Electricity load forecasting is a key task in the planning and operation of power systems and electricity markets, and its importance increases with the advent of smart grids. In this paper, we present AWNN, a new approach for very short-term load forecasting. AWNN decomposes the complex electricity load data into components with different frequencies that are predicted separately. It uses an a...

A number of state public utility commissions are using "social costing" methods to consider externalities in electricity resource planning. The most comprehensive and formal method is the use of monetary place-holders in the financial evaluation of new investments and potentially in system dispatch to reflect quantitative estimates of externality values. This approach necessarily must take exis...

All renewable energy systems make some contribution to climate change. This is due to the emission of greenhouse gases from the fossil fuels combusted for their construction, and as back-up energy during their operation. Accurate calculation of greenhouse gas emissions per kilowatt hour of electricity is difficult, but is an important part of policy making and planning. Calculation methodologie...

Electricity demand forecasting plays an important role in capacity planning, scheduling, and the operation of power systems. Reliable and accurate prediction of electricity demands is therefore vital. In this study, artificial neural networks (ANNs) trained by different heuristic algorithms, including Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) and Cuckoo Optimization Algorithm (COA), are utilized to ...

Determining whether power outages have significant fertility effects is an important policy question in developing countries, where blackouts are common and modern forms of family planning are scarce. Using birth records from Zanzibar, this study shows that a month-long blackout in 2008 caused a significant increase in the number of births 8 to 10 months later. The increase was similar across v...

This commentary examines how specific sustainable development goals (SDGs) are affected by antimicrobial resistance and suggests how the issue can be better integrated into international policy processes. Moving beyond the importance of effective antibiotics for the treatment of acute infections and health care generally, we discuss how antimicrobial resistance also impacts on environmental, so...

Electrical power forecasting plays a vital role in power system administration and planning. Inaccurate forecasting can lead to the waste of scarce energy resources, electricity shortages, and even power grid collapses. On the other hand, accurate electricity power forecasting can enable reliable guidance for the planning of power production and the operation of a power system, which is also im...

The increasing penetration of renewable energy sources, the demand for more energy efficient electricity production and the increase in distributed electricity generation causes a shift in the way electricity is produced and consumed. The downside of these changes in the electricity grid is that network stability and controllability becomes more difficult compared to the old situation. The new ...