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If transmission charges are to reflect costs, they should be affected by the location of demand and generation. This paper describes the investment cost-related pricing (ICRP) methodology used to calculate transmission charges in Great Britain (GB), which is based on the marginal investment cost of additional demand or generation, using a dc load flow transport model. We apply this existing method to calculate charges for the Supergen FutureNet scenarios for 2020. This study highlights the sensitivities in charges for use of the transmission system arising from plausible demand and generation developments. The changes in tariffs will present financial challenges for system users in some areas. The objective of the work presented is to illustrate the sensitivity of the charges produced by this methodology to changes in demand, generation, and network topology rather than compare alternative pricing approaches. The conclusion drawn is that the ICRP system pricing method may be suitable in future years but only with some important issues investigated and resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents selected findings from a three-year research project that was funded by the Human Sciences domain of the U.K. Ministry of Defence's scientific research program. A significant number of military systems are operated by teams of varying sizes, and there is a trend toward greater teamwork in the future, as technological advances enable enhanced cooperation between geographically distributed personnel. The need to be able to determine the most appropriate team structure for the most effective performance is becoming greater. The approach that is presented here has taken theoretical concepts from the team performance literature, developed them into an enhanced theoretical formulation, operationalized them, selected representative tradeoff criteria, and implemented them using a computer-modeling tool. The program that was undertaken was able to demonstrate that operationalizing team structure and team-performance-shaping factors in specific behavioral terms in this way has immense potential to generate quantitative output, allowing meaningful comparisons among design or operational alternatives. In addition, the discipline of the operationalization process provides a means for enriching theoretical concepts by grounding them in realistic behavioral terms, and this can lead to enhanced theorizing. Furthermore, once the initial data are collected and the model is built, modification is neither labor nor time intensive. The approach could be developed further to apply to many more team structure and performance concepts. We believe that this will enhance both the theory and the value of team-structure modeling for practical application in system design in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulators are aiming to incentivize developers and Distribution Network Operators to connect distributed generation (DG) to improve network environmental performance and efficiency. A key question is whether these incentives will encourage both parties to connect DG. Here, multiobjective optimal power flow is used to simulate how the parties' incentives affect their choice of DG capacity within the limits of the existing network. Using current U.K. incentives as a basis, this paper explores the costs,, benefits and tradeoffs associated with DG in terms of connection, losses and, in a simple fashion, network deferral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agility has been widely accepted in manufacturing industry as a new competitive concept. However, how to develop a manufacturing strategy based around agility is not fully understood. This paper proposes a framework for the implementation of agility as a manufacturing strategy and describes the development and analysis of a numerical taxonomy of agility strategies using the framework. The taxonomy was developed with cluster analysis based on the relative importance attached to seven agility capabilities by a number of U.K. manufacturing companies. Three distinct clusters of strategy groups were observed across the industry studied: Quick, Responsive and Proactive Players. Quick Players are oriented towards a strong customer focus and quickness. They do not emphasize flexibility and responsiveness to changes and they give low priority to proactiveness and partnership. Responsive Players are preoccupied with flexibility and responsiveness to changes. They do not emphasize proactiveness and partnerships and they attach low importance to quickness. Proactive Players are characterized by high priorities on proactiveness and customer focus, high values attached to all capabilities, and high importance given to partnerships. The underlying dimensions of agile capabilities along which the three strategy groups differ were investigated based on factor analysis and canonical discriminant analysis. Changes/uncertainties in the business environment experienced by members of different strategic groups were compared, and ‘manufacturing strategy choices,’ in terms of manufacturing practices for achieving agility, employed by members of different strategic groups were studied. Business characteristics and typical cases for each strategy group were investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses an alternative to the ex post pricing model currently under development within ISO New England's (ISO NE) ancillary service market. Since ISO NE's real-time ancillary service market co-optimizes both energy and reserve products, ex post pricing is needed for both energy and reserve. A co-optimization approach for ex post pricing requires defining complex pricing rules and implementing heuristics to ensure consistent binding constraints with the ex ante dispatch. In order to avoid complexity and uncertainty of required heuristics, a new ex post pricing schema is proposed to calculate the ex post energy and reserve prices in a decoupled way while recognizing the coupling effect of energy and reserve. In the proposed approach, ex post energy prices are first computed by incorporating the ex ante marginal opportunity cost of reserve in the energy offer; the ex post reserve prices are then calculated by considering the ex post marginal opportunity cost of energy. This approach simplifies the implementation of ex post pricing rules in the ISO NE market. Numerical examples are presented to further demonstrate the validity of this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliability improvement is the conceptual norm but has not been achieved by all sectors of industry. The U.K. aerospace industry is one that has aspired to make the transition from a culture of reliability demonstration to enhancement. This paper presents action research that examines the challenges facing this industry. A statistical model is developed to help measure the likely impact of failure modes on operational performance, hence providing a basis for managing the enhancement process. The model, which has general applicability to other product development processes, is stated and justified. The industrial interventions are described and an analysis of findings is presented. The proposed model is better than traditional approaches because it provides a systematic process to capture and integrate data from different sources to estimate reliability by directly measuring the engineering improvement achieved through product design and development. The estimates can be used to inform a traceable coherent argument about the level and growth in reliability to management and the customer as well as to provide insight into the impact of alternative engineering modifications to the design team. The modeling process has contributed to the partial transition to reliability enhancement of a consortium of companies who have changed their standard operating procedures to reflect the lessons learned from the research intervention. The insights gained contribute to an understanding of how the U.K. aerospace industry is changing its management of reliability enhancement in design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the process of review, design, and delivery of a course in modern embedded systems, an international collaborative teaching project involving the University of New South Wales (Australia), Manchester University, and Imperial College, London University (United Kingdom). This project, being the first of its kind anywhere in the world, provides a learning environment that replicates the current industrial practice in embedded systems design in an easy and comprehensible setting, an environment where the processor, dedicated coprocessors, and software are all integrated to create a functional system such as used in sophisticated electronic devices, including mobile phones, Web phones, televisions, digital cameras, and personal digital assistants. Such collaborations are important in both reducing development costs in developing up-to-date, and increasingly sophisticated, courses and in addressing pedagogical issues that are common between computer and electrical engineering programs in all academic institutions. To assist students' learning experience, the course is supported with purpose built state-of-the-art programmable hardware and software development platforms, carefully planned laboratory experiments, lecture notes, weekly online quizzes, tutorials, and a companion CD-ROM as a learning tool. Since the introduction of this complete package, students' satisfaction, assessment results, and skills obtained through evaluation and assessment methods have improved markedly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the accuracy and reliability of tree height retrieval over coniferous plantations using X-band interferometry. Factors such as crown shape, density, tree height, incidence angle, and slope have been assessed and quantified using a simple polarimetric radar interferometry simulator to determine their impact on height retrieval. Results from model simulation show that the most important factors are: crown shape, plantation density, and tree height. Variation in viewing angle and small slopes (< 300) appear to have only small effects. These results appear to be in reasonably good agreement with the retrieved tree height from airborne X-band Intermap data over coniferous plantations in the U.K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electricity industry is significantly affected by weather conditions both in terms of the operation of the network infrastructure and electricity consumption. Following privatization and deregulation, the electricity industry in the U.K. has become fragmented and central planning has largely disappeared. In order to maximize profits, the margin of supply has decreased and the network is being run closer to capacity in certain areas. Careful planning is required to manage future electricity demand within the framework of this leaner electricity network. There is evidence that the climate in the U.K. is changing with a possible 3°C average annual temperature increase by 2080. This paper investigates the impact of weather variables on monthly electricity demand in England and Wales. A multiple regression model is developed to forecast monthly electricity demand based on weather variables, gross domestic product, and population growth. The average mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) for the worst model is approximately 2.60% in fitting the monthly electricity demand from 1989 to 1995 and approximately 2.69% in the forecasting over the period 1996 to 2003. This error may reflect the nonlinear dependence of demand on temperature at the hot and cold temperature extremes; however, the inclusion of degree days, enthalpy latent days, and relative humidity in the model improves the demand forecast during the summer months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2002, the commercial digital terrestrial television service in the United Kingdom had a technological revival Since its first broadcast in 1998, there have been a number of reception issues concerning Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial (DVB-T). As a result, the modulation method has changed in order to maximize the coverage and minimize errors. The consequence of changing the modulation method to a more robust system is that the overall throughput must suffer. Therefore, a trade-off between throughput and robustness must be made. This paper will detail the results of experiments performed to ascertain the justification of changing the modulation method in a DVB-T compliant system from 64-QAM to 16- QAM when transmitted at Radio Frequencies (RF) when subjected to multipath with long path delays as is normal in a Single Frequency Network (SFN). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]