Electric Power Company Research Articles

Operating activities expenses in the non-financial reporting of electric power companies

This article provides an overview of key issues related to non-financial reporting on the operating activities expenses of electric power companies in Ukraine. Operating activities expenses are an important factor in ensuring financial stability and resilience of Ukrainian electricity companies. However, non-financial statements on these expenses can be challenging due to different types of expenses, calculation and presentation methods, and different perspectives of stakeholders. The article explores the role of stakeholders, particularly owners and investors, in ensuring the quality and transparency of non-financial reporting on operational expenses of Ukrainian electricity companies. The article emphasizes that financial reporting provides an instant snapshot of the financial performance and position of the company, including revenues, profits, assets, and liabilities, while non-financial reporting provides a more complete picture of the company's performance and impact, including on the environment, social and governance practices, operations, and management. The research in this article helps to understand the operational expenses reflected in the non-financial reporting of Ukrainian electricity companies and how these expenses impact environmental, social, and governance practices of the companies. With this information, energy companies and other stakeholders can improve their efficiency and transparency of reporting. The results of the research indicate that the presence of quality non-financial reporting in Ukrainian electricity companies is crucial for their stability and resilience, particularly in light of increasing interest in sustainable and environmentally friendly technologies. Furthermore, it can be concluded that more transparent and accurate non-financial reporting reduces the risks of financial instability and promotes attracting new investors. Therefore, this article can be useful for electricity companies and other stakeholders in understanding the importance of non-financial reporting on operational expenses and its impact on the sustainability and resilience of the companies.

Climate change risks and financial performance of the electric power sector: Evidence from listed companies in China

The frequency, intensity and duration of extreme weather events have seriously affected human life and production. The electric power sector is the foundation of economic activity as well as a core participant in the adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Therefore, in the context of climate change, it is crucial for the stable operation of the national economy for power sector to cope with different climate change risks and improve their adaptability to climate change. In this paper, listed power companies in China are selected as samples to analyse the impact of climate change risk on the financial performance of the power system's supply and transmission-distribution sides. The empirical results show a significant positive correlation between climate change risks and the financial performance of listed electric power companies. The rainfall index and drought index positively impact the financial performance of listed electric power companies. The cryogenic freezing index has a negative impact on the financial performance of listed electric power companies., which is further analysed and proved that a cryogenic freezing disaster will cause the regional breakdown of the power system. The operating cost ratio and the proportion of clean energy supply play a mediating effect on the correlation between the comprehensive climate risk index and the return on equity of companies. To increase electric power companies' ability to adapt to climate change, climate change risks should be integrated into the risk management framework, and the company's financial performance can be improved by optimizing the energy mix and constructing safe lines. The government can promote the transformation of electric power companies by launching green financial tools.

THE EXCESSIVE TECHNICAL LOSSES OF ELECTRICITY IN ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS OF POWER CONSUMPTION

Reducing electricity losses in electrical networks is a complex complex problem that requires significant capital investments necessary for optimizing the development of electrical networks, improving the electricity accounting system, introducing new information technologies in marketing activities and managing network modes, training personnel and equipping them with means of testing measuring devices etc. In reality, in recent years, in connection with the inclusion of normative losses in the tariff for electric energy transmission services, a dangerous trend of adapting these norms to actual losses has emerged. The article analyzes the occurrence of power losses in electrical engineering systems and electrical networks of various voltage classes. Special attention is paid to the so-called excess losses, which are not taken into account during design and operation. These losses occur in insulators, linear fittings, current-limiting reactors, electricity meters, windings of current and voltage transformers, etc. Excessive losses of electricity in electric networks are direct financial losses of electric power companies. Savings from reducing losses could be directed to technical re-equipment of networks; staff salary increase; improvement of the organization of electricity transmission and distribution; increasing the reliability and quality of electricity supply to consumers. Unaccounted losses reach approximately 1% of the total amount. This fact must be taken into account. Because currently we are talking about millions of losses.

Кадровые риски в системе экономической безопасности предприятий электроэнергетики

The article considers the personnel component of the economic security of energy enterprises. The implementation of personnel risks can lead to significant losses for both the power plant itself and the enterprises dependent on it. To ensure economic security, electric power companies need to identify and assess all potential risks in a timely manner. The article presents the methodology for assessing personnel risks of economic security for enterprises in the electric power industry

Преимущества систем цифрового мониторинга электроснабжения

In this paper, the technological situation in the world was analyzed, which contributes to a change in the production process of various organizations, the key role of the electric power industry was established in many industries. The article indicates the main problems that need to be solved in order to provide high-quality and reliable power supply to consumers. As a solution to these situations, it is proposed to put into operation a digital monitoring system of electric power parameters. In the presented article, a plan is laid for the development of a methodology for organizing digital monitoring systems in the electric power industry, positive effects are noted from the application of this approach. In addition, the advantages of digital monitoring systems are indicated, which will affect the cost of electrical energy for industrial enterprises, as well as ordinary consumers. The presented work indicates the current situation in the market of electric power companies that are interested in developing a digital monitoring system and are ready to invest in this direction. The performed analysis proves the relevance of developing such a system and allows us to outline possible ways for its implementation.

Analysis of Groundwater Flows under the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Reactors Using Contaminated Water from 42 Subdrain Pits

We analyzed groundwater collected from 42 subdrain pits (wells) located around the reactor buildings of plant units #1 to #4 of the Tokyo Electric Power Company Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (F1-NPP) to understand the groundwater dynamics and water flows around F1-NPP. Since water samples collected from this small area exhibit very similar water quality, there are difficulties in understanding the flow dynamics of the groundwater using conventional chemical analyses. In this study, we clarified the groundwater flows using an altitude-modified principal component analysis (PCA) with a total of 798 data items (19 factors × 42 pits) in the chemical analyses. The PCA results showed that six specific pits deviated from the common values and that the others contained contributions from both the natural elements and radioactive nuclides. The groundwater flows under units #1–#4 into two flow lines originating from two main water sources were classified, and these lines merged around the bayside of unit #2 due to the lower groundwater head. This method proved suitable for elucidating the groundwater dynamics and water flows in this small area by the proposed altitude-modified PCA.

Distributed Energy as a Megatrend of Audit of Investment Processes of the Energy Complex

The global trend is constantly increasing investments in strategic sectors of the economy, for example the electric power industry, which, in many countries, is becoming diversified and dispersed due to the multitude of entities investing in energy production and renewable resources, which leads to an increase in the heterogeneity of investment decisions. There is an urgent need to control the movement of investments, budget funds, as well as their development in the process of implementing investment programs of energy companies. The control of the movement of investments is the most promising direction of studying the subject of finance and audit. The increasing volume of public and private targeted investments in the energy sector and the lack of control over the effectiveness of investment projects (since each program contains several thousand lists of projects) necessitated the introduction of additional regulation of budget spending. The development of a mathematical apparatus for such regulation led to the creation in the Russian Federation of an institute of an independent public technological and price audit (TPA). The TPA is seen as a mechanism to ensure an effective project evaluation and selection process. This article describes methodological improvements using power system optimization models. The Integrated MARKAL-EFOM System (TIMES) was developed as part of the Energy Technology Systems Analysis Program of the IEA-ETSAP, an international community that uses long-term energy scenarios to conduct in-depth energy and environmental analyzes. This approach includes two different but complementary systematic approaches to energy modeling: an engineering approach and an economic approach. The same approach is used when conducting a TSA, when an investment object is evaluated as a set of technological and price parameters. The article considers a model of resource allocation in the energy sector and a mechanism for using TPA for investment projects with state participation in a natural monopoly. An approach to the financial and long-term distribution of investments of electric power companies based on the search for a balance of interests of the supplier and consumer and available energy sources is proposed. A model has been developed to find the optimal plan of technical solutions, taking into account the balance of the possibilities of the electric power industry and the needs of the economy. The relevance of the article is due to the requirements of investment efficiency, since the prevailing share in the costs is occupied by the costs of equipment and the construction of power plants.

Posttraumatic stress response following the loss of significant close others in the Great East Japan Earthquake: Fukushima Health Management Survey.

During the Great East Japan Earthquake, many people experienced the loss of family and friends, among other traumatic events. This study sought to clarify the impact of the loss of significant close others on posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), as well as the factors associated with PTSS, among individuals who experienced the loss of significant close others (i.e., bereaved group). Self-administered questionnaires were mailed to men and women (N = 180,604) aged 16 years and older living in municipalities that included evacuated areas surrounding the Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which was significantly damaged following an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, causing subsequent radiation leakage; this mailing yielded a 40.7% response rate, with 57,388 valid responses, in 2012. We used the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Specific (PCL-S) to measure PTSS as the outcome variable. Loss of significant close others in the disaster and respondents' relationship with the deceased constituted the explanatory variables. Basic characteristics and disaster-related factors were the confounding variables. Data were analyzed using chi-square tests and logistic regression analyses. The bereaved group showed more severe PTSS than the nonbereaved group, aOR = 1.58, 95% CI [1.50, 1.67]. The risk of developing PTSS increased if the deceased was a respondent's spouse, aOR = 1.67, 95% CI [1.22, 2.29]; child, 1.51 [1.01, 2.25]; or friend, 1.33 [1.16, 1.53]. Individuals who lose significant close others, including both family and friends, in disasters require close mental health care and, if necessary, should be referred for psychiatric treatment.

An adaptive ensemble framework with representative subset based weight correction for short-term forecast of peak power load

In the ensemble learning-based load prediction systems, recent research studies have achieved remarkable results in terms of extracting the complementary merits of multiple individual models and reducing the forecasting uncertainty, but they lack appropriate guidance for the sample-specific ensemble weighting of actual load data showing dynamics and variability. To this end, this study proposes an adaptive ensemble framework to address the above challenging and still tricky problem, and an adaptive weight-based ensemble learning model (AW-ELM) is framed to forecast short-term electric load by introducing the representative subset based weight correction with respect to the data characteristics. In the model, a weight library is formed as representatives extracting from the given training data. Based on the representatives, probability distribution modeling is built via a distance method. Then, the adaptive weights of the test data are determined by using the best matching concept. Experiments of two electric power companies in Jiangxi Province, China are implemented to evaluate the performance of the ensemble model. The results show that the ensemble model achieves better forecasting accuracy than the average combined forecasting model and the comparison models.

The impact of policies on profit-maximizing rates of reliance on carbon capture for storage versus cleaner production

Based on techno-economic analysis, previous studies compare the short and long-term average cost of carbon capture and storage (CCS) with cleaner production technologies such as renewable energy (RE) generation. This study proposes scenarios where power generators choose to invest in CCS, RE, or both based on profit-maximization goals in the presence of policy instruments such as carbon tax and subsidies. We characterize profit-maximizing rates of reliance on CCS and RE and examine the impact of policies on a power generator’s optimal choice. The model, implemented on data obtained from 53 electric power companies, suggests that electric generators could adopt both CCS and RE profitably in the presence of policy incentives. Simulation results suggest that a one percent increase in carbon tax is associated with a 0.45–0.46 % increase in the use of CCS, whereas a one percent increase in CCS subsidy is associated with a 0.28 % increase in the use of CCS.

DETERMINATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF RISK MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN THE ELECTRICITY INDUSTRY

Electrical power companies are operating today in a turbulent environment characterized by changes in energy regulatory policies, opening of the electricity markets, competition and a subsequent loss of market share, increased customer demand, increased expectations from stakeholders; price volatility of electricity, fuel and CO2 emissions; difficulties in securing fuel supply routes, difficulties in securing transmission facilities at acceptable prices and other factors. An effective risk management system can permit an enterprise to recognize opportunities and react to change at the right time, i.e. to protect and increase the company value. In this paper, a hypothesis is presented that there is a correlation between the effectiveness of a risk management system and market competitive intensity, MCI. For the purpose of testing this hypothesis, an index has been developed to measure the effectiveness of a risk management system. The results of research conducted on a sample of twenty—one electrical power companies operating both inside and outside the countries of the European Union confirm this hypothesis.

WITHDRAWN: Fast Assessment of Distributed Photovoltaic Hosting Capacity of Distribution Networks Based on Photovoltaic Barycenter Theory

• The concepts of moment and barycenter of PV and load distributions are given. • The PV Barycenter Theory with three metrics is proposed for the first time. • A quick PV maximum hosting capacity assessment method is established. • The rapidity, accuracy, practicability and universality of the method are verified. High penetration distributed PV deployment will lead to serious power quality problems and a significant active power return, posing a serious threat to the safe and stable operation of distribution networks. This paper proposes an innovative fast assessment method of distributed PV maximum H osting C apacity (HC) of distribution networks based on P V B arycenter T heory (PBT). The new concepts of moment and barycenter are proposed, and the global metric GM of PV barycenter is achieved. The non-iterative formulas of HC that meet the node voltage upper limit and the conductor ampacity upper limit are derived, and the local metric LM1 of voltage upper limit and the local metric LM2 of ampacity upper limit are obtained. Together with the global metric GM, a complete PV Barycenter Theory is constituted. A new quick assessment method for HC of distributed PV in distribution networks is proposed. This method is applied to four 10kV distribution feeders in Chengde, Hebei Electric Power Company. The calculation results in all scenarios show that, compared to the classical Monte Carlo method, the new method boosts the average calculation efficiency by 4856 times while maintaining a 0.83% average error. The proposed method can also take into account the real-world constraints such as the existing PV capacity of the distribution networks and the exploitable PV capacity of the deploying point, making the deployment scheme more practical and feasible. The comprehensive analysis results on load rate sensitivity and PV penetration all verify the rapidity, accuracy, practicability and universality of this method.

Epidemiological study of health effects in Fukushima Emergency Workers: Progress report on the Health Examination Study, 2016-2019

• Summarized results of the first health examination conducted from January 2016 to March 2019. • Of the 19,808 emergency workers, 5,718 participated in the Health Examination Study until March 2019. • No health abnormalities were found among study participants, as a group. To clarify the long-term health effects from radiation exposure in emergency workers who responded to the radiation accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company, which was hit by a tsunami caused by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake, the Epidemiological Study of Health Effects in Fukushima Emergency Worker (currently, the Epidemiological Study on the Health Effects of Radiation Workers) was initiated in 2014. We aimed to compile the results of the Health Examination Study conducted from January 2016 to March 2019 to demonstrate the characteristics of the study participants during this period. We included individuals who completed the first health examination and provided consent to use their survey results in our study. A total of 5,718 people were included, among which 5,707 (99.8%) were men. The mean age of the study participants was 51.6 years at the time of the health examination. Compared to Japanese men, the study participants were more likely to have obesity, to be current smokers, and to consume alcohol at least once a month. There were no significant differences in the blood test results between the study participants and healthy Japanese men. To clarify the long-term health effects of radiation exposure on the emergency workers, it is important to make efforts to prevent the study participants from dropping out of the cohort over time and to keep them participating in the Health Examination Study.

A Study of Lightning Performance to Multi-grounded System of KEPCO MV and LV Distribution Network

This paper presents the indirect lightning performance evaluation of Korea Electric Power Company (KEPCO) medium voltage (MV) and low voltage (LV) lines. The main topic of this paper is to analyze an effect of the grounding systems on the indirect lightning performance of MV and LV distribution lines. To this end, we define the models of the MV and LV distribution systems for the analysis of distribution line surge overvoltage due to lightning. With reference to the data typically adopted by KEPCO, the research describes and motivates the use of the most suitable models of distribution lines, transformers, and surge arresters (SAs) to be implemented in EMTP like simulation environments. The sensitivity of the lightning performance of the distribution lines to different configuration of MV and LV grounding systems, distance between SAs, as well as presence of overhead ground wires is also analyzed. Regarding overvoltage, both the temporary overvoltage and the surge overvoltage are considered. The presence of SAs at the MV terminals of distribution transformers is also considered.

Demand response modeling in a day-ahead wholesale electricity market in Japan, considering the impact of customer risk aversion and dynamic price elasticity of demand

This study aims to develop a mathematical modeling approach to maximize the welfare of the price-responsive customers (CUs) in a wholesale electricity market in Tokyo, Japan. The contributions made by this paper in the quest to determine the role of CUs in a demand response market are twofold. First, the aversion of the CUs to the risk of choosing the Demand Response Programs (DPRs) is taken into account by considering their expected utility from consuming electricity. The proposed model is founded on the customer theory in microeconomics, using the concept of the expected utility function to model the behavior of the risk-averse CUs in response to different DPRs. Second, it introduces an hourly-based model for the short-term price elasticity of demand, considering the day-ahead price mechanism defined in the Japan Electric Power Exchange (JEPX) market. The estimated price elasticities are used in a price elasticity matrix of demand (PEMD) to precisely reflect the different response strategies, including flexible, in-flexible forward-shifting, backward shifting, and optimizing responses. An accurate day-ahead hourly load forecasting is performed, using the Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) model, which is trained on four years of data provided by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), with a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 0.94%. The developed model is used to analyze the CUs’ behaviors with different response strategies in the JEPX market in Tokyo. By applying the Time-of-Use (TOU) and Real-Time-Pricing (RTP) programs, the results reveal a peak reduction potential of 10.7% and 7.3%, respectively, for the flexible CUs. Applying the RTP program to the curtailable loads can achieve a 7.7% reduction in daily peak demand and a 1.6% reduction in daily electricity consumption.

State Estimation of Medium Voltage Distribution Line with Distributed Generations: Selected Utilization of Smart Meter Measurements

AbstractWith regard to a medium‐voltage distribution system with low voltage electrical loads (hereafter written as ELs) and distributed generations (hereafter written as DGs), this study proposes a new calculation method for estimating electrical states such as line‐to‐line voltage vectors and line current vectors at connection points. The proposed method uses the following selected electrical data as input data: (i) active powers and reactive powers measured with the smart meters (hereafter written as SMs) on low voltage ELs and DGs and (ii) a line‐to‐line voltage and a current measured with a load break switch on the medium voltage distribution line, but does not use voltages and currents measured with the SMs on low voltage ELs and DGs. The selection of the used data attains reduction in the enormous number of data collected from SMs and also contributes to needless information on vast number of low voltage distribution lines such as their line impedances. Simulation results obtained, using the proposed method, show that the accurate electrical state of a medium voltage distribution line is derived through a small correction number for various generation powers of a DG. The knowledge acquired through this study is actually applied to the centralized voltage control system installed in an electric power company. © 2022 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Corrigendum: Coot Algorithm for Optimal Carbon–Energy Combined Flow of Power Grid With Aluminum Plants

In the published article, there was an error regarding the affiliation for [Liangdong Qin, Zhiyong Chen]. Instead of “[Economic Research Institute of State Grid Hebei Electric Power Company, Shijiazhuang, China]”, it should be “[State Grid Hebei Electric Power Co., Ltd, Shijiazhuang, China]”. Also, there was an error regarding the affiliation for [Tianfeng Xu, Qianmao Zhang, Jiahui Tian]. Instead of “[State Key Laboratory of Advanced Electromagnetic Engineering and Technology, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China]”, it should be “[Economic Research Institute of State Grid Hebei Electric Power Company, Shijiazhuang, China]”. As well as having affiliation [3] for [Sheng Li, Yujun Lin], they should also have [State Key Laboratory of Advanced Electromagnetic Engineering and Technology, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China].The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated.

The impact of transmission auctions on Brazilian electric power companies

This paper estimates the impact of electricity transmission line auctions on the stock prices of Brazilian companies. We combine the endogenous switching regression model with flexible copula functions to account for the dependency between a firm's choice to participate in an auction and the impact of the auction's result on the firm's stock price. Both processes are thus modeled as a function of firm-specific and macroeconomic variables while accounting explicitly for their dependence. We show that a lower number of participants, being a state-owned company, and having synergies positively affect the chance of winning an auction. According to the estimated average treatment effect, a new transmission line increases firms' stock prices by 3.7%.

On the Analysis and Control of Audit Sampling Risk

Audit sampling technology is widely used in practical work due to its advantages of convenient and efficient efficiency, but it also has its disadvantages, producing audit sampling risk, which is divided into excessive trust risk and misuse risk. This paper borrows the accounts receivable data of Sichuan Star Electric Power Company, adopts the monetary unit sampling method to further understand and consider the audit sampling technology, and finally puts forward suggestions on the control means of audit sampling risk.

Improvement in potassium budget with water outflow reduction through reducing excessive irrigation in a paddy field

ABSTRACT Countermeasures to reduce radiocesium uptake by crops have been implemented in farmlands affected by the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011. A widely practiced countermeasure is the application of K. Long-term maintenance of soil K is crucial due to the long physical half-life of 137Cs (30 years). Plant-available K budgets can be used as an indication of sustainable maintenance. Our previous study found that large water outflow, especially percolation, associated with excessive irrigation caused major K outflow and a negative K budget in a paddy field in Fukushima in 2018. The present study evaluated whether decreasing the water outflow by reducing the irrigation volume from 6300 to 1900 mm reduced K outflow and improved the K budget in the field during the cropping period in 2019. K concentrations in soil solution were comparable in both years, and the percolation water volume decreased to 37% that of 2018, resulting in a 53% reduction in the K output from 392 to 184 kg ha–1. The input via irrigation also decreased (−35 kg ha–1), but the output via surface runoff showed a greater reduction (−58 kg ha–1) owing to a 70% decrease in the water volume compared with 2018. Consequently, the K budget was substantially improved (from −289 to −57 kg ha–1), highlighting the importance of controlling water outflow, particularly percolation, for soil K maintenance in paddy fields with high permeability.