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This research case study assesses the impacts of peri-urban features such as buildings on the performance of an operating 850 kW Vestas V52 wind turbine that has a 60 m hub height and 52 m rotor diameter located at the outskirts of Dundalk town in Ireland. Multi-annual 10-minute SCADA data is analysed to assess the directional electrical energy rose (EER) of the wind turbine. This is compared to predictions from WAsP-IBZ that uses an obstacle model to assess buildings and to WAsP-CFD treating buildings as surface roughness elements in the terrain. Onsite LiDAR measurements are used to initialise the WAsP programme in both cases. Measured directional wind shear profiles are also assessed to give further insights into discrepancies between the predicted and actual energy performance of the wind turbine. "The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the INTERREG VA SPIRE2 project. This research was supported by the European Union's INTERREG VA Programme (Grant No. INT-VA/049), managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). The views and opinions expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission or the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB)."

This paper presents a newly developed voltage and reactive power control device, the coordinated Q -V controller (CQVC), for a multimachine steam power plant (SPP). The requirements for the new controller are defined based on identified inadequacies of manual Q-V control. The controller uses a feed-forward correction signal based on the application of the sensitivity matrix at a power plant level. It is designed and its performance initially assessed using the Matlab/Simulink environment. The performed simulations show that all the primary design objectives are met. The Q-V controller maintains the voltage at the SPP busbar with a certain droop characteristic during slow voltage changes in the power system whilst also maintaining equal per unit reactive power sharing among the SPP generators. This ensures that the power system fully benefits from all generating units during system perturbations. The performance of the designed CQVC is validated by comparing simulation results with measured responses obtained from a real CQVC installed at a SPP.

R is a fundamental piece of software within the field of data and AI, used by many researchers and RSEs. The R Project is over 20 years old, but its future is not secure - many of the R Core Team are nearing retirement and there are not enough new contributors to sustain the work. In this talk, we describe a number of initiatives, organised under Dr Heather Turner's 'Sustainability and EDI in the R Project' fellowship, to encourage and train a new, more diverse, generation of contributors. These include R contributor office hours, collaboration campfires, a bug BBQ, translatons and an updated R development guide. This presentation is also a call to action to encourage other RSEs to get involved in supporting this language, used by an estimated 2 million people.

A differential flatness theory‐based control and state estimation method has been developed for electric power units that consist of synchronous generators connected to gas turbines. The dynamic model of the power unit satisfies the properties of differential flatness and this allows for its transformation into an input–output linearized form. Moreover, it is shown that the state‐space description of the power system can be written in the canonical (Brunvsky) form. Using this, a solution for the power unit's control and state estimation problem is given. First, a stabilizing feedback controller is designed. Moreover, with the use of differential flatness theory‐based implementation of the Kalman Filter it becomes possible to solve the state and disturbances estimation problem of the gas‐turbine power unit. The considered filtering method, under the name of Derivative‐free nonlinear Kalman Filter, consists of application of the Kalman Filter's recursion on the linearized equivalent model of the power system, and of an inverse transformation that allows for computing estimates for the state variables of the initial nonlinear system. By redesigning the aforementioned Kalman Filter as a disturbance observer one can also identify and annihilate in real time exogenous perturbations.

Sustainably managed non-native trees deliver economic and societal benefits with limited risk of spread to adjoining areas. However, some plantations have launched invasions that cause substantial damage to biodiversity and ecosystem services, while others pose substantial threats of causing such impacts. The challenge is to maximise the benefits of non-native trees, while minimising negative impacts and preserving future benefits and options. A workshop was held in 2019 to develop global guidelines for the sustainable use of non-native trees, using the Council of Europe – Bern Convention Code of Conduct on Invasive Alien Trees as a starting point. The global guidelines consist of eight recommendations: 1) Use native trees, or non-invasive non-native trees, in preference to invasive non-native trees; 2) Be aware of and comply with international, national, and regional regulations concerning non-native trees; 3) Be aware of the risk of invasion and consider global change trends; 4) Design and adopt tailored practices for plantation site selection and silvicultural management; 5) Promote and implement early detection and rapid response programmes; 6) Design and adopt tailored practices for invasive non-native tree control, habitat restoration, and for dealing with highly modified ecosystems; 7) Engage with stakeholders on the risks posed by invasive non-native trees, the impacts caused, and the options for management; and 8) Develop and support global networks, collaborative research, and information sharing on native and non-native trees. The global guidelines are a first step towards building global consensus on the precautions that should be taken when introducing and planting non-native trees. They are voluntary and are intended to complement statutory requirements under international and national legislation. The application of the global guidelines and the achievement of their goals will help to conserve forest biodiversity, ensure sustainable forestry, and contribute to the achievement of several Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations linked with forest biodiversity.

This guide provides a practical overview of the first pan-African, kilometre-scale convection-permitting regional climate simulations (CP4-Africa), run as part of the Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) programme’s Improving Model Processes for African Climate (IMPALA) project. CP4-Africa provides the first convection-permitting resolution, multi-year climate simulations for present-day and idealised future climates on an African-wide domain. The simulations have provided an unprecedented level of climate detail across Africa and initial studies have shown improvements in the simulation of many, but not all, aspects of African climate. The goal of this guide is to promote adoption of the CP4-Africa approach within the climate community and is targeted at researchers with interest in progressing this relatively new modelling approach to improve understanding and representation of the drivers of African climate. It is also targeted at potential users of the high-resolution simulations for impact studies and decision support. While this is not an exhaustive review of the CP4-Africa simulations, from a practical perspective it highlights what one has to be aware of when designing similar simulations or using CP4-Africa simulation outputs. The guide is envisaged to be a living document that will be updated as new experiences become available from further analysis of CP4-Africa simulations data; and running CP4-Africa simulations under different experimental set ups. The guide is structured as a series of questions on CP4-Africa simulations and the application of the results, including how to access the simulations’ data. It begins with background information on what convection-permitting models are. A description of the CP4-Africa simulations performed by the IMPALA project is then presented. This is followed by an illustration of what is new in the CP4-Africa regional climate simulations, its limitations and how the simulations’ data can be accessed. Finally, case studies on user experiences in accessing and using CP4-Africa simulation are presented.