Computing utilities are emerging as an important part of the infrastructure for outsourcing computer services. One of the major objectives of computing utilities is to maximize their net profit while maintaining customer loyalty in accordance with the service level agreements (SLAs). Defining the SLAs conservatively might be one easy way to achieve SLA compliance, but this results in underutili...

S ince the late 197Os, more and more electric utilities have been running demand-side management (DSM) programs. By 1994, utility DSM programs cut potential summer peak demand by seven percent and annual electricity use by two percent nationwide. Much has changed since utility DSM programs were first proposed. Looking to the future, these changes will affect (1) the amounts of energy and demand...

BACKGROUND Childhood obesity is a substantial public health problem. The extent to which health state preferences (utilities) are related to a child's weight status has not been reported. The aims of this study were (1) to use a generic health state classification system to measure health related quality of life and calculate health utilities in a convenience sample of children and adolescents ...

India seeks to achieve 175 Giga-Watt (GW) of Renewable power by 2022. As of December 2017, out of 333 GW of total installed capacity of electricity, close to 62GW come from renewable sources. Meeting the set targets calls for augmentation of renewable energy based capacities as expeditiously as possible. However, the sick financial health of the distribution companies/utilities, who act a...

Effective and efficient regulation by government is important for economic development. Effective and efficient regulation promotes economic development, while vexatious regulation can cripple it. Many of the problems of developing countries are blamed on ineffective and inefficient government regulation. At the same time, however, understanding of the appropriate institutions and processes of ...

Negotiated settlements are a form of regulation of public utilities that is alternative or complementary to the conventional process of litigation. Since the early 1960s they have been seen primarily as a means of coping with a regulatory backlog and as saving regulatory processing time. More recently legal scholars and practitioners suggest that settlements better serve the needs of the partie...

Takahiro Sayama,* Jeffrey J. McDonnell, Amod Dhakal and Kate Sullivan 1 International Center for Water Hazard and Risk Management, Public Works Research Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan 2 Institute for Water and Watersheds and Department of Forest Engineering, Resources and Management, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA 3 Northern Rivers Institute, School of Geosciences, University o...

The issue of dividend payout in certain companies called the puzzle raises a number research issues that can be studied detail at various levels. However, this study aims to determine factors affecting determinants utilities sector such as debt, cash flows, investment, and growth. A total 12 listed companies’ data over 3 years 2017-2019 is used analysed using fixed-effect model. findings underl...

Introduction During the pioneering days of the electric utility industry, it was believed that utilities were natural monopolies, meaning that one utility could service a geographic area more cheaply than any combination of smaller utilities. More recently, the economic viability of transferring or wheeling electricity over long distances, the development of small-scale generators and efficient...