Construction costs and operating characteristics of vintage trolleys : final report /

"March 1992."

Investigation of factors driving the costs of operating the 2020 Irish power system with large-scale wind generation

The main goal of this work is to determine the true cost incurred by the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in order to meet their EU renewable electricity targets. The primary all-island of Ireland policy goal is that 40% of electricity will come from renewable sources in 2020. From this it is expected that wind generation on the Irish electricity system will be in the region of 32-37% of total generation. This leads to issues resulting from wind energy being a non-synchronous, unpredictable and variable source of energy use on a scale never seen before for a single synchronous system. If changes are not made to traditional operational practices, the efficient running of the electricity system will be directly affected by these issues in the coming years. Using models of the electricity system for the all-island grid of Ireland, the effects of high wind energy penetration expected to be present in 2020 are examined. These models were developed using a unit commitment, economic dispatch tool called PLEXOS which allows for a detailed representation of the electricity system to be achieved down to individual generator level. These models replicate the true running of the electricity system through use of day-ahead scheduling and semi-relaxed use of these schedules that reflects the Transmission System Operator's of real time decision making on dispatch. In addition, it carefully considers other non-wind priority dispatch generation technologies that have an effect on the overall system. In the models developed, three main issues associated with wind energy integration were selected to be examined in detail to determine the sensitivity of assumptions presented in other studies. These three issues include wind energy's non-synchronous nature, its variability and spatial correlation, and its unpredictability. This leads to an examination of the effects in three areas: the need for system operation constraints required for system security; different onshore to offshore ratios of installed wind energy; and the degrees of accuracy in wind energy forecasting. Each of these areas directly impact the way in which the electricity system is run as they address each of the three issues associated with wind energy stated above, respectively. It is shown that assumptions in these three areas have a large effect on the results in terms of total generation costs, wind curtailment and generator technology type dispatch. In particular accounting for these issues has resulted in wind curtailment being predicted in much larger quantities than had been previously reported. This would have a large effect on wind energy companies because it is already a very low profit margin industry. Results from this work have shown that the relaxation of system operation constraints is crucial to the economic running of the electricity system with large improvements shown in the reduction of wind curtailment and system generation costs. There are clear benefits in having a proportion of the wind installed offshore in Ireland which would help to reduce variability of wind energy generation on the system and therefore reduce wind curtailment. With envisaged future improvements in day-ahead wind forecasting from 8% to 4% mean absolute error, there are potential reductions in wind curtailment system costs and open cycle gas turbine usage. This work illustrates the consequences of assumptions in the areas of system operation constraints, onshore/offshore installed wind capacities and accuracy in wind forecasting to better inform the true costs associated with running Ireland's changing electricity system as it continues to decarbonise into the near future. This work also proposes to illustrate, through the use of Ireland as a case study, the effects that will become ever more prevalent in other synchronous systems as they pursue a path of increasing renewable energy generation.

THE COSTS OF RAISING EQUITY RATIO FOR BANKS Evidence from publicly listed banks operating in Finland

The solvency rate of banks differs from the other corporations. The equity rate of a bank is lower than it is in corporations of other field of business. However, functional banking industry has huge impact on the whole society. The equity rate of a bank needs to be higher because that makes the banking industry more stable as the probability of the banks going under will decrease. If a bank goes belly up, the government will be compensating the deposits since it has granted the bank’s depositors a deposit insurance. This means that the payment comes from the tax payers in the last resort. Economic conversation has long concentrated on the costs of raising equity ratio. It has been a common belief that raising equity ratio also increases the banks’ funding costs in the same phase and these costs will be redistributed to the banks customers as higher service charges. Regardless of the common belief, the actual reaction of the funding costs to the higher equity ratio has been studied only a little in Europe and no study has been constructed in Finland. Before it can be calculated whether the higher stability of the banking industry that is caused by the raise in equity levels compensates the extra costs in funding costs, it must be calculated how much the actual increase in the funding costs is. Currently the banking industry is controlled by complex and heavy regulation. To maintain such a complex system inflicts major costs in itself. This research leans on the Modigliani and Miller theory, which shows that the finance structure of a firm is irrelevant to their funding costs. In addition, this research follows the calculations of Miller, Yang ja Marcheggianon (2012) and Vale (2011) where they calculate the funding costs after the doubling of specific banks’ equity ratios. The Finnish banks studied in this research are Nordea and Danske Bank because they are the two largest banks operating in Finland and they both also have the right company form to able the calculations. To calculate the costs of halving their leverages this study used the Capital Asset Pricing Model. The halving of the leverage of Danske Bank raised its funding costs for 16—257 basis points depending on the method of assessment. For Nordea the increase in funding costs was 11—186 basis points when its leverage was halved. On the behalf of the results found in this study it can be said that the doubling of an equity ratio does not increase the funding costs of a bank one by one. Actually the increase is quite modest. More solvent banks would increase the stability of the banking industry enormously while the increase in funding costs is low. If the costs of bank regulation exceeds the increase in funding costs after the higher equity ratio, it can be thought that this is the better way of stabilizing the banking industry rather than heavy regulation.

THE COSTS OF RAISING EQUITY RATIO FOR BANKS Evidence from publicly listed banks operating in Finland

The solvency rate of banks differs from the other corporations. The equity rate of a bank is lower than it is in corporations of other field of business. However, functional banking industry has huge impact on the whole society. The equity rate of a bank needs to be higher because that makes the banking industry more stable as the probability of the banks going under will decrease. If a bank goes belly up, the government will be compensating the deposits since it has granted the bank’s depositors a deposit insurance. This means that the payment comes from the tax payers in the last resort. Economic conversation has long concentrated on the costs of raising equity ratio. It has been a common belief that raising equity ratio also increases the banks’ funding costs in the same phase and these costs will be redistributed to the banks customers as higher service charges. Regardless of the common belief, the actual reaction of the funding costs to the higher equity ratio has been studied only a little in Europe and no study has been constructed in Finland. Before it can be calculated whether the higher stability of the banking industry that is caused by the raise in equity levels compensates the extra costs in funding costs, it must be calculated how much the actual increase in the funding costs is. Currently the banking industry is controlled by complex and heavy regulation. To maintain such a complex system inflicts major costs in itself. This research leans on the Modigliani and Miller theory, which shows that the finance structure of a firm is irrelevant to their funding costs. In addition, this research follows the calculations of Miller, Yang ja Marcheggianon (2012) and Vale (2011) where they calculate the funding costs after the doubling of specific banks’ equity ratios. The Finnish banks studied in this research are Nordea and Danske Bank because they are the two largest banks operating in Finland and they both also have the right company form to able the calculations. To calculate the costs of halving their leverages this study used the Capital Asset Pricing Model. The halving of the leverage of Danske Bank raised its funding costs for 16—257 basis points depending on the method of assessment. For Nordea the increase in funding costs was 11—186 basis points when its leverage was halved. On the behalf of the results found in this study it can be said that the doubling of an equity ratio does not increase the funding costs of a bank one by one. Actually the increase is quite modest. More solvent banks would increase the stability of the banking industry enormously while the increase in funding costs is low. If the costs of bank regulation exceeds the increase in funding costs after the higher equity ratio, it can be thought that this is the better way of stabilizing the banking industry rather than heavy regulation.

Operating space diagrams: a tool for designers of wastewater treatment plants

Recent years have seen the introduction of new and varied designs of activated sludge plants. With increasing needs for higher efficiencies and lower costs, the possibility of a plant that operates more effectively has created the need for tools that can be used to evaluate and compare designs at the design stage. One such tool is the operating space diagram. It is the aim of this paper to present this tool and demonstrate its application and relevance to design using a simple case study. In the case study, use of the operating space diagram suggested changes in design that would improve the flexibility of the process. It also was useful for designing suitable control strategies.

Run-time monitoring in real-time operating systems

Embedded systems are increasingly complex and dynamic, imposing progressively higher developing time and costs. Tuning a particular system for deployment is thus becoming more demanding. Furthermore when considering systems which have to adapt themselves to evolving requirements and changing service requests. In this perspective, run-time monitoring of the system behaviour becomes an important requirement, allowing to dynamically capturing the actual scheduling progress and resource utilization. For this to succeed, operating systems need to expose their internal behaviour and state, making it available to external applications, and a runtime monitoring mechanism must be available. However, such mechanism can impose a burden in the system itself if not wisely used. In this paper we explore this problem and propose a framework, which is intended to provide this run-time mechanism whilst achieving code separation, run-time efficiency and flexibility for the final developer.

Competition policy costs to firms

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Economics from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

A flexible navigation system for autonomous robots operating in heterogeneous environments

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores

Competition policy costs to firms

The existence of competition policy forces companies to adjust their behaviour. This is also costly. Using a database from a company on contracts, I will try to estimate if a specific competition policy disposition, supply contracts cannot be longer than 60 months, has costs for the coffee suppliers operating in the Portuguese “on-trade” coffee market. The estimation method used in this paper will be OLS. The results suggest that limiting the duration of exclusivity contracts to 60 months can be harmful to the coffee suppliers and it can even seriously affect the market functioning. Key

Who Ultimately Bears the Burden of Greater Non-Wage Labour costs?

We investigate the effect of a rise in non-wage labour costs (NWLC) on real anufacturing labour costs in OECD countries, taking into account the degree of coordination in the wage bargaining process. We find that, in countries in which wage bargaining is not highly coordinated, 55% of an increase in NWLC appears to be shifted to workers in the long run, whereas in countries operating under a highly coordinated bargaining regime, full shifting occurs. Overall, our results suggest that high NWLC can be associated with a high equilibrium unemployment rate, but only in those OECD countries that do not have highly coordinated wage bargaining.

Monitoring System Resources During Automated Testing in Symbian Operating System

Tässä diplomityössä esitellään ohjelmistotestauksen ja verifioinnin yleisiä periaatteita sekä käsitellään tarkemmin älypuhelinohjelmistojen verifiointia. Työssä esitellään myös älypuhelimissa käytettävä Symbian-käyttöjärjestelmä. Työn käytännön osuudessa suunniteltiin ja toteutettiin Symbian-käyttöjärjestelmässä toimiva palvelin, joka tarkkailee ja tallentaa järjestelmäresurssien käyttöä. Verifiointi on tärkeä ja kuluja aiheuttava tehtävä älypuhelinohjelmistojen kehityssyklissä. Kuluja voidaan vähentää automatisoimalla osa verifiointiprosessista. Toteutettu palvelin automatisoijärjestelmäresurssien tarkkailun tallentamalla tietoja niistä tiedostoon testien ajon aikana. Kun testit ajetaan uudestaan, uusia tuloksia vertaillaan lähdetallenteeseen. Jos tulokset eivät ole käyttäjän asettamien virherajojen sisällä, siitä ilmoitetaan käyttäjälle. Virherajojen ja lähdetallenteen määrittäminen saattaa osoittautua vaikeaksi. Kuitenkin, jos ne määritetään sopivasti, palvelin tuottaa hyödyllistä tietoa poikkeamista järjestelmäresurssien kulutuksessa testaajille.

Production costs and fruit yield profitability in the initial harvest of custard apple trees

The aim of this study was to estimate the production cost and economic indicators associated with the production and sales of fruits from 20 custard apple progenies during the initial five harvests, in order to identify the harvest season from which custard apple exploitation becomes profitable, as well as the most promising progenies from an economic point of view. The fruit yield data upon which the present work was based were obtained during the period from 2001 to 2005, in an experiment that evaluated 20 custard apple half-sibling progenies, under sprinkler irrigation. The progenies were evaluated in a random block design with five replicates and plots consisting of four plants each. The exploitation of custard apple progenies only showed to be a profitable agribusiness after the fourth year. Before that, only A3 and A4 progenies in the second year, and P3 and P11 in the third year provided profitable incomes. Considering the methodological assumptions imposed concerning the time period analysis and the prices as of July 2007, the most important profitability indicators (operating profit, return index and equilibrium price) evidenced that the A4 progeny is the most recommended, although other progenies are also highlighted, such as FJ1 and FJ2. As already discussed, the progenies showing the highest average yields of five harvests are not always the most economically recommendable ones.

Reusable Bluetooth Networking Component for Symbian Operating System

Tässä diplomityössä käsitellään eri näkökulmia ohjelmistojen uudelleenkäyttöön sekä esitellään perustiedot langattomiin laitteisiin käytettävästä Symbian-käyttöjärjestelmästä ja langattomasta Bluetooth-teknologiasta. Työn käytännön osuudessa suunniteltiin ja toteutettiin uudelleenkäytettävä Bluetooth-ohjelmistokomponentti Symbiankäyttöjärjestelmälle. Ohjelmistojen uudelleenkäytön edut ovat erittäin selkeitä. Uudelleenkäytettävät ohjelmistokomponentit parantavat ohjelmiston laatua ja suorituskykyä. Ohjelmistotuotteiden tuotekehityssykliä voidaan lyhentää merkittävästi ja kehitystyön kokonaiskustannuksia voidaan alentaa tehokkaalla uudelleenkäyttöohjelmalla. Kuitenkin uudelleenkäytöllä on myös esteitä, esimerkkeinä näistä ovat mm. resurssien puute, koulutus sekä uudelleenkäytön vastaiset asenteet. Bluetooth-teknologia on kypsynyt viimeisen kahden vuoden aikana, kun markkinoille on tullut yhä enemmän Bluetooth-laitteita ja niitä käyttäviä sovelluksia. Kehitetty komponentti tarjoaa perustoiminnallisuudet Bluetooth-yhteyksien muodostamiselle ja datan siirtämiselle laitteiden välillä.

Mobile Subscription Acquisition and Retention Costs - An Actvity-Based Model

The objective of this master’s thesis was to develop a model for mobile subscription acquisition cost, SAC, and mobile subscription retention cost, SRC, by applying activity-based cost accounting principles. The thesis was conducted as a case study for a telecommunication company operating on the Finnish telecommunication market. In addition to activity-based cost accounting there were other theories studied and applied in order to establish a theory framework for this thesis. The concepts of acquisition and retention were explored in a broader context with the concepts of customer satisfaction, loyalty and profitability and eventually customer relationship management to understand the background and meaning of the theme of this thesis. The utilization of SAC and SRC information is discussed through the theories of decision making and activity-based management. Also, the present state and future needs of SAC and SRC information usage at the case company as well as the functions of the company were examined by interviewing some members of the company personnel. With the help of these theories and methods it was aimed at finding out both the theory-based and practical factors which affect the structure of the model. During the thesis study it was confirmed that the existing SAC and SRC model of the case company should be used as the basis in developing the activity-based model. As a result the indirect costs of the old model were transformed into activities and the direct costs were continued to be allocated directly to acquisition of new subscriptions and retention of old subscriptions. The refined model will enable managing the subscription acquisition, retention and the related costs better through the activity information. During the interviews it was found out that the SAC and SRC information is also used in performance measurement and operational and strategic planning. SAC and SRC are not fully absorbed costs and it was concluded that the model serves best as a source of indicative cost information. This thesis does not include calculating costs. Instead, the refined model together with both the theory-based and interview findings concerning the utilization of the information produced by the model will serve as a framework for the possible future development aiming at completing the model.

HPF boost interleaved operating in discontinuous conduction mode for trolleybus application

This paper deals with results of a research and development (R&D) project in cooperation with Electric Power Distribution Company in São Paulo (Brazil) regarding the development and experimental analysis of a new concept of power drive system suitable for application in traction systems of electrical vehicles pulled by electrical motors, which can be powered by urban DC or AC distribution networks. The proposed front-end structure is composed by five boost power cells in interleaving connection, operating in discontinuous conduction mode as AC-DC converter, or as DC-DC converter, in order to provide the proper DC output voltage range required by DC or AC adjustable speed drivers. Therefore, when supplied by single-phase AC distribution networks, and operating as AC-DC converter, it is capable to provide high power factor, reduced harmonic distortion in the input current, complying with the restrictions imposed by the IEC 61000-3-4 standards resulting in significant improvements for the trolleybuses systems efficiency and for the urban distribution network costs. Considering the compliance with input current restrictions imposed by IEC 61000-3-4 standards, two digital control strategies were evaluated. The digital controller has been implemented using a low cost FPGA (XC3S200) and developed totally using a hardware description language VHDL and fixed point arithmetic. Experimental results from a 15 kW low power scale prototype operating in DC and AC conditions are presented, in order to verify the feasibility and performance of the proposed system. © 2009 IEEE.