Integration of microgrids into electricity distribution networks

Existing electricity distribution system is under pressure because implementation of distributed generation changes the grid configuration and also because some customers demand for better distribution reliability. In a short term, traditional network planning does not offer techno-economical solutions for the challenges and therefore the idea of microgrids is introduced. Islanding capability of microgrids is expected to enable better reliability by reducing effects of faults. The aim of the thesis is to discuss challenges in integration of microgrids into distribution networks. Study discusses development of microgrid related smart grid features and gives estimation of the guideline of microgrid implementation. Thesis also scans microgrid pilots around the world and introduces the most relevant projects. Analysis reveals that the main focus of researched studies is on low voltage microgrids. This thesis extends the idea to medium voltage distribution system and introduces challenges related to medium voltage microgrid implementation. Differences of centralized and distributed microgrid models are analyzed and the centralized model is discovered to be easiest to implement into existing distribution system. Preplan of medium voltage microgrid pilot is also carried out in this thesis.

Cassava starch extraction effluent treatment in a one phase tubular horizontal pilot reactor with support medium

The cassava starch industries generate a large volume of wastewater effluent that, stabilized in ponds, wastes its biogas energy and pollutes the atmosphere. To contribute with the reversion of this reality, this manipueira treatment research was developed in one phase anaerobic horizontal pilot reactor with support medium in bamboo pieces. The reactor was excavated into the ground and sealed with geomembrane in HDPE, having a volume equal to 33.6 m³ and continuous feeding by gravity. The stability indicators were pH, volatile acidity/total alkalinity ratio and biogas production. The statistical analyses were performed by a completely randomized design, with answers submitted to multivariate analysis. The organical loads in COD were 0.556; 0.670; 0.678 and 0.770 g L-1 and in volatile solids (VS) of 0.659; 0.608; 0.570 and 0.761 g L-1 for the hydraulic retention times (HRT) of 13.0; 11.5; 10.0 and 7.0 days, respectively. The reductions in COD were 88; 80; 88 and 67% and for VS of 76; 77; 65 and 61%. The biogas productions relatively to the consumed COD were 0.368; 0.795; 0.891 and 0.907 Lg-1, for the consumed VS of 0.524; 0.930; 1.757 and 0.952 Lg-1 and volumetric of 0.131; 0.330; 0.430 and 0.374 L L-1 d-1. The reactor remained stable and the bamboo pieces, in visual examination at the end of the experiment, showed to be in good physical conditions.

Development of a project control procedure

The aim of this study is to develop a suitable project control procedure for a target company that can be used in engineering, procurement, and construction or con-struction management contracts. This procedure contains suitable project control software and a model for the use of the software in practice. This study is divided into two main sections. Theoretical part deals with project management, focusing on cost and time dimensions in projects. Empirical part deals with the development of the project control procedure for the target compa-ny. This development takes place in two parts. In the first part, semi-structured interviews are used to find out the company’s employees’ demands and desires for the project control software which will then be used in the developed procedure. These demands and desires are compared to available software in the market and the most suitable one will be chosen. Interview results show that important factors are cost tracking, integration with other software, English language availability, references, helpdesk, and no need for regular updates. The most suitable one is CMPro5 cost control software. The chosen software is used in a pilot project, where its functions and use are analyzed. Project control procedure which will be used in the future is developed based on these procedures. The five steps in developed procedure include employment of a cost engineer, whose task is to maintain the procedure in the target company.

Integration in project business : mechanisms for integrating customers and the project network during the life-cycle of industrial projects

This thesis focuses on integration in project business, i.e. how projectbased companies organize their product and process structures when they deliver industrial solutions to their customers. The customers that invest in these solutions run their businesses in different geographical, political and economical environments, which should be acknowledged by the supplier when providing solutions comprising of larger and more complex scopes than previously supplied to these customers. This means that the suppliers are increasing their supply range by taking over some of the activities in the value chain that have traditionally been handled by the customer. In order to be able to provide the functioning solutions, including more engineering hours, technical equipment and a wider project network, a change is needed in the mindset in order to be able to carry out and take the required responsibility that these new approaches bring. For the supplier it is important to be able to integrate technical products, systems and services, but the supplier also needs to have the capabilities to integrate the cross-functional organizations and departments in the project network, the knowledge and information between and within these organizations and departments, along with inputs from the customer into the product and process structures during the lifecycle of the project under development. Hence, the main objective of this thesis is to explore the challenges of integration that industrial projects meet, and based on that, to suggest a concept of how to manage integration in project business by making use of integration mechanisms. Integration is considered the essential process for accomplishing an industrial project, whereas the accomplishment of the industrial project is considered to be the result of the integration. The thesis consists of an extended summary and four papers, that are based on three studies in which integration mechanisms for value creation in industrial project networks and the management of integration in project business have been explored. The research is based on an inductive approach where in particular the design, commissioning and operations functions of industrial projects have been studied, addressing entire project life-cycles. The studies have been conducted in the shipbuilding and power generation industries where the scopes of supply consist of stand-alone equipment, equipment and engineering, and turnkey solutions. These industrial solutions include demanding efforts in engineering and organization. Addressing the calls for more studies on the evolving value chains of integrated solutions, mechanisms for inter- and intra-organizational integration and subsequent value creation in project networks have been explored. The research results in thirteen integration mechanisms and a typology for integration is proposed. Managing integration consists of integrating the project network (the supplier and the sub-suppliers) and the customer (the customer’s business purpose, operations environment and the end-user) into the project by making use of integration mechanisms. The findings bring new insight into research on industrial project business by proposing integration of technology and engineering related elements with elements related to customer oriented business performance in contemporary project environments. Thirteen mechanisms for combining products and the processes needed to deliver projects are described and categorized according to the impact that they have on the management of knowledge and information. These mechanisms directly relate to the performance of the supplier, and consequently to the functioning of the solution that the project provides. This thesis offers ways to promote integration of knowledge and information during the lifecycle of industrial projects, enhancing the development towards innovative solutions in project business.

Success factors of commercial open source software projects

Open source and open source software development have been interesting phenomena during the past decade. Traditional business models do not apply with open source, where the actual product is free. However, it is possible to make business with open source, even successfully, but the question is: how? The aim of this study is to find the key factors of successfully making business out of commercial open source software development. The task is achieved by finding the factors that influence open source projects, finding the relation between those factors, and find out why some factors explain the success more than others. The literature review concentrates first on background of open innovation, open source and open source software. Then business models, critical success factors and success measures are examined. Based on existing literature a framework was created. The framework contains categorized success factors that influence software projects in general as well as open source software projects. The main categories of success factors in software business are divided into community management, technology management, project management and market management. In order to find out which of the factors based on the existing literature are the most critical, empirical research was done by conducting unstructured personal interviews. The main finding based on the interviews is that the critical success factors in open source software business do not differ from those in traditional software business or in fact from those in any other business. Some factors in the framework came out in the interviews that can be considered as key factors: establishing and communicating hierarchy (community management), localization (technology management), good license know-how and IPR management (project management), and effective market management (market management). The critical success factors according to the interviewees are not listed in the framework: low price, good product and good business model development.

Practical Framework for Monitoring the Performance of Agile IT Projects in an Output-Based Outsourcing Context

Over the past decade, organizations worldwide have begun to widely adopt agile software development practices, which offer greater flexibility to frequently changing business requirements, better cost effectiveness due to minimization of waste, faster time-to-market, and closer collaboration between business and IT. At the same time, IT services are continuing to be increasingly outsourced to third parties providing the organizations with the ability to focus on their core capabilities as well as to take advantage of better demand scalability, access to specialized skills, and cost benefits. An output-based pricing model, where the customers pay directly for the functionality that was delivered rather than the effort spent, is quickly becoming a new trend in IT outsourcing allowing to transfer the risk away from the customer while at the same time offering much better incentives for the supplier to optimize processes and improve efficiency, and consequently producing a true win-win outcome. Despite the widespread adoption of both agile practices and output-based outsourcing, there is little formal research available on how the two can be effectively combined in practice. Moreover, little practical guidance exists on how companies can measure the performance of their agile projects, which are being delivered in an output-based outsourced environment. This research attempted to shed light on this issue by developing a practical project monitoring framework which may be readily applied by organizations to monitor the performance of agile projects in an output-based outsourcing context, thus taking advantage of the combined benefits of such an arrangement Modified from action research approach, this research was divided into two cycles, each consisting of the Identification, Analysis, Verification, and Conclusion phases. During Cycle 1, a list of six Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) was proposed and accepted by the professionals in the studied multinational organization, which formed the core of the proposed framework and answered the first research sub-question of what needs to be measured. In Cycle 2, a more in-depth analysis was provided for each of the suggested Key Performance Indicators including the techniques for capturing, calculating, and evaluating the information provided by each KPI. In the course of Cycle 2, the second research sub-question was answered, clarifying how the data for each KPI needed to be measured, interpreted, and acted upon. Consequently, after two incremental research cycles, the primary research question was answered describing the practical framework that may be used for monitoring the performance of agile IT projects delivered in an output-based outsourcing context. This framework was evaluated by the professionals within the context of the studied organization and received positive feedback across all four evaluation criteria set forth in this research, including the low overhead of data collection, high value of provided information, ease of understandability of the metric dashboard, and high generalizability of the proposed framework.

Analysis of value drivers behind CRM adoption projects in financial services industry

This research is focused on deriving framework for the value thought for from the Customer Relationship Management system adopted by an enterprise operating in the financial services industry. It will analyze existing academic work to derive a conceptual value model, while applying secondary industry specific case studies provided by the CRM vendors to check the validity and commonality of these drivers. Furthermore this work locates the variances and correlation between value thought for from CRM system, scope of enterprise operations and size of the enterprise.

Fetal heart rate responses during maternal resistance exercise: a pilot study

PURPOSE: To determine fetal heart rate (FHR) responses to maternal resistance exercise for the upper and lower body at two different volumes, and after 25 minutes post-exercise.METHODS: Ten pregnant women (22-24 weeks gestation, 25.2±4.4 years of age, 69.8±9.5 kg, 161.6±5.2 cm tall) performed, at 22-24, 28-32 and 34-36 weeks, the following experimental sessions: Session 1 was a familiarization with the equipment and the determination of one estimated maximum repetition. For sessions 2, 3, 4 and 5,FHR was determined during the execution of resistance exercise on bilateral leg extension and pec-deck fly machines, with 1 and 3 sets of 15 repetitions; 50% of the weight load and an estimated repetition maximum. FHR was assessed with a portable digital cardiotocograph. Results were analyzed using Student's ttest, ANOVA with repeated measures and Bonferroni (α=0.05; SPSS 17.0).RESULTS: FHR showed no significant differences between the exercises at 22-24 weeks (bilateral leg extension=143.8±9.4 bpm, pec-deck fly=140.2±10.2 bpm, p=0.34), 28-30 weeks (bilateral leg extension=138.4±12.2 bpm, pec-deck fly=137.6±14.0 bpm, p=0.75) and 34-36 weeks (bilateral leg extension=135.7±5.8 bpm, pec-deck fly=139.7±13.3 bpm, p=0.38), between the volumes(bilateral leg extension at 22-24 weeks: p=0.36, at 28-30 weeks: p=0.19 and at 34-36 weeks: p=0.87; pec-deck fly at 22-24 weeks: p=0.43, at 28-30 weeks: p=0.61 and at 34-36 weeks: p=0.49) and after 25 minutes post-exercise.CONCLUSION: Results of this pilot study would suggest that maternal resistance exercise is safe for the fetus.

Mapping the translation needs and practices in development co-operation projects of NGOs

Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman aiheena on kääntäminen ja viestintä vieraalla kielellä Suomen ulkoasiainministeriön rahoittamissa kansalaisjärjestöjen kehitysyhteistyöhankkeissa. Tutkielman on tarkoitus kartoittaa kyseisten kehitysyhteistyöhankkeiden kääntämiseen ja vieraskieliseen viestintään liittyviä tarpeita ja -käytäntöjä. Aihetta ei ole tutkittu laajasti muutoin, joten empiirinen osuus on erityisen merkittävässä roolissa. Tutkielman alussa esitellään ulkoasiainministeriön laatimia suomalaisten kansalaisjärjestöjen kehitysyhteistyöhankkeiden ehtoja ja ohjeita, jotka ovat kyseiselle tutkimukselle olennaisia. Tutkielman teoreettinen osuus koostuu lähinnä metodologisesta pohdinnasta, koska aiempaa tutkimustietoa on vähän. Tutkimusmetodien analysointia on painotettu myös siksi, että empiirisellä osuudella on niin suuri merkitys. Tutkielman empiirinen aineisto on yhtäältä peräisin tutkijan havainnoista, jotka saatiin omia varhaisempia hankehallinnointikokemuksia hyödyntäen sekä osallistuvan havainnoinnin menetelmää käyttäen kahden opiskelijajärjestön kehitysyhteistyöhankkeista vuosien 2009 ja 2012 välisenä aikana. Toisaalta aineisto on kerätty kyselytutkimuksen vastauksista. Kysely lähetettiin 35 suomalaiselle kansalaisjärjestölle, joiden kehitysyhteistyöhankkeita Suomen ulkoasiainministeriö rahoittaa. Järjestöt valittiin satunnaisotannalla. Empiirisen aineiston analyysistä ilmeni muun muassa, että tutkijan alkuperäinen hypoteesi kehitysyhteistyöhön liittyvien tekstien kääntämisen yleisyydestä pitää osittain paikkansa, vaikka tekstejä käännettiinkin kansalaisjärjestöissä vähemmän kuin tutkija odotti. Tutkimusaineisto ei ole kuitenkaan tarpeeksi laaja, jotta tuloksia voitaisiin yleistää, sillä kansalaisjärjestöt, niiden hankkeet, käännöstarpeet ja asiantuntemus osoittautuivat odotetusti hyvin erilaisiksi. Tulokset sisältävät asiaa myös esimerkiksi järjestöissä kääntävien ja vieraalla kielellä viestivien taustoista. Jatkotutkimukset ovat kuitenkin tarpeen, ja mahdollisia tutkimusaiheita on runsaasti.

Making the impact on research and society: a case study - open repository and crowdsourcing solutions developed for the Finno-Ugric Digitization Pilot Project at the National Library of Finland

Jussi-Pekka Hakkaraisen esitys 24. Kansainvälisessä tieteen-, teknologian ja lääketieteen historian kongressissa (24th International Congress of History of Science, Technology and Medicine) Manchesterissa 26.7.2013

Project Management Tools in Agile Embedded Systems Development

Agile methods have become increasingly popular in the field of software engineering. While agile methods are now generally considered applicable to software projects of many different kinds, they have not been widely adopted in embedded systems development. This is partly due to the natural constraints that are present in embedded systems development (e.g. hardware–software interdependencies) that challenge the utilization of agile values, principles and practices. The research in agile embedded systems development has been very limited, and this thesis tackles an even less researched theme related to it: the suitability of different project management tools in agile embedded systems development. The thesis covers the basic aspects of many different agile tool types from physical tools, such as task boards and cards, to web-based agile tools that offer all-round solutions for application lifecycle management. In addition to these two extremities, there is also a wide range of lighter agile tools that focus on the core agile practices, such as backlog management. Also other non-agile tools, such as bug trackers, can be used to support agile development, for instance, with plug-ins. To investigate the special tool requirements in agile embedded development, the author observed tool related issues and solutions in a case study involving three different companies operating in the field of embedded systems development. All three companies had a distinct situation in the beginning of the case and thus the tool solutions varied from a backlog spreadsheet built from scratch to plug-in development for an already existing agile software tool. Detailed reports are presented of all three tool cases. Based on the knowledge gathered from agile tools and the case study experiences, it is concluded that there are tool related issues in the pilot phase, such as backlog management and user motivation. These can be overcome in various ways epending on the type of a team in question. Finally, five principles are formed to give guidelines for tool selection and usage in agile embedded systems development.

Building a Research Data Registry for the UK

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014