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\"Preface In industrialized countries, distribution systems deliver electricity literally everywhere, taking power generated at many locations and delivering it to end users. Generation, transmission, and distribution--of these big three components of the electricity infrastructure, the distribution system gets the least attention. Yet, it is often the most critical component in terms of its effect on reliability and quality of service, cost of electricity, and aesthetic (mainly visual) impacts on society. Like much of the electric utility industry, several political, economic, and technical changes are pressuring the way distribution systems are built and operated. Deregulation has increased pressures on electric power utilities to cut costs and has focused emphasis on reliability and quality of electric service. The great fear of deregulation is that service will suffer because of cost cutting. Regulators and utility consumers are paying considerable attention to reliability and quality. Another change that is brewing is the introduction of distributed generation on the distribution system. Generators at the distribution level can cause problems (and have benefits if properly applied). New loads such as plug-in vehicles may be on the horizon. Customers are pressing for lower costs, better reliability, and less visual impact from utility distribution systems. Deregulation and technical changes increase the need by utility engineers for better information. This book helps fill some of those needs in the area of electric distribution systems. The first few chapters of the book focus on equipment-oriented information and applications such as choosing transformer connections, sizing and placing capacitors, and setting regulators\"-- Provided by publisher.

Background Emergency scientific research (ESR) is characterized by multidisciplinary integration, multidemand matching, and multiscenario application, which impose greater applicability requirements and tolerance for costs than conventional scientific research does. Analyzing the implementation law of ESR may serve as a reference to strengthen deployment and optimize the layout strategy of ESR. This study systematically compares the differences between the solicitation and approval of ESR projects by analyzing the projects deployed by the Chinese government during the COVID-19 outbreak. Methods On the basis of 1,654 ESR project records collected from provincial-level governments across China (333 solicitations and 1,321 approvals), we apply descriptive statistical methods and structural metrics via social network analysis to construct “subject–research direction” 2-mode networks and association networks. The characteristics and rules of the ESR layout are systematically traced and classified from the perspectives of quantitative distribution, regional distribution, and resource distribution. Results The key directions of ESR for public health emergencies can be divided into three categories: urgent directions required in the initial stage of public health emergencies; sustained directions for multiphase response in different emergency stages; and expandable directions that have been proven effective in practice and can improve long-term governance. The clear divergence between the solicitation and approval phases illustrates the system’s dynamic adaptation to emerging needs and innovation uncertainties. This study also shows that ESR deployment is influenced by existing scientific research capabilities and regional advantages while requiring multipath exploration and resource synergy to achieve the optimal configuration. Conclusions The effective deployment of ESR demands cross-regional coordination, real-time matching of needs and resources, and institutional feedback loops to ensure that research outputs are timely and actionable. By synthesizing layout rules in terms of quantity, regional coordination, and resource integration, this study contributes theoretical foundations and practical strategies for improving ESR system design in future public health emergencies.

\"America's electrical grid, an engineering triumph of the twentieth century, is turning out to be a poor fit for the present. It's not just that the grid has grown old and is now in dire need of basic repair. Today, as we invest great hope in new energy sources-- solar, wind, and other alternatives-- the grid is what stands most firmly in the way of a brighter energy future. If we hope to realize this future, we need to reimagine the grid according to twenty-first-century values. It's a project which forces visionaries to work with bureaucrats, legislators with storm-flattened communities, moneymen with hippies, and the left with the right. And though it might not yet be obvious, this revolution is already well under way. Cultural anthropologist Gretchen Bakke unveils the many facets of America's energy infrastructure, its most dynamic moments and its most stable ones, and its essential role in personal and national life.\"--Page 4 of cover.

Distribution Asset Management is an important task performed by utility companies to prolong the lifetime of the critical distribution assets and to accordingly ensure grid reliability by preventing unplanned outages. This study focuses on microgrid applications for distribution asset management as a viable and less expensive alternative to traditional utility practices in this area. A microgrid is as an emerging distribution technology that encompasses a variety of distribution technologies including distributed generation, demand response, and energy storage. Moreover, the substation transformer, as the most critical component in a distribution grid, is selected as the component of the choice for asset management studies. The resulting model is a microgrid-based distribution transformer asset management model in which microgrid exchanged power with the utility grid is reshaped in such a way that the distribution transformer lifetime is maximised. Numerical simulations on a test utility-owned microgrid demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model to reshape the loading of the distribution transformer at the point of interconnection in order to increase its lifetime.

Letter to the Editor

The growing complexity and need for electricity in contemporary grids have resulted in an increased dependence on Distribution Automation Technology (DAT) to improve the effectiveness and reliability of distribution networks. Automation technologies, like smart sensors and fault detection systems, are critical for enhancing operational efficiency and lowering power outages in distribution networks. This study investigates the influence of distribution automation on the dependability of electricity networks, concentrating on important functional metrics and their relationship with network efficiency. Objectives: The main objective of this research is to examine the factors that influence the reliability of distribution networks, with a focus on distribution automation technology. This study uses a variety of efficiency indicators, like automation coverage, fault detection time, and consumer complaints, to discover the primary factors of network reliability. This paper introduced the Reliability-Optimized Meta-Learning Ensemble (ROME) algorithm, which seeks to predict the reliability category of various areas using these indicators. Methodology: This study utilizes the Distribution Network Reliability Dataset, which includes several areas with a variety of characteristics such as network age, automation coverage, smart sensor installation, power outages, fault detection time, and other operational metrics. The ROME algorithm is used, which integrates numerous base models (SVM, Random Forest, MLP) and a meta-learner (Gradient Boosting) to predict each region’s Reliability Category (High, Medium, Low). The dataset is thoroughly preprocessed, which includes mean and mode imputation, label encoding, standardization, and SMOTE balancing. Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE) is used for feature selection. Results: The findings show a strong correlation between automation coverage, fault detection time, and reliability category. When compared to traditional classification techniques, the ROME algorithm surpassed SVM, RF, MLP, and GB models with 94.7% accuracy, 0.18 Log-Loss, 91.2% Jaccard Index, 0.08% fall-out, and 95.3% specificity. Conclusion: This research emphasizes the value of distribution automation in improving network reliability. Utilities and grid operators can use the ROME algorithm to better predict and enhance network reliability. The results highlight the requirement for targeted investments in automation technologies, particularly in regions with lower reliability scores, to guarantee sustainable and effective electricity distribution.

Despite the fact that since 1985 the government of Québec increased by 5.75 % on average the amount of money spent on healthcare per year, little improvement was noted. It is obvious that an optimal use of resources is essential to reduce waiting times and provide safer and faster services to patients. The use of new technology can contribute to improve the healthcare system efficiency. Our study aims to assess the impact of a medication distribution technology on 1) the performance of a health and social services center’s pharmacy, 2) the performance of one care unit in a nursing home and on 3) the medication-use process safety. To measure performance we were inspired by the Lean approach. The results show that medication distribution technology is considered as an effective way to significantly detect medication errors, to allow nurses to focus more on patients and pharmacy to react more rapidly to changes in patient medications.

Major new opportunities abound from energy integration among regions in Africa with the sole aim of reducing transaction costs and with the role of Information Communication Technology (ICT), it would take energy from where it is easily affordable to places where it is needed. Given the hullabaloo over the net energy-saving impact of ICT, this study takes on a new perspective, that is, employing household energy consumption, to ascertain the use of ICT by household in accessing energy. The study reconnoiters the degree to which Energy integration among the five regional power pools in Africa can achieve ending energy poverty among regional adherents by means of three measures of energy sustainability, explicitly: energy security, energy equity and environmental sustainability. The study utilizes the Pooled Ordinary Least Squares technique on data from the SSA economies over the period 2000-2019. The study expects the results to help in suggesting the need for the acceleration of ICT development in Africa (Sub-Saharan) nations, given the universal communal mission of sustainable energy consumption.

Using aggregate data from the Annual Survey of Industries, we analyze profitability in India’s organized manufacturing sector from 1982–83 to 2012–13. Over the whole period of analysis, the rate of profit grew at about 1% per annum, primarily driven by a rising share of profits. We use visual inspection to identify five shorter-run profitability regimes: 1982–91, 1991–96, 1996–2001, 2001–07 and 2007–12. Profit rate decomposition analysis shows that both technological factors and aggregate demand have been important determinants of changes in profitability in these shorter periods.

The remote terminal equipment data collection system of distribution automation plays a decisive role in the monitoring of distribution networks. The thesis studies the key technologies of distribution network operation and real-time data collection of topology data, analyses various new technologies of ICT, designs the basic technical architecture of real-time data collection, and realizes the automatic connection of various professional data of distribution networks such as equipment, marketing, and scheduling. Into a unified distribution network database that integrates various disciplines, multiple themes, and multiple applications, comprehensively improves the quality of distribution network data, and provides a basis for distribution network diagnosis and big data analysis. At the same time, the paper performs software filtering on the data and uses fast Fourier transform to improve real-time performance. Using a signal generator and a high-precision switching power supply as the signal input, the frequency test, voltage accuracy test and fast Fourier transform experiment were conducted respectively. The experimental results show that the simplified terminal data collection system has higher accuracy and stability.