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Electric vehicles (E.V.) are one of the feasible solutions to address the challenges of sustainable development that require particular attention, such as climate change, depletion of fossil fuel reserves, and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the environmental benefits of electric vehicles, they can also be used as a storage system to alleviate the challenges posed by the variability of renewable electricity sources and to provide the network with ancillary benefits, such as voltage regulation and frequency regulation. Furthermore, using removable batteries by electric vehicles to store renewable energy is an innovative and effective solution to combat the increase in GHG emissions. In this article, using the autoregressive integrated moving average forecast model, we estimate the necessary storage capacity to contribute to the adjustment of the energy system increasingly powered by renewable energy sources. Also, we estimate the number of electric vehicles needed to take over the excess energy produced by renewable sources when the conventional grid cannot take over this surplus. The forecasts have the year 2050 as a time horizon. The results show that removable E.V. batteries can be an efficient solution for managing and storing energy lost in the temporal incongruity of demand with supply in the energy market.

The 2008 crisis outlined the great importance of treasury departments in companies and the change of mentality towards proactive and non-reactive management. In this work, a detailed explanation of the centralization system of the treasury, also known as cash pooling, is carried out. Nowadays this system is used by numerous companies worldwide, especially large companies with an international focus. Finally, information and communication technologies are of great importance within the company, especially in treasury management. The paper is illustrated by the case study of a water management company.

Efficient management of energy resources is crucial in smart buildings. In this work, model predictive control (MPC) is used to minimize the economic costs of prosumers equipped with production units, energy storage systems, and electric vehicles. To this purpose, the predictive control manages the available energy resources by exploiting future information about energy prices, absorption and production power profiles, and electric vehicle (EV) usage, such as times of departure and arrival and predicted energy consumption. The predictive control is compared with a rule-based technique, herein referred to as a heuristic approach, that acts in an instant-by-instant fashion without considering any future information. The reported results show that the studied predictive approach allows one to achieve charging profiles that adapt to variable operating conditions, aiming at optimal performances in terms of economic cost minimization in time-varying price scenarios, reduction of rms current stresses, and recharging capability of EV batteries. Specifically, unlike the heuristic method, the MPC approach is proven to be capable of efficiently managing the available energy resources to ensure a full recharge of the EV battery during nighttime while always respecting all system constraints. In addition, the proposed control is shown to be capable of keeping the peak power absorption from the grid constrained within set limits, which is a valuable feature in scenarios with widespread adoption of EVs in order to limit the stress on the electrical system.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the opportunities for research on the theme evaluation of seaport performance through the investigation of a bibliographic portfolio of articles with scientific relevance. In order to reach this goal, the intervention tool used was ProKnow-C (Knowledge Development Process – Constructivist), which consists of a structured process for the generation of knowledge on a determined theme from the interests and limitations of the researcher, following a constructivist view and requiring a constant interaction between the researcher and the object of his research. The highlighted results are the identification of the main characteristics of the scientific publications about performance evaluation and the proposition of opportunities for research to researchers and seaport manager from the theoretical affiliation adopted for the theme performance evaluation. It was concluded that: (i) most researches about performance evaluation, aim at measuring the operational efficiency of seaports; (ii) the evaluation criteria do not contemplate and evaluate the performance of all the agents that play a role in the seaport environment; and (iii) the evaluation tools used do not show evidence as where and how to intervene to improve the performance measured. Thus, challenges emerge for researchers and also for seaport managers. Key words: Seaport management, evaluation of seaport performance, systemic analysis, opportunities for research, ProKnow-C (Knowledge Development Process – Constructivist).

The article describes the mainstream of municipal economy crisis management, tactical activities in order to reconcile a disputes on the use of municipal property, arising between economic entities. The characteristics of existing municipal economy models are represented. The concrete methods of new principals of municipal property management are defined.

Despite the increasing number of protected areas around the world and their importance in the conservation of species and ecosystems, protected areas management capacity remains difficult to evaluate. A standard is needed to help policy makers compare the goals with the results obtained. This empirical research builds a tool to analyze the management efficiency and predicts the new touristic outcomes in case of a policy change. Using as example the state parks agencies in the USA, this paper develops a technological frontier using data envelopment analysis based on the Protected Areas Management Approach. After that, a prediction of the outcomes is analyzed with a budget change for any state park agency. Data suggest that many of them need to improve their performance to be more efficient. Another result obtained shows how budget changes will affect each agency's performance in different degrees and, therefore, budget reductions should be modeled separately.