Flexibility Management in Renewable Energy Source Operated Power Systems using Decision Support System

Renewable Energy Sources (RES) have taken on an increasingly important role in the energy mix in the last few years, and it has been forecasted that this trend will continue in the future. The energy production from these sources is not dispatchable, and the increasing penetration of RES in energy mixes may therefore lead to a progressive loss of generation control and predictability. It has become clear that, to reach higher RES penetration levels, it is essential to increase power system flexibility in order to ensure stable operations are maintained. An ICT (Information and Communication Technology) tool that may be used to manage and optimize the flexibility offered by energy storage and conversion systems is described in this paper with specific reference to the Decision Support System (DSS) developed within the H2020 PLANET (PLAnning and operational tools for optimizing energy flows and synergies between energy NETworks) project. The paper focuses on how the PLANET DSS tool evaluates, manages, and dispatches the flexibility of Power to Gas/Heat (P2X) technologies. Moreover, the tool has been used to analyze a realistic case in order to show how the PLANET DSS tool could be used to evaluate the energy and economic benefits of taking advantage of the flexibility of P2X technologies.

Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB)-based demand response for buildings, electric vehicles and prosumers (DAB-DSM)

Access to agricultural credit is one of the key factors that boost the adoption of technologies to improve agricultural production. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools have been referred to as essential channels in the dissemination of agricultural extension information. However, it has been observed that the majority of peasants were not using them to access the information. The aim of this study was to delineate the level of agricultural credit access, sources of the credit, amount of the credit accessed, and the correlation between access to the credit and the use of ICT tools in the extension services among peasants. A correlation research design was utilized in this study at Rangwe Sub-County, Kenya. Data were collected with the help of pretested structured questionnaire from 106 peasants who grow cassava in the Sub-County. The data obtained were analyzed using Spearman’s correlation and descriptive statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 25. Descriptive results revealed that 68% of the peasants interviewed had no access to the credit, while 32% had access. The majority (70%) of those who had the access received it from Saving and Credit Co-Operative (SACCOs). The majority (68%) received the lowest amount of credit. Spearman’s correlation revealed that there was a moderate, positive correlation between access to credit and the use of the ICT tools. The correlation was statistically significant at 1% level of significance (R = +.646**, P = .000, R2 =0.417). Access to credit appears to provide a positive and moderate correlation with the use of the ICT tools as it predicts 42% of the use of the tools in cassava production. The positive correlation coefficient indicates that an increase in access to agricultural credits among the peasants translates to an increase in the adoption of ICT tools in agricultural extension.

Aims: This study sought to determine selected demographic characteristics, the extent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools’ usage, opportunities in ICT, challenges in the use, strategies to improve the use, and the correlation between the selected demographic factors and ICT tools’ usage among peasants who produce cassava in Rangwe Sub-County, Kenya. Study Design: A correlation research design was used in this study conducted at Rangwe Sub-County, Kenya from 8th December 2021 to 14th January 2022.
 Methodology: The study gathered data with the aid of pretested structured questionnaire from 106 Cassava Peasants (CPs) who used or not used ICT tools in agricultural extension.
 Results: The response rate achieved was 100%. The majority of the CPs were female (62%), middle-aged (36-50 years), attained primary education (52%), and earned the lowest average annual income (X ≤ KES160, 000). The majority of ICT tools users in extension were males, elite, higher-income earners, and youths. The largest percentage of ICT tools users mentioned, ICT tools availability as one of the opportunities in ICT, expensiveness as the main challenge in the use, ICT services subsidies as one of the improvement strategies. Spearman’s correlation analysis showed that a correlation between the selected demographic factors and ICT tools’ usage was statistically significant at a 1% level of significance (P=.000).
 Conclusion: Adoption of ICT tools in agricultural extension services is directly proportional to income, gender equality, and education, while it is inversely proportional to age. The provision of supporting policies for the selected demographic factors, availability of training centers, and subsidized credit interest rate would increase ICT tools usage in extension.

In the context of the Philippine educational system, the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in various subjects is a growing trend that has the potential to enhance both teaching and learning processes. This study assessed the influence of the teachers’ attitudes and perceptions toward the integration of Information and Communication Technology tools in the selected upland elementary schools of Tabogon District, Tabogon, Cebu, for the school year 2024–2025 as the basis for a targeted intervention plan. The research design utilized a descriptive correlational research design. The weighted mean and the Pearson product-moment correlation r were also employed. The study revealed that there was no significant relationship between most of the respondents’ profile variables such as age, gender, highest educational attainment, number of years in teaching, learners’ general academic performance, and availability of ICT tools and their perceptions in all three aspects (challenges, benefits, and ethical considerations). In addition, it also concluded that variables such as age, gender, highest educational attainment, number of years in teaching, participation in ICT tools, learners’ general academic performance, and the availability of ICT tools do not significantly influence respondents’ attitudes in these three areas. Therefore, the researcher highly recommends applying the output of this study entitled “Intervention Plan on Enriching Attitudes and Perceptions Toward the Integration of Information and Communication Technology Tools and Academic Performance in EPP”.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is one of the important tools in today life in the world. It has been integrated everywhere in the human life and it made drastic changes in the field of Library Profession in recent era. This study investigates the Awareness of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Tools among the Engineering College Library Professional in Pondicherry by investigating the ICT infrastructure, current status of library automation, purpose of ICT tools, library professionals knowledge about ICT tools, problem facing use of ICT tools, To find out the type of training programs expected by the library professionals from library and barriers to acquiring ICT knowledge for library professionals.

ABSTRACTThe need for the education system to teach twenty-first century skills produces an emphasis on the teaching of first language (L1) writing on the assimilation into the teaching process of information and communications technology (ICT) tools that promote writing. The purposes of this study are to examine general aspects of the integration of ICT tools into teaching-learning-evaluation processes and the unique aspects of ICT tools relevant to teaching L1 writing. A research questionnaire was developed to examine the disciplinary aspect of teaching L1 writing alongside general aspects of integrating ICT into teaching. The research tool tested on 391 L1 secondary school teachers. The findings show that e teachers perceive themselves as having achieved some mastery of the ICT tools examined and that they agree with positive statements about the value of using ICT tools in L1 teaching. Although they sometimes-to-often use ICT tools to assess their students' writing, they make limited use of them to teach L1 writing. We suggest that there may be a disciplinary barrier to ICT tool use in teaching in the form of a lack of teacher appreciation that ICT tools can greatly promote the teaching of L1 writing.

Digital development for a progressive networked society

One hundred second-cycle school teachers in Ghana (average age 38) were surveyed to explore their access to and the use of information and communication technology (ICT) tools, and their level of competence. The Global Citizenship Survey instruments were adapted to collect the data. The study adopted the descriptive research design and data was analysed using descriptive statistics and Chi square test. The findings of the study showed that majority of the teachers have access to ICT tools such as computers, mobile phones, the Internet and personal digital assistants. In addition, the results indicated that majority of the teachers use 1) mobile phones and e-mail for social communication; 2) the Internet for research and professional development, and 3) computer for teaching and learning. Furthermore, according to the results of the study most of them possess high competence level in ICT applications such as word processing, the Internet, and e-mail; but have low competency in database and multimedia application software required for the design of 1) activities related to classroom management and assessment and 2) activities to cater for individual learners’ learning needs. The study provides new and relevant information for educational policy makers, practitioners, researchers and instructional design and technologists for effective planning and training towards successful implementation of ICT into education. Key words: Information and communication technology (ICT) integration, ICT use; access to ICT tools; ICT competence, second-cycle teachers; Ghana.

The article analyses the use of innovative tools and approaches based on information and communication technology (ICT) in inclusive education for students, including students with learning needs and learning difficulties in secondary school at the primary stage of education. The findings of the study contribute to the fact that innovative ICT-based approaches and tools, some of which are original developments, are gaining ground in the modern mainstream school. They have been used in the secondary school “Jordan Jovkov” – Sliven since April 2022. The study showed that they are preferred by pedagogical professionals – teachers, resource teachers and parents. The expert opinion of the school psychologist and resource teachers on the progress in personal development of students with whom the above approaches are worked on using information and communication technology tools is shared. It is shown that the use of own tools of information and communication technology in the work with students with learning needs and disabilities leads to results in the educational process and personal development

This paper proposed a concept of the Group Decision Support System (GDSS) to evaluate the performance of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Projects in Indonesian regional government agencies to overcome any possible inconsistencies which may occur in a decision-making process. By considering the aspect of the applicable legislation, decision makers involved to provide an assessment and evaluation of the ICT project implementation in regional government agencies consisted of Executing Parties of Government Institutions, ICT Management Work Units, Business Process Owner Units, and Society, represented by DPRD (Regional People’s Representative Assembly). The contributions of those decision makers in the said model were in the form of preferences to evaluate the ICT project-related alternatives based on the predetermined criteria for the method of Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). This research presented a GDSS framework integrating the Methods of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Copeland Score. The AHP method was used to generate values for the criteria used as input in the calculation process of the TOPSIS method. Results of the TOPSIS calculation generated a project rank indicated by each decision maker, and to combine the different preferences of these decision makers, the Copeland Score method was used as one of the voting methods to determine the best project rank of all the ranks indicated by the desicion makers.

Several educational organizations provide Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tool registries to support educators when selecting ICT tools for their classrooms. A common problem is how to populate these registries with descriptions of ICT tools that can be useful for education. This paper proposes to tackle it taking advantage of the information already published in the Web of Data, following a Linked-Data approach. For this purpose, SEEK-AT-WD is proposed as an infrastructure that automatically retrieves ICT tool descriptions from the Web and publishes them back once they are related to an educational vocabulary. A working prototype containing 3556 descriptions of ICT tools is presented. These descriptions can be accessed either from a web interface or through a search client that has also been developed. The potential of the proposal is discussed by means of a feature analysis involving educators, data publishers and registry administrators. Results show that it is much easier to update the data associated to SEEK-AT-WD in comparison to other approaches, while educators obtain from a single registry thousands of tool descriptions collected from the Web.

Objective: The objective of the paper is to investigate the influence of deployment of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in a supply chain context. Methods/Analysis: The influence of deployment of ICT in Supply Chain Management (SCM) is studied using System Dynamics (SD) methodology using the tool, Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) using software Vensim. Findings: SCM discipline is grappled with dynamic and operational changes and challenges and this unpredictability can be understood better using SD. ICT capabilities fundamentally improve supply chain integration and performance. ICT adoption for SCM improves collaboration, workflow and decision-making which lead to cost savings; improved operational efficiency and inventory visibility. One process in SCM namely inventory control is described using SD. Introduction of a parameter, ICT capability dramatically changes the context and gives rise to new positive feedback loops Novelty/Improvements: The paper uses CLD for ICT influence on SCM process of inventory control. This can be extended for all supply chain management processes in both planning and execution. Case studies with the influence of specific ICT tools like RFID, Cloud, Social Media, Business Analytics, Mobile technology and Multi-agent systems are also possibilities for extending the study. Supply chain managers can deliberate on decisions, strategy, issues and policy by developing scenarios using SD tools and software packages. However the research limitation is that this is a simulation in a specific supply chain context. Generalization of this scenario may not be possibleKeywords: Causal Loop Diagram (CLD), Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Inventory, Supply Chain Management (SCM) ICT, System Dynamics (SD)

The increasing integration of massive quantities of generation from Renewable Energy Sources (RES) constitutes a challenge for the pan-European system. Reserve provision for the balancing of the network is an important service that, in principle, should be provided by all the units connected to the network, including RES generators themselves as well as flexible loads and storage systems. However, these resources have big peculiarities tied with their relevant technologies and could, beyond providing local services within the distribution grids (e.g. voltage regulation, congestion management), be available to provide reserve for the entire system, through the connection points to the transmission grid. This paper shows a more advanced dispatching management of distribution systems by resorting to more advanced Information and Communications Technology(ICT) systems able to transform distribution from a "passive" into an "active" system and market architectures able to incorporate scattered bids coming from distributed generation and active load. A delicate point is the interface between transmission and distribution that has to be managed in a coordinated manner between Transmission System Operators (TSO) and Distribution System Operators (DSOs) in order to achieve an overall efficiency target. ICT should also be key to allow a strict real-time coordination of the different subjects that are in charge to actuate the provision of ancillary services. Further, the paper shows as new actors could appear in the system like the "aggregators" who interface with the Market Operator to submit the bids for the provision of the services, with the local TSO to receive the consequent dispatching orders, with to the aggregated distributed resources (generation, flexible demand, storage) and with to the involved DSOs, in order to communicate how each dispatching order will in turn be dispatched among the distributed resources it aggregates.

Renewable energy sources are currently presented as an economically viable and environmentally safe option in the near future. A major constraint to the incorporation of wind and solar generation at large scale is the increase of variability in the power system. To assure the perpetual balance between power production and gross consumption a significant improvement on power systems flexibility is required. Such flexibility in the power system can be achieved by two options on the demand side through demand response obtained through industrial processes: Storage and Substitution. The power system model in study contemplates the purchase of electricity from the Dutch Balancing Market. The electricity prices of the Balancing Market are considered unpredictable. The storage system is characterized by the size of the storage tank and by ramp up/down rates, reflecting the changing speed of the production levels. The substitution system is characterized by the ramp rate of substitution between electricity and an alternative energy carrier as input. The impact of the parameters on the Power System Flexibility when connected to the balancing market under several scenarios was analyzed by Linny-R, a software tool that applies Linear Programming optimization. For the storage system a bigger tank size, a higher ramp rate and a high level of predictability will increase the flexibility of the system. As the actual predictability of the balancing market is limited, the flexibility is limited too, which makes the storage system a questionable option. For the substitution system flexibility is increased by a higher ramp. The effect of the predictability is less dominant, which makes substitution a suitable flexibility enabler for the current Dutch market system. In this context, a restructure of the energy markets, considering the prices predictability, is suggested, as a way of easing the penetration of renewable energy sources.