An assessment of the tools of incentive regulation in electricity networks

Author(s):  
Haikel Khalfallah ◽  
Jean-Michel Glachant

Network regulation is playing an active role in a context of restructuring energy systems for long term transition to a smart grid. Regulation of network companies' activities should consider both cost efficiency objectives and other objectives such as quality and network innovation. It is in this context that incentive regulation tools are discussed and assessed in this paper. The aim is to show their key features and how they could be aligned with the main regulation goals. This paper concludes that they should be considered as complementary tools to address conflicting regulatory aspects in an efficient manner.

Author(s):  
Richard Foley

This book, based on a philosopher’s experiences as dean over almost two decades, argues it is appropriate for the sciences and humanities to have different aims and for the values informing their inquiries also to be different. It maintains there are four core differences: (1) it is proper for the sciences but not the humanities to seek insights not limited to particular locations, times, or things; (2) the sciences but not the humanities value findings as independent as possible of the perspectives of the inquirers; (3) the sciences should be wholly descriptive while the humanities can also be concerned with prescriptive claims, which give expression to values; and (4) the sciences are organized to increase collective knowledge, whereas in the humanities individual insight is highly valued independently of its ability to generate consensus. Associated with these differences are secondary distinctions: different attitudes about an endpoint of inquiry; different notions of intellectual progress; different roles for expertise; different assumptions about simplicity and complexity; and different approaches to issues associated with consciousness. Taken together these distinctions constitute an intellectual geography of the humanities and sciences: a mapping of key features of their epistemology. In addition, the book discusses the role of universities in an era attached to sound bites and immediately useful results, and the importance of there being a healthy culture of research for both the sciences and humanities, one that treasures long-term intellectual achievements and whose presiding value is that with respect to many issues it ought not to be easy to have opinions.


2021 ◽  
pp. jnnp-2020-324005
Author(s):  
Klaus Fassbender ◽  
Fatma Merzou ◽  
Martin Lesmeister ◽  
Silke Walter ◽  
Iris Quasar Grunwald ◽  
...  

Since its first introduction in clinical practice in 2008, the concept of mobile stroke unit enabling prehospital stroke treatment has rapidly expanded worldwide. This review summarises current knowledge in this young field of stroke research, discussing topics such as benefits in reduction of delay before treatment, vascular imaging-based triage of patients with large-vessel occlusion in the field, differential blood pressure management or prehospital antagonisation of anticoagulants. However, before mobile stroke units can become routine, several questions remain to be answered. Current research, therefore, focuses on safety, long-term medical benefit, best setting and cost-efficiency as crucial determinants for the sustainability of this novel strategy of acute stroke management.


Author(s):  
Ziqing Yao ◽  
Xuanyi Lin ◽  
Xiaoqing Hu

Abstract When people are confronted with feedback that counters their prior beliefs, they preferentially rely on desirable rather than undesirable feedback in belief updating, i.e. an optimism bias. In two pre-registered EEG studies employing an adverse life event probability estimation task, we investigated the neurocognitive processes that support the formation and the change of optimism biases in immediate and 24 h delayed tests. We found that optimistic belief updating biases not only emerged immediately but also became significantly larger after 24 h, suggesting an active role of valence-dependent offline consolidation processes in the change of optimism biases. Participants also showed optimistic memory biases: they were less accurate in remembering undesirable than desirable feedback probabilities, with inferior memories of undesirable feedback associated with lower belief updating in the delayed test. Examining event-related brain potentials (ERPs) revealed that desirability of feedback biased initial encoding: desirable feedback elicited larger P300s than undesirable feedback, with larger P300 amplitudes predicting both higher belief updating and memory accuracies. These results suggest that desirability of feedback could bias both online and offline memory-related processes such as encoding and consolidation, with both processes contributing to the formation and change of optimism biases.


2021 ◽  
Vol 292 ◽  
pp. 116880
Author(s):  
Iris van Beuzekom ◽  
Bri-Mathias Hodge ◽  
Han Slootweg

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olayinka S. Ohunakin ◽  
Muyiwa S. Adaramola ◽  
Olanrewaju M. Oyewola ◽  
Richard L. Fagbenle ◽  
Fidelis I. Abam

Computer simulation of buildings and solar energy systems are being used increasingly in energy assessments and design. This paper evaluates the typical meteorological year (TMY) for Sokoto, northwest region, Nigeria, using 23-year hourly weather data including global solar radiation, dew point temperature, mean temperature, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed. Filkenstein-Schafer statistical method was utilized for the creation of a TMY for the site. The persistence of mean dry bulb temperature and daily global horizontal radiation on the five candidate months were evaluated. TMY predictions were compared with the 23-year long-term average values and are found to have close agreement and can be used in building energy simulation for comparative energy efficiency study.


Author(s):  
Sharma Shubham ◽  
Lei Shi ◽  
Xun Wu

Bureaucracy is one of the oldest institutions of a government system. Its role and importance have grown immensely in modern government systems. Bureaucrats or public administrators are indispensable in the policy decision making process in the 21st century. From the early conception as a branch of government responsible for the implementation of policy decisions and everyday functioning, bureaucracy has assumed a more active role in the policymaking process. It has gone through many reforms; however, these reforms have been largely incremental and static. While the external environment or the problems faced by bureaucracy is continuously evolving, the change in bureaucracy has not been in the same proportion. In the 21st century, many issues confronting bureaucracy are not only wicked but also global in nature. Moreover, challenges posed by technological disruptions and long-term processes such as climate change put bureaucracy at all levels of a government in a far trickier position than their earlier envisaged basic functions. In dealing with such challenges, the policy capacity of bureaucracy cannot be taken for granted. There are often significant gaps in capacity to anticipate a policy problem, to ensure coordination and preserve legitimacy, to translate global issues at local levels, and to learn from the past. It is crucial to strengthen analytical capacity at the individual and organizational level, operational capacity at the organizational level, and political capacity at the systems level to address these gaps. Tackling capacity gaps systematically would enable bureaucracy to design and implement policy and administrative reforms with a long-term vision of adaptation and evolution instead of merely in reactive mode. The policy capacity framework presented in this article is useful in identifying the capacity gaps that inhibit bureaucracy from evolving and the remedies to address these gaps.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Navendu Prakash ◽  
Shveta Singh ◽  
Seema Sharma

PurposeThis paper empirically examines the short-term and long-term associations between risk, capital and efficiency (R-C-E) in the Indian banking sector across 2008–2019 to answer the presence of causation or contemporaneousness in the R-C-E nexus.Design/methodology/approachThe paper focuses on three objectives. First, the authors determine short-term causality in the risk–efficiency relationship by studying the simultaneous influence of a wide array of banking risks on DEA-based technical and cost efficiency in static and dynamic situations. Second, the authors introduce bank capital and contemporaneously determine the interplay between R-C-E using seemingly unrelated regression equation (SURE) and three-staged least squares (3SLS). Last, the authors assess stability in inter-temporal associations using Granger causality in an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) generalized method of moments (GMM) framework.FindingsThe authors contend that high capital buffers reduce insolvency risk and increase bank stability. Technically efficient banks carry lesser equity buffers, suggesting a trade-off between capital and efficiency. However, capitalization makes banks more technically efficient but not cost-efficient, implying that over-capitalization creates cost inefficiencies, which, in line with the cost skimping hypothesis, forces banks to undertake risk. Concerning causal relationships, the authors conclude that inefficiency Granger-causes insolvency and increases bank risk. Further, steady increases in capital precede technical and cost efficiency improvements. The converse also holds as more efficient banks depict temporal increases in capitalization levels.Originality/valueThe paper is perhaps the first that acknowledges the influence of the “time” perspective on the R-C-E nexus in an emerging economy and advocates that prudential regulations must focus on short-term and long-term intricacies among the triumvirate to foster a stable banking environment.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Hendraningrat

In low oil price environments, conducting affordable enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects can be very challenging. One item of interest for successful future EOR should be in how produced fluids are treated and how to achieve cost-efficiency. Nanoflooding, is an emerging EOR technique, which has attracted deployment in recent years. Meanwhile, Indonesia continues to progress towards the national oil and gas production target of one million barrels per day by 2030. This paper presents the observation of opportunities and challenges of using nanoflooding to enable oil and gas production in Indonesia to achieve its desired targets. The study began by mapping the pain points in major oilfields in Indonesia. We observed and discussed the advantage and limitation of traditional mature EOR techniques, status, and ongoing application of EOR in Indonesia. Then, we briefly explained the main reasons why nanoflooding can be considered for future implementation in accelerating oil production in Indonesia, including a discussion about a successful pilot test. As an emerging EOR technique, nanoflooding can be considered as a cost-efficient technique. Silica-based nanofluid can be accessed in a cost-efficient manner and can be executed from an implementation standpoint considering surface facilities. The mechanism that is introduced can help to displace incremental oil more effectively since it can go inside pore throats due to the nano-size. We observed several recognized benefits and challenges to deploy nanoflooding in Indonesia. Based on this study, nanoflooding is very attractive and has potential to be implemented.


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