Power Contingency Research Articles

The contingencies of platform power and risk management in the gig economy

The contingencies of platform power and risk management in the gig economy

“Do You Go to New Orleans?”: The Louisiana Purchase, Federalism, and the Contingencies of Empire in the Early U.S. Republic

abstract: This essay examines the planned invasion of New Orleans organized by the United States in late 1803 to enforce the terms of the Louisiana Purchase treaty. This story is a little-known but revealing moment in the history of the Louisiana Purchase and the early U.S. republic, and it demonstrates the varied levels of power and authority the United States depended on to implement its imperial projects. The federal system necessitated cooperation between the Jefferson administration and state governments in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee, all of which were active partners in U.S. empire-building. West of the Appalachian Mountains, however, local conditions shaped the abilities of the states to fulfill Jefferson’s request for troops. By focusing on the intricacies of the federal system as the Jefferson administration attempted to accomplish a single goal of acquiring Louisiana in a narrow window of time, this essay highlights how crucial the contingencies of politics and power on the ground were to the federal system.

Critical Reliability Improvement Using Q-Learning-Based Energy Management System for Microgrids

This paper presents a power distribution system that prioritizes the reliability of power to critical loads within a community. The proposed system utilizes reinforcement learning methods (Q-learning) to train multi-port power electronic interface (MPEI) systems within a community of microgrids. The primary contributions of this article are to present a system where Q-learning is successfully integrated with MPEI to reduce the impact of power contingencies on critical loads and to explore the effectiveness of the subsequent system. The feasibility of the proposed method has been proven through simulation and experiments. It has been demonstrated that the proposed method can effectively improve the reliability of the local power system—for a case study where 20% of the total loads are classified as critical loads, the system average interruption duration index (SAIDI) has been improved by 75% compared to traditional microgrids with no load schedule.

Fairness and Utilitarianism in Allocating Energy to EVs During Power Contingencies Using Modified Division Rules

In order to maximize utilitarianism and fairness in allocating energy to electric vehicles (EVs) during outages, this study proposes an optimization method based on modified division rules. The idea of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">essential energy demand</i> is introduced in this paper to maximize the number of EVs that are served during power contingencies. For EVs carrying out the time-critical task(s), the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">essential energy demand</i> is defined as the amount of energy required by EVs to accomplish their upcoming task(s). For EVs carrying out delay-tolerant tasks, it is defined as the amount of energy required by EVs to travel to a nearby healthy charging station. To this end, an EV ranking mechanism is devised considering the full and essential energy demands along with the urgency of EVs. Subsequently, EVs with higher ranks are prioritized during energy allocation. The performance of the proposed method is compared with four existing division rules, i.e., proportional, constrained equal awards, constrained equal losses, and sequential priority rules. A utilitarianism index is proposed to analyze the performance of these methods and fairness is evaluated using existing indices, such as Jain's fairness index and cost of fairness index. The proposed method has outperformed existing division rules in both utilitarianism and fairness for the essential energy demand. Finally, a sensitivity analysis of uncertain parameters such as EV fleet size, available/required energy, and weight factors is carried out to analyze the performance of the proposed method under various conditions.

Debt-Equity Ratio, CEO Power and Financial Performance of Listed Companies at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya

Firm financial performance is essential for corporate survival and prosperity. Financial leverage may be used to enhance corporate financial performance, but it can also occasion financial distress and bankruptcy if not carefully managed. At the Nairobi Securities Exchange, a number of firms face poor financial performance, financial distress, and weak corporate governance, commonly associated with excessive leverage and bankruptcy. Recent corporate finance research shows increasing importance of variables, omitted in prior corporate finance studies, with more practical significance to practicing managers such as debt slack and corporate governance. The purpose of this study was to determine the moderating effect of Chief Executive Officer Power on the relationship between financial leverage and financial performance of listed companies at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. The specific objective was to determine the conditional effect of Chief Executive Officer Power on the relationship between Debt-Equity ratio and firm financial performance. The study was grounded on dynamic trade-off, pecking order, agency, and upper echelon theories. Positivist research paradigm with a descriptive research design using a linear regression model on Panel data obtained from a survey of 38 listed companies at Nairobi Securities Exchange over the period 2010 to 2019 was used. The data was mined from financial statements filed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. Controlling for Firm size, Sales growth and operational efficiency, the study found Chief Executive Officer Power to significantly moderate the relationship between Debt/Equity ratio and Return on Equity (∆R2 = +0.1314;ꞵ = 0.1019455, p=0.000), with scope for lower levels enhancing Return on Equity while higher levels dampening. The study recommended a low Chief Executive Officer Power configuration mandate. The study contributes to theory development by establishing executive power contingency to theories relating financial leverage to firm financial performance; to knowledge by developing a tool for measurement of Executive power; and to policy by providing empirical evidence for regulation of executive power. The study scope was limited to structural and shared ownership sources of Chief Executive Officer Power and recommends further research incorporating personal sources of power.

Judith Butler and the Politics of Epistemic Frames

ABSTRACT Judith Butler’s work has tended to be read through two axes: (1) an early gender theory/later ethical theory division, and/or (2) an ethical/political divide. In contrast, I aim to undercut both hermeneutical strategies by turning to her epistemology, as manifested through her analyses of normativity and “frames,” to argue that the latter acts as the hinge uniting her so-called early and later works and the ethical and political dimensions of her thinking. From this premise, I maintain that Butler (1) affirms that these frames are conditioned by power relations and contingency, (2) points to the existence of multiple frameworks that simultaneously compete against one another, and (3) insists that frames are culturally specific and determining of the categories that identify what counts as a legitimate life for a particular community and the ways in which each (form of) life is to be treated. By highlighting the social, performative, and normative dimensions of epistemic practices, Butler offers an epistemology based in the construction of contingent and contestable frameworks and shows how the contestation between distinct frameworks conditions the ethical-political life of each community.

Information Technology and organizational innovation: Harmonious information technology affordance and courage-based actualization

Researchers and practitioners have long believed that information technology (IT) is a key tool for fostering innovation. However, there is a certain inconsistency in the literature, which makes it challenging for researchers to figure out exactly how and why IT plays such a pivotal, strategic organizational role. The motivation for this research is the multiple contradictory results reported by studies investigating the influence of information technology (IT) on organizational innovation. This study utilizes a fit-based perspective in an attempt to disentangle these contradictions. Using Venkatraman’s (1989) seminal paper on fit, we conceive of two critical fit-based concepts: harmonious IT affordance in an organization (HITA) and a subsequent fit between HITA and organizational courage. HITA reflects a covariance fit (coalignment) between the three major IT affordances in an organization—collaborative affordance, organizational memory affordance, and process management affordance. Organizational courage reflects the boldness (risk-taking ability) of the organization. Finally, HITA and organizational courage represent a matching fit (reflected as actualized HITA) that influences two kinds of innovation: exploratory and exploitative. Two studies, conducted in the US and Chinese contexts, provide support for this theory. The main contribution of the paper is in showing that IT can lead to innovation if (a) organizational IT affordances harmoniously coalign (as HITA); (b) and, organizational courage acts as a powerful contingency that actualizes HITA, and this actualized HITA influences innovation.

CASeS: Concurrent Contingency Analysis-Based Security Metric Deployment for the Smart Grid

Security metric deployment is of immense importance for power utilities especially in future smart grids, which are being actively pursued in smart cities initiatives around the world. Through these metrics, utilities attain real-time awareness of the grid’s security posture. In this paper, we propose a contingency analysis based security evaluation framework for smart grid systems - CASeS. Based on the power flow equations of the grid, communication network characteristics, and concurrent power contingencies, CASeS leverages Markovian Decison Processes (MDP) to quantify the smart grid security. The security index delivered through CASeS emerges as a novel solution for concurrent power contingency consideration, and allows for the preparation of corrective actions to address the quantified grid criticality level. We evaluate CASeS on the standard IEEE 14-Bus and 39-Bus systems. The collected results demonstrate the usefulness of CASeS in quantifying the security of those systems.

Modeling an Isolated Hybrid Wind-Diesel Power System for Performing Frequency Control Studies. A Case of Study: San Cristobal Island, Galapagos–Ecuador

From a technical and ecological point of view, standalone wind-diesel power generation has been proven to be one of the most effective solutions in electrification in remote populated locations. However, some technical aspects that characterize those systems such as the small size of conventional power generators, high share of wind energy, low consumption levels, and the lack of energy storage equipment, might make the operation and control tasks difficult due to the low stability margin. A real case that supports the previous statement is the San Cristobal wind-diesel power system (Galapagos Islands-Ecuador), whose undoubted environmental and economic benefits are notoriously contrasted by certain technical challenges that grid operators have to deal with. During the windiest season of 2015, many blackouts were reported on the island. These were originated by the trip of frequency relays of generation units whose causes are still unknown. In order to provide an analysis tool that allows to study the dynamics of most relevant variables of systems with these characteristics during a power contingency and to identify the possible causes that lead to a certain frequency event, this paper proposes a modeling procedure based on the load frequency control scheme, within the primary frequency regulation time-frame, along with its implementation in MATLAB/Simulink®. The complete model is validated by using real data measured in field tests in the island power system as well as technical information provided by the grid-operators.

Applying Non-Nested Generalized Exemplars Classification for Cyber-Power Event and Intrusion Detection

Non-nested generalized exemplars (NNGEs) is a state of the art data mining algorithm which uses distance between a new example and a set of exemplars for classification. The state extraction method (STEM) preprocesses power system wide area measurement system data to reduce data size while maintaining critical patterns. Together NNGE+STEM make an effective event and intrusion detection system which can effectively classify power system events and cyber-attacks in real time. This paper documents the results of two experiments in which NNGE+STEM was used to classify cyber power contingency, control action, and cyber-attack events. Experimental results show that NNGE+STEM achieved greater than 94 and 97% accuracy for multiclass and binary class classification. Additionally, the NNGE+STEM false positive rate was below 0.5%, the average classification time was 0.2 ms, and the classifier had low memory requirements.

Decentralised frequency‐based control of a population of heterogeneous ACs without power oscillations

In power system, the control performance deteriorates due to the penetration of the fluctuating renewable generation if no advanced control strategy is implemented. In this study, the authors investigate a class of thermostatically controlled loads – air conditioners (ACs) – to provide fast frequency regulation service in system contingencies by switching ON/OFF state based on the system frequency deviation in a decentralised way. First, an estimation of the steady-state aggregate power of a population of heterogeneous ACs is derived corresponding to the ambient temperature, and the power overshoot caused by a safe protocol (SP) is discussed analytically, both of which are verified by simulations. Then, a decentralised frequency-based control strategy is designed and a multi-stage frequency responsive model is implemented implicitly. An SP with the timer is introduced in the strategy in order to eliminate the power oscillations during the load pick-up period. Finally, the proposed strategy is incorporated into the primary control of the power system to provide fast frequency regulation service in power contingencies. Comparing with other decentralised strategies, the proposed method can obtain a lower-frequency deviation and the smoothest demand trajectory without long-term power oscillations when a power contingency occurs. Meanwhile, the comfort of the consumers is guaranteed during the demand response.

The contingencies of power: reformulating Foucault

In a critique of Michel Foucault’s understanding of power relations, Andrew Sayer outlined an alternative that was both more conceptually rigorous and offered a clearer analytical framework with which to approach the analysis of power. Part of Sayer’s development was to distinguish not only between the holding and the operating of power(s), but also the three contingencies that always exist alongside power(s). The paper argues that Sayer’s critique of Foucault, while a welcome theoretical clarification, partially mistakes Foucault’s project (which was to analyse power ‘as is’, not power ‘in the abstract’) and also misses some of Foucault’s own clarifications to his understanding of power. The paper develops Sayer’s position by integrating important elements of Foucault’s approach – namely his concept of ‘dispositif’ – that illustrate Foucault’s more nuanced understanding of power. This is developed by arguing that there is, in fact, a fourth level of contingency that Sayer does not articulate. The paper uses De-facing Power, an early work of Clarissa Hayward, to illustrate how a combined ‘Foucaultian/Sayerian’ model of power and contingency can give extra explanatory and analytical strength. The outcome of the article’s argument is that contingency ceases to be a ‘problem’ in social scientific research; instead it becomes the raison d’être for social scientific explanation.

Risk-Based Security and Control Framework for Power System Operation Under Significant Amounts of HVDC-connected Wind Power Generation

In the context of power system operation, probabilistic techniques can provide a deeper insight into security aspects compared to deterministic approaches, by quantitatively considering power system uncertainties and contingency impact. Moreover, they can be helpful to identify and suggest operators the most adequate control actions to reduce the operational risk. This paper proposes an original framework for risk-based assessment and control of operational security in High-Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) power systems connected to Multi-Terminal High-Voltage Direct Current (MTDC) networks like those envisaged for the integration of future, large off-shore wind farms. After the presentation of a security assessment methodology based on the concept of risk, the paper investigates three possible preventive control strategies to reduce the risk of high current by exploiting control resources available in the system (specifically, generating units and power injections from MTDC grids). Results of the methodology applied to a test system and to a realistic power system (adapted from the Italian transmission network) are presented and discussed.

“It is a pity you are not a woman”: John Lyly and the Creation of Woman

This article considers Lyly’s formative place in the development of roles for female characters in early modern drama. It discusses the centrality and dominance of such characters in Lylian plays and explores the relationship between this playwright and his theatre companies. The first section charts the exploration of the possibilities of female identity within the contingencies of patriarchal power in Lyly’s early work, whilst the second section traces the dramaturgical investigation of female subjectivity in The Woman in the Moon . The article then considers Lyly’s own exclusion from the literary canon as itself an example of misogyny, and demonstrates the much more positive relationship with female characters in his work.

Designing a novel demand side regulation algorithm to participate in frequency control using iterated mappings

This study proposes a local and decentralised load management procedure to provide frequency control support in power systems, without a complex communication network. In this context, the authors aim is to design and develop a new and innovative control algorithm using iterated mappings. Iterated mappings are obtained by local frequency measurements and are proved to be strong tools in dynamical deterministic systems’ analysis. The proposed algorithm is capable of assigning relevant operational states to power system during power contingencies; control action will then be exerted on that basis, with a simple and easy to implement data processing procedure. Efficiency of the control method is then verified by simulations in MATLAB environment.

People, Power, and Land: New Enclosures on a Global Scale

AbstractA global land rush is aggressively underway. It is reinventing frontier narratives wherever farmland, rangeland, and forestland appear “underutilized,” particularly in the Global South. Though the means and motives of these acquisitions are diverse, the lens of “new enclosures” lends itself to focusing on their similarities. New enclosures surpass the enclosures of bygone centuries in scale and speed and in the plethora of resources they reach. Sociological interventions, both theoretical and applied, are needed to contextualize and concretize this burgeoning alienation of land rights and power contingencies across communities and continents.

ANT and Politics: Working in and on the World

While it is possible to define ANT in a series of abstract bullet points to do so is to miss most of the point. Instead it explores and theorises the world through rich case studies. This means that, like symbolic interactionism, for ANT words are never enough: you need to practice it. In this paper we work empirically, drawing on an ANT-inflected ethnography of Norwegian salmon farming, and also dialogically. We do this because we want to show that for ANT theory is created, recreated, explored and tinkered with in particular research practices. Indeed, ANT is probably best understood as a sensibility, a set of empirical interferences in the world, a worldly practice, or a lively craft that cherishes the slow processes of knowing rather than immediately seeking results or closure. In particular it is sensible to materiality, relationality, heterogeneity, and process. At its best it understands itself as working in the world to create analytical contexts; but also on the world, to articulate and press particular contexts and their politics. As a part of this it explores the contingencies of power, generating tools to undo the inevitability of that power, while working on the assumption that other and better worlds are possible.

Automatic Scheduling Method for Maintenance Outages Plan of Transmission System

The main objective of this paper is to develop a model for automatic scheduling of outages tasks for maintenances using Artificial Intelligent tool (Tabu Search). The developed method of TS is used to reduce maintenance outages for electrical power system with high standard of reliability. The developed method solved the maintenance outages with taking in consideration two main problems. The first one is power flow constraints and contingency studies constrains. The second problem is the number of the crews. The developed method for automatic scheduling of maintenance outage tasks using TS is systematically applied to reconfiguration of networks and work starting date scheduling. The works progress is maximized in the scheduling period while minimized the carry-over work to the next scheduling period. The developed method was used in 20-bus test system.

Impact of M&As on organizational performance: The moderating role of HRM centrality

Summary In this study, we examine how the effects of mergers and acquisitions on organizational performance are moderated by human resource management (HRM) centrality. We differentiate three types of ownership change: mergers, bidder, and target acquisitions. The study is anchored on the literatures addressing strategic human resource management and strategic contingencies of intra-organizational power. In an analysis of the data from the 2005 Cranet survey, results showed that (i) formalization attenuated a positive impact of bidder acquisitions and aggravated a negative impact of mergers on performance, but (ii) HRM strategic involvement and centralization of HRM practices boosted a positive impact of bidder acquisitions on performance. The study offers new insights about the role of HRM centrality, and suggests that mergers and acquisitions should be studied as differentiated ownership change processes.

Dancing with Power Asymmetries of Innovation Timing in the Supply Chain Framework

This paper researches the performance of two innovation timing strategies, pioneer and follower strategies, in the supply chain partnerships considering relational contingencies of coercive power and interrelation intensity. Our study roots on primary data in three industries, at two points of time allowing short and long term insights, and upon validation interviews. Our results indicate that the pioneering strategy improves innovation performance in the short and in the long run. The influence by the follower strategy is less prominent. It improves performance only in two of the industries. Firms that are confronted with coercive power by their supply chain partners experience changes of their innovation performance. Coercive power interacts with both strategies, but in different directions. In the short and in the long run, coercive power reduces the innovation performance of a pioneer strategy, but increases the performance of a follower strategy. Firms pursuing a pioneer strategy can reduce the negat...