Management of Voltage Flexibility from Inverter-Based Distributed Generation Using Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

The increase in the use of converter-interfaced generators (CIGs) in today’s electrical grids will require these generators both to supply power and participate in voltage control and provision of grid stability. At the same time, new possibilities of secondary QU droop control in power grids with a large proportion of CIGs (PV panels, wind generators, micro-turbines, fuel cells, and others) open new ways for DSO to increase energy flexibility and maximize hosting capacity. This study extends the existing secondary QU droop control models to enhance the efficiency of CIG integration into electrical networks. The paper presents an approach to decentralized control of secondary voltage through converters based on a multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) algorithm. A procedure is also proposed for analyzing hosting capacity and voltage flexibility in a power grid in terms of secondary voltage control. The effectiveness of the proposed static MARL control is demonstrated by the example of a modified IEEE 34-bus test feeder containing CIGs. Experiments have shown that the decentralized approach at issue is effective in stabilizing nodal voltage and preventing overcurrent in lines under various heavy load conditions often caused by active power injections from CIGs themselves and power exchange processes within the TSO/DSO market interaction.

Shock Transfer in Futures and Spot Markets: An Agent-Based Simulation Modelling Method

There have been heated debates about the role of stock index futures in the financial market, especially during the crash periods. In this paper, a multiagent spot-futures market model is developed to analyze the micromechanism of shock transfer across spot and futures markets. We assume that there are two stocks and one stock index futures contract in the spot-futures market. Agents are heterogeneous, including fundamentalists, chartists, noise traders, and arbitragers. The spot market and the futures market are linked by arbitragers. The simulation results show that our spot-futures market model can reproduce various important stylized facts, including the price co-movement between stock index prices and index futures prices and the fat-tailed distribution of the returns of risky assets and the basis. Further analysis shows that when we introduce an exogenous fundamental shock to one of the stocks, the backwardation phenomenon appears in the futures market and the shock is widespread across the whole market by means of index futures. Moreover, the backwardation gradually disappears when the number of arbitragers increases. Besides, when there are few arbitragers or when there are sufficient arbitragers, shocks cannot be transferred to other stocks via the futures market, while an intermediate level of arbitrage will amplify the shock transfer and hurt market stability. These findings underscore that arbitragers play an important role in spot-futures market interaction and shock transfer, and adequate arbitrage trading during crises may help eliminate the positive basis and halt the further spread of the crises.

Simulation modeling of the dynamics of competitive interaction between manufacturers of light-engine aircraft equipment in the conditions of volumetric competition

Enterprises of the domestic light-engine aircraft industry are in tough competition both in the domestic and foreign markets. To minimize the risks associated with strategic interaction with participants in these markets, enterprises should form their production programs based on a comprehensive analysis of the competitive environment. Determination of the optimal equilibrium values of the output volumes for each participant does not provide information on the dynamics of the interaction of competitors. In this regard, in order to describe the dynamics of market relations, it becomes necessary to develop a dynamic simulation model for the development of the light aircraft market. The paper considers a dynamic model of the problem of choosing a production program by enterprises producing light aircraft equipment in the duopole market, using a discrete simulation computer model. This model is represented by several algorithms generated in the Simulink software package (Matlab), using the library of standard operators of this package. This model allows to determine the trajectories of changes in the equilibrium values of quantities, prices and gross income. Also, using this model, it is possible to assess the influence of the costs incurred by enterprises on the implementation of the production program, on the results of market interaction, to determine the most significant parameters and, on this basis, to form a decision on the choice of a competitive strategy.

Plastic Degradation and its Environmental Implications

Extensive use of non-biodegradable plastic by anthropogenic activities is posing a severe threat to the global environment in the form of massive waste disposal and problems of closed-landfill sites and rising water and land pollution. Organisms are facing challenge to their lives once they consume plastic in the form of food. In addition, the plastic debris may have additive chemicals having possibility to leach out. Therefore, proper degradation of plastic to lessen negative environmental implications is necessary. Earlier the people were ignorant about this problem however, now-a-days, people are serious about its negative impact. Hence, biodegradable plastics are coming into the trend in the market. Interaction of plastic (adsorbing characteristics) with the environment results in new functional groups on its surface in a dynamic situation. In these circumstances, oxygenated, thermal, bio-based, and photocatalytic degradation of plastics is in high demand. Usually, different-rates along with diverse-pathways have been found in variable polymers like polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyethylene terephthalate. Polyethylene photo-degradation resulted in sharp infrared-peaks of ketones, esters, and acids due to oxidation reaction. Hydrogen peroxide is generated by oxidative action on methylene groups in the backbone of polyethylene terephthalate. The present chapter will provide compiled information about various polymers used in plastic as well as environmental concerns of plastic, finally the chapter concludes with comprehensive details about the degradation of various types of plastics. State-of-the-art on degradable plastics market with an emphasis on principle design for recyclable plastics and biodegradable plastics from renewable raw materials are also included. Factors affecting plastic degradation and metabolic pathways including past and present scenarios have also been discussed in this chapter.

THE INFLUENCE OF PROPERTY ON A RUSSIAN PERSON IN DIFFERENT ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

The article deals with the interpretation of labor and the relations of property rights used in different socio-economic ideologies of management. In all existing ideologies of economic management under capitalism people are free in their economic choices and only under socialism, under public ownership, the manufacturer can not freely dispose of either any property or manufactured product, so his work motivation is weakening, there is no sense of ownership and caring attitude to property and means of production. Only private property protected by the laws of the State provides its owner with the right to dispose of it and the produced product at his own discretion on a legal basis. At the same time, private property creates a personal interest in the owner in improving the quality, range, productivity, as well as reducing the cost of production of manufactured products. Since the basis of private property is labor, and it is connected with human nature, so the private property obtained by labor and personal skill is always protected by each person and is dear to him. Therefore, owners are always interested in the implementation of state laws that protect property rights. Only when a person has private property, in the form of a small plot of land, a house built on it and his own business, only then he feels like an independent owner and he has the desire to work hard and the desire to master new things. For the owner, property is his possession, his pride and he puts his strength, will, knowledge and soul into it. The Russian man did not own private property for a long period, so he lost interest in it. Only the acquisition of private property rights can restore his economic initiative and diligence, ingenuity and inventiveness, deftness and assiduity. The role of the State should be limited to the framework of the law and the creation of conditions in which market interaction between people will have economic freedom of choice and positive development.

Does Market Interaction Erode Moral Values?

The widespread use of markets leads to unprecedented material well-being in many societies. We study whether market interaction, as a side effect, erodes moral values. In an influential paper, Falk and Szech (2013) provide experimental data that seem to suggest that “market interaction erodes moral values.” Although we replicate their main treatment effect, we show that additional treatments are necessary to corroborate their conclusion. These treatments reveal that playing repeatedly, and not market interaction, causes the erosion of moral values. Our paper thus shows that neither Falk and Szech's data nor our data support the claim that markets erode morals.