The objective of the study is to identify which policies and measures addressing the problem of non-payment in the electricity sector worked in practice and which did not. Therefore, it includes stories of both success and failure. It is aimed at equipping Bank staff and decision makers with a set of practical tools that can be of use when the political will exists to tackle the problem.

Thirst

Thirst
Author: Alan Snitow
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2007-06-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780787996512

Out of sight of most Americans, global corporations likeNestlé, Suez, and Veolia are rapidly buying up our local watersources—lakes, streams, and springs—and taking controlof public water services. In their drive to privatize and commodifywater, they have manipulated and bought politicians, clinchedbackroom deals, and subverted the democratic process by trying todeny citizens a voice in fundamental decisions about their mostessential public resource. The authors' PBS documentary Thirst showed howcommunities around the world are resisting the privatization andcommodification of water. Thirst, the book,picks up where the documentary left off, revealing the emergence ofcontroversial new water wars in the United States and showing howcommunities here are fighting this battle, often against companiesheadquartered overseas. Read areview...http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/18/RVGS9OHPKT1.DTL

Smart Meter Data Analytics

Smart Meter Data Analytics
Author: Yi Wang
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2020-02-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9811526249

This book aims to make the best use of fine-grained smart meter data to process and translate them into actual information and incorporated into consumer behavior modeling and distribution system operations. It begins with an overview of recent developments in smart meter data analytics. Since data management is the basis of further smart meter data analytics and its applications, three issues on data management, i.e., data compression, anomaly detection, and data generation, are subsequently studied. The following works try to model complex consumer behavior. Specific works include load profiling, pattern recognition, personalized price design, socio-demographic information identification, and household behavior coding. On this basis, the book extends consumer behavior in spatial and temporal scale. Works such as consumer aggregation, individual load forecasting, and aggregated load forecasting are introduced. We hope this book can inspire readers to define new problems, apply novel methods, and obtain interesting results with massive smart meter data or even other monitoring data in the power systems.

The Grammar of Caste

The Grammar of Caste
Author: Ashwini Deshpande
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2011-08-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0199088462

Is the caste system disappearing? Are traditional hierarchies being replaced by competing equalities? Do globalization and liberalization automatically result in diminishing disparities? Are modern labour markets intrinsically meritocratic and efficient? Challenging the dominant discourse and demolishing various myths, this book provides answers to these and other critical questions on caste in its contemporary avatar. Linking the economics of caste with its politics, sociology, and history, this innovative book provides a stimulating assessment of continuities and changes in caste disparities over the last two decades. Deshpande uses rich empirical data to uncover how contemporary, formal, urban sector labour markets reflect a deep awareness of caste, religious, gender, and class cleavages. She convincingly argues that discrimination is neither a relic of the past nor is it confined to rural areas, but is very much a modern, formal sector phenomenon. This insightful book is an important step towards a multidisciplinary dialogue for understanding (and mitigating) inequalities based on birth and descent.

Cargo Crime

Cargo Crime
Author: John J. Coughlin
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2012-10-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1466512466

Cargo crime including theft, fraud, and the passage of contraband through commercial shipping lanes poses an enormous threat to security and the economy. By understanding the current methods and operations of those who attack the supply chain, industry professionals can design effective security plans and law enforcement can properly investigate th

Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems

Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems
Author: Leonard Barolli
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 629
Release: 2020-06-10
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3030504549

This book explores three interwoven and challenging areas of research and development for future ICT-enabled applications: software intensive systems, complex systems and intelligent systems. Software intensive systems are systems that extensively interact with other systems, sensors, actuators, devices and users. More and more domains are now employing software intensive systems, e.g. the automotive sector, telecommunication systems, embedded systems in general, industrial automation systems and business applications. Moreover, the outcome of web services offers a new platform for enabling software intensive systems. Complex systems research is focused on the overall understanding of systems rather than their components. Complex systems are very much characterized by the changing environments in which they operate through their multiple internal and external interactions. They evolve and adapt through (internal and external) dynamic interactions. The development of intelligent systems and agents, which is increasingly characterized by the use of ontologies, can be beneficial for software intensive systems and complex systems alike. Accordingly, recent research in the areas of intelligent systems, robotics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and the cognitive sciences is essential to the future development of software intensive and complex systems.