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Smart grids provide services at the basis of a number of application sectors, several of which are critical from the perspective of human life, environment or financials. It is therefore paramount to be assisted by technologies able to analyze the smart grid behavior in critical scenarios, e.g. where cyber malfunctions or grid disruptions occur. In this paper, we present a stochastic modelling framework to quantitatively assess representative indicators of the resilience and quality of service of the distribution grid, in presence of accidental faults and malicious attacks. The results from the performed analysis can be exploited to understand the dynamics of failures and to identify potential system vulnerabilities, against which appropriate countermeasures should be developed. The features of the proposed analysis framework are discussed, pointing out the strong non-linearity of the involved physics, the developed solutions to deal with control actions and the definition of indicators under analysis. A case study based on a real-world network is also presented.

Over the last decade, significant attention has been devoted to Closed-Loop Supply Chain (CLSC) design problems. As such, this review aims at assessing whether the current modelling approaches for CLSC problems can support the transition towards a Circular Economy at a supply chain level. The paper comprehensively assesses the extent to which existing modelling approaches evaluate the performance of supply chains across the complete spectrum of sustainability dimensions. Also, the capability of the current approaches of incorporating strategic, tactical, and operational decisions is considered, along with adopted solution methodologies. As a result, a comprehensive analysis was performed on 254 selected articles. This paper emphasises how most of the current literature in the field is affected by a disconnection between supply chain design and the founding principles of Circular Economy. Specifically, the CLSC literature exhibits a reductionist interpretation of the Circular Economy. CLSC studies focusing on all three dimensions of sustainability are relatively rare, and performance measurement approaches appear to be very much focused on monetary issues. While methodological contributions appear adequate to focus on the non-deterministic nature of CLSC design problems, there is paucity of empirically-grounded research. Coherently, a research agenda is proposed, in order to address the mentioned gaps and increase the relevance of this research field to practice.

The aim of this work is to perform a feasibility study on the power line communication for the development of a new generation of interface devices (IDs) for smart grid applications. More in detail, this paper deals with one of the most important issues on this topic which is the communication system. Among the existing communication technologies, the study is focused on power line communications (PLCs). After a analysis of the state of the art in the field, the main aspects are analyzed, concerning the open issues on the use of PLCs, especially for medium voltage (MV) and low voltage (LV) systems. In this work the use of PLC in MV-LV networks is investigated, by means of simulations and experimental tests. These tests are performed in a test power network, which includes a MV overhead power line and a MV/LV transformer. The two ways communication channel is characterized, by transmitting a signal from the MV bus-bars and receiving it from the LV network and vice-versa. In this way the possibility to cross the power transformer is investigated

This paper proposes a novel measurement procedure for load flow analysis in medium voltage (MV) smart grids. The new approach is based on power measurements at low voltage (LV) side of MV/LV distribution substations. Such measurements are carried out by means of power quality analyzers. If compared with the load flow methods based on measurements at the MV side, the proposed approach has a lower cost and it offers an equally reliable measurement system. The proposed algorithm takes the basic concept of the current summation backward/forward method; some modifications are introduced to use LV load powers measurements. To this aim, the MV/LV power transformer is properly modeled and taken into account in the algorithm. The proposed approach is validated by means of both simulations and experimental measurements; the test system is the MV distribution grid of Ustica Island, Italy. First, the proposed algorithm is compared with the MATLAB/Simulink load flow tool, which is based on the traditional Newton-Raphson method. Second, a comparison is carried out between the proposed method and the measurement data collected in the actual MV network of Ustica. Such comparison takes into account the uncertainties of both proposed method, and experimental active and reactive MV power measurements.

Under the pressure of shortening product life cycle to cope with turbulent market environment, manufacturing industry has to re-configure factory more and more in order to promote sustainable growth. Therefore the modularization and standardisation become key objectives for life cycle oriented plant design. This paper introduces the implementation of modular plant design, which is a result of EU-funded project "Modular Plant Architecture" (MPA). Object Oriented, Virtual Reality and Discrete Event Simulation technologies are adopted in this project.

The knowledge economy has featured the last few decades and the innovation is the strategic factor to improve the competitiveness of a country or a region. Within this context, the knowledge production and the technology transfer to companies have been becoming increasingly important components to be competitive in the global economy. In very different countries, public policies have been implementing in order to foster the collaborations between research centers and business, increase the number of patents, support for new business creation as a spin-off of public sector research. Intermediate structures intended to promote the convergence of businesses and public sector research (universities and research institutions) have been multiplied. This phenomenon regards, more or less, all technological fields. In this paper we examine the technology transfer mechanism in the energy sector and in particular we focus our research in spin off firms which operate in the energy sector. The energy sector is facing two big issues: the growing electricity demand and the environmental challenges. In such field, the energy sector plays a main role in the mitigation of climate change, to increasing efficiency and to guaranteeing energy security. For this reason the innovation in energy technology has become over the years a crucial strategic factor both for governments and companies. If it is refered to renewable energy, we can find out that the amount of investment (government and corporate) in research and development increased during the period 2004-2014 up to 129%: from $5.1 billion in 2004 to $ 11,7 billion in 2014. (Global Trends In Renewable Energy Investment 2015 - Frankfurt School-UNEP Centre ). Also the number of patent applications has increased from 2003 to 2013, about 65% more.(WIPO data elaborated by Istituto per la competitività ). According to some studies the innovation process not only affects big companies but also SMEs. The smaller companies make a greater effort in R&D, measured in relative terms with respect to sales, in particular the younger firms are more likely to perform R&D. What we want to examine in this paper is the incidence of R & D investment on the creation of start-ups, in particular as research results and patents produced within universities and research institutes have enabled the creation of spin off firms in the energy sector. Our research has focused on Italian spin off firms by analyzing the characteristics of these companies making a comparison with those of other sectors.

Engaging citizens and stakeholders in the transition of contemporary energy systems towards renewables is a crucial requirement, as energy transitions are not just a matter of technological innovation but complex processes resulting from the interactions of technological and social components. Engagement may support the transition by fostering the diffusion of new practices and behaviors, by integrating different perspectives, knowledge and experiences thus improving the innovation process itself, by eventually improving the public acceptance and lowering the potential public conflicts and by producing direct and indirect economic impacts. The chapter starts from the clarification of the differences between engagement and acceptance that, even if often considered as synonymous by decision-makers, are deeply diverse concepts, the former pertaining to the realm of active participation, while the second to the realm of passive reception. First, an exploration of the diverse dimensions of social acceptance (sociopolitical, community and market) and its main determinants is provided and a model of engagement process is described with specific attention to the most diffused strategies put in place to strengthen the process itself and to its results that may widely vary from a mere acceptance to a convinced support even to the reinforcement of the conflict and the zero option. Secondly, the focus moves to the institutionalization of the public engagement within the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) framework promoted by the European Commission with the aim of aligning the techno-scientific developments to the needs and the expectations of society and that formally recognizes the relevance of engaging the public in the innovation process. Finally, attention is paid to the direct and indirect that an effective public engagement activity may produce at the different levels of the economic system: at the micro-level of firms' R&D and market strategies, through strengthening their competitiveness; at the meso-level of local development processes through empowering the role of citizens in shaping and influencing the energy sector thanks to engaging tools such as deliberative polling and energy communities; at the macro-level of the national political economy through the promotion of co-production of services and public-private partnership.

In July 2016 the SheepToShip LIFE project was financed by the EU LIFE Programme Climate Action 2014-2020 with the aim to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from the dairy sheep sector in Sardinia, an absolute leader on dairy sheep raising [4]. In particular, the main objective of the project is to reduce by 20% in 10 years GHG emissions (nitrous oxide, methane and carbon dioxide) from the Sardinian dairy sheep supply chain. The immediate goals of the project are to encourage the environmental improvements of production systems in the sheep sector and to demonstrate the environmental, economic and social benefits deriving from eco-innovation in the dairy industry and sheep farming sector. Additionally, its actions promote the implementation of environmental policies and rural development, guided by the Life Cycle Thinking approach, and aimed at enhancing the environmental quality of local sheep's milk and cheese supply chains. Furthermore, one of the project scopes is to increase the level of knowledge and awareness of stakeholders and the general public regarding the environmental sustainability of products made from sheep's milk and their contribution to the mitigation of climate change. With this approach, the project expects to achieve the development of a common methodology for analysing the life-cycle of sheep's milk supply chains. This procedure will be used to determine the environmental impact of the sheep's milk business in Sardinia, including the environmental hotspots of the life-cycle of Sardinian Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) sheep's cheese, and will be tested in several cases study (sheep farms and sheep dairy businesses) through the introduction of low-input techniques compatible with maintaining quality standards of products.

The aim of the paper is to show how narrowband power line communications (NB-PLCs) can be a valid solution for medium voltage grids. Advantages and drawbacks of this solution are analyzed, starting from some experimental communication results, which were carried out on the medium power system networks of the islands of Ustica and Favignana, in the presence of the net voltage. Furthermore, some communication architectures and hardware prototypes based on NB-PLCs are proposed for different smart grids applications.