Electrical Contraction Research Articles

Asymptotic symmetries in Carrollian theories of gravity

Asymptotic symmetries in Carrollian gravitational theories in 3+1 space and time dimensions obtained from “magnetic” and “electric” ultrarelativistic contractions of General Relativity are analyzed. In both cases, parity conditions are needed to guarantee a finite symplectic term, in analogy with Einstein gravity. For the magnetic contraction, when Regge-Teitelboim parity conditions are imposed, the asymptotic symmetries are described by the Carroll group. With Henneaux-Troessaert parity conditions, the asymptotic symmetry algebra corresponds to a BMS-like extension of the Carroll algebra. For the electric contraction, because the lapse function does not appear in the boundary term needed to ensure a well-defined action principle, the asymptotic symmetry algebra is truncated, for Regge-Teitelboim parity conditions, to the semidirect sum of spatial rotations and spatial translations. Similarly, with Henneaux-Troessaert parity conditions, the asymptotic symmetries are given by the semidirect sum of spatial rotations and an infinite number of parity odd supertranslations. Thus, from the point of view of the asymptotic symmetries, the magnetic contraction can be seen as a smooth limit of General Relativity, in contrast to its electric counterpart.

Abstract 9781: Electromechanical Optical Mapping in Beating, in Situ Swine Hearts

Introduction: Optical mapping is a powerful method for imaging cardiac propagation but is traditionally limited to motion-arrested, ex vivo preparations. Extending the method to beating, in situ preparations will enable study of bidirectional electromechanical interactions and physiological coupling between the heart and the animal. Challenges in adapting optical mapping to this setting include motion artifact, loading of voltage sensitive dye (VSD), and absorption of excitation and emission light by blood. Here, we outline a system to simultaneously image electrical propagation and contraction of intact beating hearts in an in vivo swine model. Methods: Fifteen pigs weighting 25-35 kg were anesthetized. Hearts were exposed via median sternotomy. We glued 20-30 fiducial markers (2 mm, ~1 cm spacing) to the anterior LV epicardium. We injected 14 ml of 50 uM di-4-ANEQ(F)PTEA into a catheter placed in the LAD. Blood flow in the artery was blocked during and for 1 min following the injection. This VSD works at longer wavelengths than commonly used VSDs and is therefore less affected by blood. Fluorescence was excited with alternating amber (602 nm) and green (526 nm) LEDs. Emission was long pass filtered (>700 nm) and recorded at 750 Hz with a pair of video cameras (SciMedia MiCAM03-N256) fitted with 35 mm, f/1.4 lenses . We analyzed marker motion to (1) quantify contraction and (2) partially correct motion artifact in membrane potential ( Vm ) signals. We also computed the ratio of green- to amber-elicited fluorescence on alternate frames to further correct motion artifact. Results and Conclusions: The method successfully images Vm and deformation. The figure shows an isochronal activation map of a paced beat (A), bars aligned with systolic principal strain (B), and Vm and shortening strain signals from selected sites (C). The method can be used to investigate coupled electromechanics and arrhythmogenesis in a more physiologically realistic setting than previous techniques.

Volatility and Dispersion of Hourly Electricity Contracts on the German Continuous Intraday Market

Intraday electricity trading on the continuous intraday market of EPEX SPOT is particularly well suited for the rebalancing of energy production. We analyzed the volatility and dispersion of individual hourly contracts, taking into account the particularities of the market, due to which the standard volatility measure from financial time series cannot be applied. We used and analyzed five measures for price fluctuations, which turned out to be similarly well suited for electricity contracts, with small differences. We then identified fundamental drivers of price fluctuations: the relative share of wind in the overall mix increased dispersion. In addition, price dispersion was positively correlated with the traded volume as well as the absolute difference between the day-ahead auction price and the volume-weighted intraday price. We furthermore analyzed the timely structure of price fluctuations to identify forecast indicators for a contract’s peak trading hour before maturity, finding that trading-related variables are more important to forecast price fluctuations than fundamental factors. With lagged realizations and additional external drivers, forecast regressions reached an adjusted R2 of 0.479 for volatility and around 0.3 for the dispersion measures.

Carroll contractions of Lorentz-invariant theories

We consider Carroll-invariant limits of Lorentz-invariant field theories. We show that just as in the case of electromagnetism, there are two inequivalent limits, one “electric” and the other “magnetic”. Each can be obtained from the corresponding Lorentz-invariant theory written in Hamiltonian form through the same “contraction” procedure of taking the ultrarelativistic limit c → 0 where c is the speed of light, but with two different consistent rescalings of the canonical variables. This procedure can be applied to general Lorentz-invariant theories (p-form gauge fields, higher spin free theories etc) and has the advantage of providing explicitly an action principle from which the electrically-contracted or magnetically-contracted dynamics follow (and not just the equations of motion). Even though not manifestly so, this Hamiltonian action principle is shown to be Carroll invariant. In the case of p-forms, we construct explicitly an equivalent manifestly Carroll-invariant action principle for each Carroll contraction. While the manifestly covariant variational description of the electric contraction is rather direct, the one for the magnetic contraction is more subtle and involves an additional pure gauge field, whose elimination modifies the Carroll transformations of the fields. We also treat gravity, which constitutes one of the main motivations of our study, and for which we provide the two different contractions in Hamiltonian form.

The Electrical Contractors Case: Irish Supreme Court Illuminates Collective Bargaining and Delegated Legislation

AbstractAs Europe begins to emerge from the Covid‐19 pandemic, two trends are clear: one, labour market reform is urgently needed, to cope with new economic and technological realities; and two, big government is back. The recent decision of the Irish Supreme Court in Náisiúnta Leichtreach Contraitheoir Éireann v Labour Court illuminates the relationship between collective bargaining and the regulatory state. In potentially one of the most important decisions in Irish labour law in decades, the Court rejected a constitutional challenge to legislation aimed at empowering social partners to regulate economic sectors through collective bargaining. This article situates that decision within recent scholarship on the ‘labour constitution’ model of labour law, under which the social partners should participate in economic governance. It also highlights the relevance of the decision for the ‘Social Europe’ agenda and the political economy of both national constitutional law and the EU internal market.

The New Investment Cycle: Current Finance Mechanisms of Power Engineering Development

The article provides the analysis of current finance mechanisms of developing power systems in the context of acute necessity to start a new investment cycle. It draws a conclusion that state policy in the field of power engineering cannot foster the development of such mechanisms of its financing as state subsidies on purchase and installation of equipment, contracts on buying electricity and power-service contracts. The analysis of extra opportunities of raising investment showed expediency of developing green mechanisms of financing power engineering in Russia and motivating power companies to conduct IPO. The authors put forward recommendations aimed at attaining the acute objective to develop and implement key initiatives promoting the start of a new investment cycle in order to raise funds for modernizing the existing power projects and opening new ones in accordance with higher ecological requirements. For example, to stimulate the growth of Russian companies' IPO and realize the investment potential of the Russian stock market the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Economic Development study the possibility to introduce new tax preferences for investors and companies entering the market, which could ensure institutional support for investors and issuers.

On the definition of part-load operation strategies in a complex trigeneration system with hourly-seasonal demands: Exergoeconomics and optimization

A prominent oil & gas research institute initially met all energy demands (electricity, heat, and refrigeration) with two mechanical vapor compression chillers and a gas boiler, with high electrical demand from the grid and two standby diesel generators (for emergencies). Then new technologies were added, completing the installed capacity of the trigeneration system by including two natural gas cogeneration modules, three different absorption chillers, two gas microturbines and one fuel cell. An R&D study employed exergoeconomics to subsidize decision-making regarding the viability of: i) the trigeneration system meeting all energy demands; ii) definition of the operational strategy; iii) adjust the electrical demand from the grid, and iv) definition of maintenance strategy. Although the objectives were achieved, the method employed did not enable an automatic process of definition of operation strategies, relying on the simulation and exergoeconomic skills of the operator. This limitation was overcome using Excel-based optimization. This study presents, discusses, and compares the procedures and results of the operation strategies for the trigeneration system, using both exergoeconomics and optimization. Optimization used the generalized reduced gradient within MS Excel. Although the results obtained from the exergoeconomic and optimization approaches were very close, the operation strategies defined by optimization resulted in lower operational costs in almost all cases. The slight differences can be due to premature convergence of optimization or imprecision in the operator’s judgment and decision. Both methods showed that the research center should adjust its electricity contract with the grid, reducing the contracted power by more than 55%. This leads to savings of more than USD 21,000/month. Although both methods (exergoeconomics and optimization) were helpful to draw the main conclusions, the optimization method allows for an automatic procedure in a user-friendly tool (MS Excel), which is less dependent on the analyst’s expertise.

Heat Transfer and Friction Factor Characteristics of Turbulent Flow through a Conical Heat Exchanger

In this present energy demand scenario, the use of a waste heat recovery device like regenerator, recuperator, reheaters in the industrial processes is gaining much more importance due to improvement in thermal efficiency, and consequently reduction in thermal pollution. In the power plant, the waste heat carried by hot flue gases through the chimney remains untapped which can be recovered through the use of a conical heat exchanger at the inner portion of the chimney. Also, few customized designs of the conical coil heat exchanger can have the potential to be used to recover the waste heat in other industrial processes like chemical reactors, electrical contractors, HVAC applications, condenser, boiler, and evaporator, etc. In the present study, different arrangements of the conical coil heat exchanger are analyzed using a numerical technique. A conical coil of different geometrical configurations viz. at three different cone angles 45°, 90°and 135°, and at three different pitches 20 mm, 25 mm, and 30 mm are considered. The results for heat transfer and friction factor are presented for the flow of fluid of different Reynolds numbers. The impact of geometrical parameters as well as flow parameters on pressure drop and heat transfer under constant wall heat flux conditions are presented. The average heat transfer and pressure drop values are observed to be 175 to 225% more than the smooth tube values with increased pressure drop. Also, the results indicate that there is a nonlinear increase in both Nusselt number and friction factor with the increase in cone angle and pitch of conical coil.

THE IMPACT OF THE ELECTRICAL INSTALLATION REGULATIONS, 2009, ON THE SALE AND LEASE OF IMMOVABLE PROPERTY

The Electrical Installation Regulations, 2009, made by the Minister of Labour in terms of section 43 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 constitute yet another attempt on the part of the South African authorities to regulate the installation and use of electrical installations in buildings. The Regulations, published in terms of R 242 in Government Gazette 31975 of 6 March 2009,supersede the Electrical Installation Regulations, 1992, made by the Minister of Manpower in terms of section 35 of the Machinery and Occupational Safety Act 6 of 1983. They came into operation on 1 May 2009, with the exception of regulation 5(6) which took effect on 1 April 2010. The 2009 Regulations, like those they replace, impose certain substantive duties on users, lessors and installers of electrical installations. Of particular importance for property owners and lessors is the responsibility for the electrical installation on a property, and the duty to have a valid certificate of compliance in respect of such installation. The old Regulations did not describe these responsibilities and duties in clear terms, resulting in considerable confusion and uncertainty. Disappointingly, the new Regulationsare only marginally better in this regard. The Department of Labour has published explanatory notes on the Regulations, but they do little more than merely citing each regulation and stating that it is selfexplanatory. The Regulations were preceded by a number of drafts which, reportedly, elicited “acrimonious debate”, even the possibility of litigation involving the Electrical Contractors’Association of South Africa and the Department of Labour. However, the main points of dispute were not so much the impact of the Regulations on the sale and lease of immovable property but revolved around issues affecting the electrical contracting industry and its stakeholders. This note focuses on the requirements to be met in terms of the Electrical Installation Regulations, 2009, in relation to the sale and lease of immovable property, residential premises in particular. To place the discussion in perspective it is firstly necessary to examine briefly the objective and scope of the Regulations, having regard to certain key definitions contained in the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Regulations. Any word or expression to which a meaning has been assigned in the Act has the samemeaning for the purposes of the Regulations.

Preferences for curtailable electricity contracts: Can curtailment benefit consumers and the electricity system?

Growth in energy demand together with the increased volatility from growing intermittent electricity production requires new sources of demand flexibility to maintain power system balance. End-use specific curtailable electricity contracts are one incentive-based Demand Response (DR) instrument that could help increase flexibility. This paper employs a choice experiment on a representative sample of electricity consumers in Ireland to elicit their preferences for these types of contracts on household appliances during peak load hours. A welfare analysis is then conducted to determine the compensating variation for different contract scenarios and examine the potential savings associated with a selection of scenarios from the perspective of the power system. The results suggest that there could be potential for flexibility from curtailable electricity contracts. On average, consumers are found to be mostly indifferent to curtailable contracts compared to their status quo contract. More specifically, the type of household appliance in these contracts has the most influence on preferences, while contracts at low event frequencies that include advance notice and an opt out are most preferred. In general, the net benefits to the system in curtailing the tumble dryer or dishwasher at low monthly frequencies are found to be positive, while net benefits are estimated to be negative for the other appliances.

Implications of Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Organizational Culture on Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Electrical Professional Organizations in Indonesia

This study analyzes the successful implementation of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) through the roles of job satisfaction, organizational culture, and organizational commitment. The research was conducted at the Indonesian Electrical Contractors Associations using the Partial Least Square (PLS) method. A number of 100 respondents were asked to fill in a questionnaire distributed via a google form. The results explain that both organizational commitment and organizational culture affect positive behavior (OCB) while job satisfaction does not. These three variables have implications for behavior change represented by culture, job satisfaction, and commitment. Thus, it is possible to deduce that the success of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is influenced by organizational commitment and culture that shape employee professionalism. As for job satisfaction, it must be improved through a competitive salary system, support among employees, and a conducive work environment.

Concentration-dependent alpha1-Adrenoceptor Antagonism and Inhibition of Neurogenic Smooth Muscle Contraction by Mirabegron in the Human Prostate

Introduction: Mirabegron is available for treatment of storage symptoms in overactive bladder, which may be improved by β3-adrenoceptor-induced bladder smooth muscle relaxation. In addition to storage symptoms, lower urinary tract symptoms in men include obstructive symptoms attributed to benign prostatic hyperplasia, caused by increased prostate smooth muscle tone and prostate enlargement. In contrast to the bladder and storage symptoms, effects of mirabegron on prostate smooth muscle contraction and obstructive symptoms are poorly understood. Evidence from non-human smooth muscle suggested antagonism of α1-adrenoceptors as an important off-target effect of mirabegron. As α1-adrenergic contraction is crucial in pathophysiology and medical treatment of obstructive symptoms, we here examined effects of mirabegron on contractions of human prostate tissues and on proliferation of prostate stromal cells. Methods: Contractions were induced in an organ bath. Effects of mirabegron on proliferation, viability, and cAMP levels in cultured stromal cells were examined by EdU assays, CCK-8 assays and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Mirabegron in concentrations of 5 and 10 μM, but not 1 µM inhibited electric field stimulation-induced contractions of human prostate tissues. Mirabegron in concentrations of 5 and 10 µM shifted concentration response curves for noradrenaline-, methoxamine- and phenylephrine-induced contractions to the right, including recovery of contractions at high concentrations of α1-adrenergic agonists, increased EC50 values, but unchanged Emax values. Rightshifts of noradrenaline concentration response curves and inhibition of EFS-induced contractions were resistant to L-748,337, l-NAME, and BPIPP. 1 µM mirabegron was without effect on α1-adrenergic contractions. Endothelin-1- and U46619-induced contractions were not affected or only inhibited to neglectable extent. Effects of mirabegron (0.5–10 µM) on proliferation and viability of stromal cells were neglectable or small, reaching maximum decreases of 8% in proliferation assays and 17% in viability assays. Mirabegron did not induce detectable increases of cAMP levels in cultured stromal cells. Conclusion: Mirabegron inhibits neurogenic and α1-adrenergic human prostate smooth muscle contractions. This inhibition may be based on antagonism of α1-adrenoceptors by mirabegron, and does not include activation of β3-adrenoceptors and requires concentrations ranging 50-100fold higher than plasma concentrations reported from normal dosing. Non-adrenergic contractions and proliferation of prostate stromal cells are not inhibited by mirabegron.

Optimal deterministic and robust selection of electricity contracts

We address the Electricity Contract Selection Problem (ECSP), of finding best parameters of an electricity contract for a client based on his/her past records of electricity consumption over a fixed time period. The objective is to optimize the electricity bill composed by some fixed cost, the cost of the subscription of the electricity contract and penalties due to overpowering when consumption exceeds subscribed power. The ECSP can be formulated as a convex separable optimization problem subject to total order constraints. Due to this special structure, ECSP is a special case of two well known classes of convex separable optimization problems, namely the minimum network flow under convex separable cost and minimizing convex separable functions under chain constraints. Both classes are well treated in the litterature and can be solved in polynomial time (Ahuja and Orlin in Oper Res 49(5):784–789, 2001; Ahuja et al. in Manag Sci 49(7):950–964, 2003; Best et al. in SIAM J Optim 10:658–672, 2000; Karzanov and McCormick in SIAM J Comput 26(4):1245–1275, 1997; Minoux in Eur J Oper Res 18(3):377–387, 1984; Minoux, in Gallo and Sandi (eds) Netflow at pisa, mathematical programming studies, Springer, Berlin, 1986). In particular, the algorithm in Ahuja and Orlin (2001) achieves the best theoretical time complexity assuming that computing the objective function value at one specific point can be done in constant time. However, when we work on a big amount of historic data as in ECSP, the time required for evaluating the objective function cannot be assumed to be O(1) anymore. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for ECSP which is specially designed to reduce the computational effort over large scale historical data. We present numerical results showing that our algorithm outperforms the algorithm in Ahuja and Orlin (2001) when applied to consumption data of various types of clients. A robust version of ECSP based on a Seasonal and Trend decomposition approach for modelling consumption uncertainty is also investigated. The resulting worst-case cost minimization problem is shown to be efficiently solvable using the same algorithm as for deterministic ECSP.

Employee Acceptance Decision Support System Using The Smart Method (Case Study on Association of The Indonesian Electrical and Mechanical Contractors Samarinda City)

Decision Support System (DSS) is a system that can assist someone in making accurate and targeted decisions. Many problems can be aasolved by using SPK, one of which is the acceptance of employees at the Gaklimdo Samarinda Association using the SMART (Simple Multi Attribute Rating Technique) method. The purpose of this research is to produce a Decision Support System for Employee Admission Using the SMART Method (Case Study of the Gaklimdo Association of Samarinda City) with the hope that the selection of employees will be carried out objectively. By using the PHP programming language and the database used is MySql. In this study, the data collection techniques used were literature study, observation and interviews. The result of this research is the creation of a decision support system to make employee decisions that are accepted, and not accepted as employees. Users can input prospective employee data, criteria data and sub-criteria data. Then the system will look for a solution using the SMART (Simple Multi Attribute Rating Technique) method. After the decision is obtained, the system will display the decision.

Trends in Catastrophic Occupational Incidents among Electrical Contractors, 2007-2013.

This study used methodologies of descriptive and quantitative statistics to identify the contributing factors most affecting occupational accident outcomes among electrical contracting enterprises, given an accident occurred. Accident reports were collected from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s fatality and catastrophe database. To ensure the reliability of the data, the team manually codified more than 600 incidents through a comprehensive content analysis using injury-classification standards. Inclusive of both fatal and non-fatal injuries, the results showed that most accidents happened in nonresidential buildings, new construction, and small projects (i.e., $50,000 or less). The main source of injuries manifested in parts and materials (46%), followed by tools, instruments, and equipment (19%), and structure and surfaces (16%). The most frequent types of injuries were fractures (31%), electrocutions (27%), and electrical burns (14%); the main injured body parts were upper extremities (25%), head (23%), and body system (18%). Among non-fatal cases, falls (37%), exposure to electricity (36%), and contact with objects (19%) caused most injuries; among fatal cases, exposure to electricity was the leading cause of death (50%), followed by falls (28%) and contact with objects (19%). The analysis also investigated the impact of several accident factors on the degree of injuries and found significant effects from such factors such as project type, source of injury, cause of injury, injured part of body, nature of injury, and event type. In other words, the statistical probability of a fatal accident—given an accident occurrence—changes significantly based on the degree of these factors. The results of this study, as depicted in the proposed decision tree model, revealed that the most important factor for predicting the nature of injury (electrical or non-electrical) is: whether the source of injury is parts and materials; followed by whether the source of injury is tools, instruments, and equipment. In other words, in predicting (with a 94.31% accuracy) the nature of injury as electrical or non-electrical, whether the source of injury is parts and materials and whether the source of injury is tools, instruments, and equipment are very important. Seven decision rules were derived from the proposed decision tree model. Beyond these outcomes, the described methodology contributes to the accident-analysis body of knowledge by providing a framework for codifying data from accident reports to facilitate future analysis and modeling attempts to subsequently mitigate more injuries in other fields.

Demand Response: Smart Market Designs for Smart Consumers

We study Peak-Time-Rebates (PTR) contracts in day-ahead electricity markets.Such contracts reward customers for reducing their consumption when wholesale prices are high. We start by pointing out that these market designs create arbitrage opportunities which, under asymmetric information, incentivize strategic consumers to inflate their baseline. We then show that an incentive compatible PTR design is equivalent to a variable Critical-Peak-Pricing design (vCPP), in which customers have to purchase their peak consumption at the spot price. Under asymmetric information, a relevant question is thus to design vCPP contracts optimally in order to achieve high enrollment rates under voluntary opt-in. This problem has different solutions depending on whether policy-makers choose to maintain existing cross-subsidies or not.

Supervisors’ Reliance on Tacit Knowledge and Barriers to Knowledge Sharing in the Electrical Contracting Industry

AbstractThe shortage of skills together with the knowledge loss due to employee retirements is compelling trade contractors to capture the know-how from retirees to prepare the future workforce. Co...

Contracts in electricity markets under EU ETS: A stochastic programming approach

The European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is a cornerstone of the EU's strategy to fight climate change and an important device for plummeting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in an economically efficient manner. The power industry has switched to an auction-based allocation system at the onset of Phase III of the EU ETS to bring economic efficiency by negating windfall profits that have been resulted from grandfathered allocation of allowances in the previous phases. In this work, we analyze and simulate the interaction of oligopolistic generators in an electricity market with a game-theoretical framework where the electricity and the emissions markets interact in a two-stage electricity market. For analytical simplicity, we assume a single futures market where the electricity is committed at the futures price, and the emissions allowance is contracted in advance, prior to a spot market where the energy and allowances delivery takes place. Moreover, a coherent risk measure is applied (Conditional Value at Risk) to model both risk averse and risk neutral generators and a two-stage stochastic optimization setting is introduced to deal with the uncertainty of renewable capacity, demand, generation, and emission costs. The performance of the proposed equilibrium model and its main properties are examined through realistic numerical simulations. Our results show that renewable generators are surging and substituting conventional generators without compromising social welfare. Hence, both renewable deployment and emission allowance auctioning are effectively reducing GHG emissions and promoting low-carbon economic path.

Robust design optimization of a photovoltaic-battery-heat pump system with thermal storage under aleatory and epistemic uncertainty

Combining photovoltaic arrays with batteries, heat pumps and thermal storage further decarbonizes the heating sector. When evaluating the performance of such systems, the parameters are either fixed, or based on generic ranges, or characterized by precise distributions inferred from limited information. These assumptions result in suboptimal designs, for which the actual performance differs drastically from simulations. To address these limitations, we consider the effects of limited information (epistemic uncertainty) on the natural variability (aleatory uncertainty) through probability-boxes. First, we performed a robust design optimization on the natural variability of the levelized cost of exergy, followed by a sensitivity analysis on the effects of limited information on the optimized designs. This paper provides the least-sensitive designs to natural variability and effective actions to reduce the effects of limited information. The results indicate that a photovoltaic-battery-heat pump configuration achieves higher robustness towards aleatory uncertainty than a photovoltaic-battery-gas boiler configuration. To determine the true-but-unknown performance and robustness of the optimized designs, clarifying the grid electricity contract and adopting specific energy demand profiles are the main actions, while considering generic technology models contributes little to the epistemic uncertainty.

Deep Learning-Based Approaches to Optimize the Electricity Contract Capacity Problem for Commercial Customers

The electricity tariffs available to customers in Poland depend on the connection voltage level and contracted capacity, which reflect the customer demand profile. Therefore, before connecting to the power grid, each consumer declares the demand for maximum power. This amount, referred to as the contracted capacity, is used by the electricity provider to assign the proper connection type to the power grid, including the size of the security breaker. Maximum power is also the basis for calculating fixed charges for electricity consumption, which is controlled and metered through peak meters. If the peak demand exceeds the contracted capacity, a penalty charge is applied to the exceeded amount, which is up to ten times the basic rate. In this article, we present several solutions for entrepreneurs based on the implementation of two-stage and deep learning approaches to predict maximal load values and the moments of exceeding the contracted capacity in the short term, i.e., up to one month ahead. The forecast is further used to optimize the capacity volume to be contracted in the following month to minimize network charge for exceeding the contracted level. As confirmed experimentally with two datasets, the application of a multiple output forecast artificial neural network model and a genetic algorithm (two-stage approach) for load optimization delivers significant benefits to customers. As an alternative, the same benefit is delivered with a deep learning architecture (hybrid approach) to predict the maximal capacity demands and, simultaneously, to determine the optimal capacity contract.