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As the construction of the new power system progresses, pumped storage plays an important role in the system as a typical regulating resource. However, the regulating capacity of traditional fixed-speed pumped storage units is limited and it is difficult to meet the increasing flexibility demands of system regulation. This paper studies the operation and cost recovery of pumped storage power stations based on doubly-fed variable-speed technology in the market environment. Using a combination of theoretical analysis and case study, the working principles and technical advantages of doubly-fed variable-speed pumped storage technology are first explained. We then develop a revenue model encompassing both the energy and ancillary service markets and analyze the impact of different pricing mechanisms on cost recovery for variable-speed pumped storage power stations within the current situation of China’s electricity market. The research results indicate that under the combined effects of the electricity spot market and the ancillary service market, the flexibility value of variable-speed pumped storage power stations can be fully reflected, significantly increasing their revenues and enabling cost recovery and profitability. In the future, the pricing mechanisms of the electricity and ancillary service markets should be further improved, the functional positioning of pumped storage power stations should be optimized, and their support capabilities for the new power system should be enhanced.

As maritime transport continues to grow, the volume and complexity of waste generated by ships, such as garbage, sewage, and oily residues, requires the establishment of effective, accessible and well-regulated collection systems in ports. Ensuring effective waste management remains a major challenge across the European Union, as differences in national implementation and charging systems continue to undermine the sustainability of port reception facilities. Directive (EU) 2019/883 on port reception facilities (PRF Directive) was introduced to harmonise regulatory standards, ensure adequate infrastructure, and remove barriers to proper waste management. This paper analyses the transposition and implementation of the PRF Directive in selected EU countries, focusing on the differences in cost recovery systems (CRS) applied in ports. A comparative analysis of charging models and waste management plans for ports is carried out, including an in-depth study of the leading European ports with the highest reported waste volumes. A nine-criteria evaluation framework was developed through a stakeholder focus group involving port authorities, concessionaires, shipping companies, and the Harbour Master’s Office, and was applied using the multi-criteria TOPSIS decision methodology, complemented by sensitivity analyses and adjustments for different port types (cargo, passenger, fisheries, marinas). The results show that the best-performing models achieved C* values between 0.514 and 0.529, confirming the robustness of the evaluation framework. Overall, the findings indicate that the optimal charging model is context-dependent, with No-Special-Fee systems without special charges favoured in passenger and leisure ports, and Prepaid + Reimbursement models more suitable for cargo and fishing ports. The paper concludes with policy recommendations aimed at increasing transparency, ensuring consistent reporting, and aligning CRS models more closely with EU environmental objectives.

The European Directive in force on port reception facilities for waste from ships applicable to both ports and ships has the aim of protecting the marine environment. To promote this goal, the directive imposes on every member state the availability of port reception facilities adequate in meeting the needs of the ships normally using the ports without causing undue delay in their operations. As an effective tool to discourage the discharges of waste at sea, the new policy requires ports to implement a cost recovery system for the waste reception service through mandatory fees to be paid by ships irrespective of the volume of waste delivered at port. In the context of the obligations that European ports must fulfill according to the new policy on waste from ships, the present study analyzes the Spanish ports’ database. The research relates traffic characterization with the economic results of the waste reception service in each port authority to ensure that the effective reception costs are covered. The findings will enable building a robust port fee system adapted to the ship typology with the aim of mitigating economic imbalances and ensuring that ships contribute to the port reception facilities’ costs according to their characteristics.

The use of energy efficient structures in the local construction industry assists in promoting green building concepts, leading to economical and eco-friendly solutions for self-sustained structures. The main aim of this study was to examine and compare the energy performance of various local buildings. Detailed 3D building models (house, office, and warehouse buildings) were constructed and investigated for their cost and energy savings using building energy simulation tools (green building studio and insight). Moreover, the effects of various building materials for walls, window panels, and roof construction were explored, and a life-cycle cost analysis was performed. It was observed that the effect of the window-to-wall ratio was less severe in term of energy use in office buildings compared to normal houses due to the larger amount of space available for air circulation. Furthermore, the most efficient location for windows was found to be at the middle of the wall in comparison with the top and bottom positions. The effect of the orientation mainly depended on the symmetry of the building. More symmetric buildings, i.e., tested warehouse buildings (rectangular structure), showed an energy use difference of around 7 MJ/m2/year for a 360° orientation change. Tested house buildings exhibited an energy use difference of up to 25 MJ/m2/year. Three-pane glass windows also showed major improvements, and the total energy consumption for houses was reduced to 14%. Furthermore, wood walls showed comparable energy performance with brick walls without the use of insulation. According to US-LEED guidelines, the tested house, office, and warehouse buildings achieved 79, 89, and 88 points, respectively. The cost recovery period for house, office, and warehouse buildings was estimated to 54, 13, and 14 years, respectively, including running and maintenance costs. It can be argued that the Insight and Green Building Studio packages can assist construction stakeholders to determine the energy efficiency of the modeled building as well as to help in the selection of materials for optimized and improved design.

The European Commission highlighted that in Spain: “there is a lack of adequate incentives for efficient use of the resource and the adequate contribution to the recovery from different users is not guaranteed” and recommended to “present transparently subsidies and cross-subsidies”. This paper develops a robust hydro-economic methodological approach that provides transparency in the water cost contribution calculations and helps to assess the economic efficiency of the water resources allocation strategy for a particular water system. The Upper Genil River (a sub-basin of the Guadalquivir River Basin in southern Spain) presents an interesting context of study given its intricate multi-source supply system to meet multi-sectorial water demands, along with conflicts (especially during critical drought events) over historical water rights and the priority of water use. The simulation results demonstrated that, despite the additional average annual cost paid by the household water user for having the theoretical priority of water use (€ 6863 per cubic hectometre of water consumed) compared to the agricultural water user, in practice, that extra cost does not translate into a significant increase in the guarantee of water supply. In fact, the priority of water use would only be patent in very extreme drought events (200-year return period) and when all alternative water supply sources are exhausted. Therefore, competent authorities should ensure that a greater emphasis is placed on transparent water cost recovery assessments to achieve sound water pricing policies and efficient water allocation strategies, which can help to successfully address the major challenge of water scarcity.

Background The Spanish HIV HGM BioBank is of great relevance for basic and clinical investigation, and for those groups trying to establish large networks focused on investigation on specific clinical problems. The collection of different types of samples from HIV-infected individuals is the beginning of the chain of translational investigation, starting in 2004 a prospective national HIV BioBank that expanded in 2009 a local node (HGM: Hospital Gregorio Marañón) for diverse pathologies and clinical networks, not only in adults but also in paediatric patients, becoming the Spanish HIV HGM BioBank. Our main objective is to find a general criteria and analytical tools to widespread its economic management to assure their sustainability and the future exploitation of the extreme high valuable biomaterial they custody. Methods The Spanish HIV HGM BioBank was created with the aim of contributing to advance understanding of different pathologies through the transfer, management, register, processing, cryopreservation and cession of biological material from patients, always for research purposes and under conditions that guarantee its usefulness in current studies and future research that may appear as knowledge evolves. In this study, we have developed a policy for financial control and recovery costs of the Spanish HIV HGM BioBank. Results Actually, Spanish HIV HGM BioBank guards 413,747 vials of 46,594 samples from 16,210 donors with various prospective longitudinal study type of samples. Interestingly, more than 7907 of these samples are now used in 28 national and international investigation projects and clinical trials. One of the objectives of this study is to develop an economic plan that you get future projects, design of acceptance or rejection keys, have internal investment limits, minimum recovery needs in short/medium term, deviation detection system and a register of capital recovery by period and type of service for the Spanish HIV HGM BioBank. Conclusion Our model can help BioBanks that do not have a costs recovery model to design it, as well as to detect improves and functional revisions to those experienced in this field.

This paper proposes a methodology to compute a cost recovery ratio directly from the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water (SEEA-Water) standard tables. The methodology is applied to the Guadalquivir River Basin in southern Spain. Results illustrate that it allows cost recovery analysis in line with Water Framework Directive Article 9. Wider adoption of the methodology would enhance comparability and knowledge sharing between regions, countries and sectors both in the European Union and worldwide.

In 1991, Indonesia began a process of decentralization in the health sector which had implications for the country’s public hospitals. The public hospitals were given greater authority to manage their own personnel, finance and procurement, with which they were allowed to operate commercial sections in addition to offering public services. These public services are subsidized by the government, although patients still pay certain proportion of fees. The main objectives of health sector decentralization are to increase the ability of public hospitals to cover their costs and to reduce government subsidies. This study investigates the consequences of decentralization on cost recovery rate of public hospitals at district level. We examine five service units (inpatient, outpatient, operating room, laboratory and radiology) in three public hospitals. We find that after 20 years of decentralization, district hospitals still depend on government subsidies, demonstrated by the fact that the cost recovery rate of most service units is less than one. The commercial sections fail to play their role as revenue generator as they are still subsidized by the government. We also find that the bulk of costs are made up of staff salaries and incentives in all units except radiology. As this study constitutes exploratory research, further investigation is needed to find out the reasons behind these results. En 1991, l’Indonésie s’est lancée dans un processus de décentralisation du secteur de la santé qui a eu des conséquences au niveau des hôpitaux publics. Ces derniers ont vu leur pouvoir étendu en termes de gestion du personnel, des finances et de l’approvisionnement, ils ont été autorisés à exploiter des sections commerciales en plus de l’offre de services publics. Ces services publics sont subventionnés par l’Etat bien que les patients aient toujours une partie à payer. Les objectifs principaux de la décentralisation du secteur de la santé sont d’augmenter la capacité des hôpitaux publics à couvrir leurs coûts et à réduire les subventions du gouvernement. Dans cette étude, nous étudions les conséquences de la décentralisation sur le taux de recouvrement des coûts des hôpitaux publics au niveau d’un district. Nous avons observé cinq services hospitaliers (patients hospitalisés, patients en ambulatoire, les salles d’opération, le laboratoire et la radiologie) dans trois hôpitaux publics. Nous savons maintenant qu’après vingt ans de décentralisation, les hôpitaux publics dépendent toujours des subventions d’Etat ce qui est démontré par le taux de recouvrement de la plupart des services qui est inférieur à un. Les sections commerciales ont échoué à générer des revenus et sont toujours dépendantes des subventions. Nous pouvons dire que l’essentiel des coûts est dû aux salaires et primes du personnel dans tous les services sauf la radiologie. Cette étude constitue une recherche préliminaire, d’autres études sont nécessaires pour comprendre les raisons que cachent ces résultats. 1991 年印度尼西亚开始了涉及国家公立医院的医疗部门的分 散化进程。公立医院在管理自身人事、财务和采购方面被授 予更大的权力，在更大权力的允许下，公立医院除提供公共 服务外还能够运营商业部门。尽管病人仍然支付一定比例的 费用，但这些公共服务由政府提供补贴。医疗部门分散化的 主要目标是提高公立医院支付自身花费的能力，以及减少政 府补贴。本研究调查在地区层面上分散化对公立医院成本回 收率的作用。我们检查了 3 个公立医院中的 5 个服务单位 (住院部、出诊部、手术室、实验室和放射线科)。通过大部 分服务单位的成本回收率小于 1 这一事实，我们发现在经历 20 年的分散化后地区医院仍然依靠政府补贴。商业部门仍然 接受政府补贴，他们没有能够成功扮演利润筹集者的角色。 我们同时发现巨额花费由除放射科以外的其他所有科室的员 工工资和奖励组成。由于本研究构成解释性研究，学者们需 要通过更加深入的研究找到在这些结果外其他的原因。 En 1991, Indonesia inició un proceso de descentralización en el sector de la salud que tuvo implicaciones para los hospitales públicos del país. A los hospitales públicos se les otorgó una mayor autoridad para administrar su propio personal, sus finanzas y sus adquisiciones, con lo cual fueron autorizados para operar secciones comerciales, además de ofrecer servicios públicos. Estos servicios públicos son subsidiados por el gobierno, aunque los pacientes siguen pagando cierta proporción de las tarifas. Los principales objetivos de la descentralización del sector de salud son aumentar la capacidad de los hospitales públicos para cubrir sus costos y reducir los subsidios del gobierno. Este estudio investiga las consecuencias de la descentralización en la tasa de recuperación de los costos de los hospitales públicos a nivel de distrito. Examinamos cinco unidades de servicio (pacientes hospitalizados, pacientes ambulatorios, salas de operaciones, laboratorio y radiología) en tres hospitales públicos. Encontramos que después de 20 años de descentralización, los hospitales de distrito aún dependen de los subsidios del gobierno, demostrado por el hecho de que la tasa de recuperación de los costos de la mayoría de las unidades de servicio es inferior a uno. Las secciones comerciales fracasan en su papel como generadores de ingresos, ya que aún están subsidiadas por el gobierno. También encontramos que la mayor parte de los costos se componen de los salarios e incentivos del personal en todas las unidades excepto radiología. Como este estudio constituye una investigación exploratoria, se necesita más investigación para averiguar las razones detrás de estos resultados.

This study simulates the economy-wide effects of introducing new water pricing systems in Israel. A Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, STAGE_W, is used that includes multiple water commodities produced from different water resources. The current water pricing scheme supplies potable water to municipalities at fees above the supply costs and subsidizes water delivered to the agricultural and the manufacturing sectors. Due to limited freshwater resources, climate change and population growth, water scarcity is an increasing problem in Israel. Therefore, pricing systems which lead to a more efficient allocation of water are intensely debated. This study analyzes two alternative pricing schemes under discussion in Israel: price liberalization, which unifies the prices for all potable water consumers at cost recovery rates, and marginal pricing that lifts the potable water price to the cost of desalination. Both schemes reduce water demand with limited economic costs. Price liberalization is the more favourable option from a national welfare perspective, while marginal pricing allows for larger water savings and, in the long run, independence from fresh water resources.

Urban water pricing is becoming increasingly important due to the rapid rate of urbanization and the expansion of water reclamation and reuse. The mounting evidence of failures of current pricing schemes makes analyzing their performance essential for understanding the adequacy of economic and sustainability policies in water management. However, urban water pricing policies are complex, serve multiple objectives, and vary widely across regions and countries. This paper presents an assessment framework for urban water pricing policies based on common conditions advocated for well-functioning pricing policies. Using a simplified scorecard, it compares the performance of urban water pricing policies in Jordan and Iran, two countries under growing scarcity pressure. Both countries show serious deficiencies with regard to the economic valuation of water services and the cost recovery of utilities. Public policies are rather oriented towards access and affordability, with Jordan showing a higher level of transparency and competition in tariff-setting. The assessment tool indicates a high potential for experience-sharing in future reforms, which should promote water as a scarce good. Such reforms need to prioritize full cost valuation, participation, and scientifically based designs of local and regional water tariffs.