TGTDCL Prepaid Domestic Gas Metering System & Reduction of System Loss in the Energy Sector of Bangladesh

Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited (TGTDCL) is the largest gas transmission and distribution company in Bangladesh. The company undertook a pilot project in July 2005 to implement pre-paid metering on a limited scale. The outcomes of the pilot project are analyzed and presented in this paper. Most of the customers under the project appear to be indifferent to the new system. The revenue of TGTDCL was less compared to the same number of un-metered customers. The pilot project has a lack of design, planning, and implementation errors. Calculations are therefore made based on the assumed parameters. Clear and conclusive results regarding the reduction of gas wastage and financial benefits are hard to determine.

Total Factor Productivity Growth of Ghanaian Electricity Distribution Utilities Using Data Envelopment Analysis and Malmquist Index (2000–2020)

The increasing need for electricity access to drive economic growth, social development, poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability requires that efficient allocation of scarce and competing resources in the generation, transmission and distribution subsectors of the electricity sector is indispensable. This paper analyses total factor productivity growth in a single input multiple-output framework in Ghana. The technique applied is data-orientated nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis using Win4Deap 2 software. Total Factor Productivity Change is evaluated through Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI), as well as technological change (TECHC) and efficiency change (EFFCH) using firm-level panel data. Sources of productivity growth comparison are made between Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO) for the periods 2000 to 2020. The results show TECHCH marginally declined at an average annual rate of 0.3% and drives the electric power distribution productivity regress in ECG and NEDCO from 2000 to 2020. Further, the results indicate stagnation in scale efficiency, pure efficiency and efficiency change when estimated over 20 years. At firm levels comparison, the study shows that the Northern Electricity Distribution Company recorded a productivity growth rate of 4.9%, mainly due to technical progress. However, the Electricity Company of Ghana experienced a slight deterioration of productivity performance due to a 5.3% decline in technical efficiency. The study offers several policy recommendations on how the underperforming firm can learn to improve efficiency and technical to reduce electricity transmission losses.

Digital Integration, Success Story of Accelerating Business Integration of Two Biggest Midstream-Downstream Natural Gas Company in Indonesia

To achieve 24% portion of natural gas in targeted national energy mix in 2050, Indonesia government has integrated Pertagas, biggest transmission company into PGN, biggest distribution company under Oil & Gas Holding Pertamina. But survey from PWC in 2004 resulted that around 75% post-merger companies reported integration difficulties, especially both companies have long history of competition. Even more, government mandated 6 USD gas price policy at plant gate, which create enormous urgency to accelerate pipeline and digital integration in the most efficient way. Especially, in this pandemic era, midstream industry needs to foster digital transformation by rethinking outdated business models and strategically applying technology to change rather than focusing on simply cutting costs. From this integration, Pertagas with more than 2,418 km pipeline in 12 provinces spread from Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan has a big potency to be synergized with PGN, as Sub Holding Gas with the total of 10,169 km of pipeline which represent 96% of national gas infrastructure. During 2020. Both companies resulted more than 1.255 MMSCFD of transported gas and 828 BBTUD of sales gas to more than 460 thousand customers. So, PGN and Pertagas management has high expectation on this digital integration to transform from previous fragmented pipeline to be interconnected network to give flexibility in reaching unmet growing demand of strategic industry like refinery, fertilizer, electricity, steel and petrochemical in post-COVID recovery. In this paper, will be described the challenges and its solutions as a success story in digital integration. The important steps start from strategy development, digital assessment, creating coalition, culture acculturation, and change management are explained as guiding pathway for sustainable implementation. It will also portray the measured benefit and value from investment cost efficiency, time effectiveness from the initiation until launched, billing improvement, product development, and up to developed real-time integrated management dashboard for better decision making and part of the milestone for future National Dispatching Center for optimizing Sub Holding Gas portfolio of gas supply and subsidiary's infrastructure to meet growing Indonesia's demand.

Black hole optimizer for the optimal power injection in distribution networks using DG

The optimal sizing of Distributed Generators (DG) in electric power distribution networks is carried out through a metaheuristic optimization strategy. To size DG it is proposed an optimal power flow model is formulated by considering that the location of these sources has been previously defined by the distribution company. The solution of the optimal power flow is reached with the Black Hole Optimizer (BHO). A methodology is used master-slave optimization methodology, where the BHO (i.e., master stage) defines the sizes of the DG and the slave stage evaluates the objective function with a load flow algorithm, this work using the triangular-based power flow method. Numerical results in the 33-node and the 69-node test system demonstrates the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approach when compared with literature results.

Electrical energy transition in the context of Ghana

Background In Ghana, energy transition as a research theme is new. It is unclear whether energy transition has occurred or not, and if so, in what form. This study sought to find out whether this transition has occurred in Ghana’s electrical energy sector and how using indicators deduced from literature, such as change in energy source type, change in energy ownership and management, and transition to greener vehicular transportation. Methods Information on Ghana’s electrical energy transition was obtained from thematic content analysis of Ghana’s renewable energy policy documents, energy sector reports, newspaper articles and information on the websites of Ghana’s energy sector institutions such as the Volta River Authority, Ghana Grid Company Limited, Electricity Company of Ghana and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company. Results In this study, it was demonstrated that two structural changes have occurred in Ghana’s electrical energy sector: (1) Transition from an exclusively hydro energy to a hydro-thermal mix, with thermal energy constituting about 69% of the 2020 generation mix; and (2) Transition from an exclusively state supplied energy to a state-private supply mix, with about 56% of the 2020 supply coming from private companies. These changes were motivated by the need to expand the energy supply in response to an increasing demand of 10–15% per year. The study also indicated that renewable energy had attracted attention in policy, with policy targets such as 10% renewable energy in the energy mix by 2030 and provision of renewable energy to 1000 off-grid communities by 2030. However, renewable energy currently constitutes less than 1% of the electrical energy mix. Also, there has been no change in the heavy reliance on fossil energy for vehicular transportation. Conclusions The study concludes that energy transition in its broad sense of structural changes in a country’s electrical energy system has occurred in Ghana, however a sustainable energy transition in the sense of a transition to greener energy has not occurred. It is recommended that further studies should be conducted on why Ghana’s renewable energy agenda has so far only been an agenda in policy with very minimal implementation in practice.

اليقظة في مكان العمل ودورها في الحد من الآثار السلبية لنفخ الصافرة- دراسة تطبيقية على شركة توزيع الكهرباء بالمحافظات الجنوبية

ملخص: هدفت الدراسة إلى التعرف على دور اليقظة في مكان العمل (الانشغال في مواجهة الفشل، والالتزام بالمرونة، والرجوع لذوي الخبرة) في الحد من الآثار السلبية لنفخ الصافرة من وجهة نظر العاملين في الجهات الإشرافية بشركة توزيع الكهرباء بالمحافظات الجنوبية. واستخدمت الدراسة المنهج الوصفي التحليلي، وتكون مجتمع الدراسة من جميع العاملين في الجهات الإشرافية بشركة توزيع الكهرباء بمحافظات غزة، وتم اختيار فرع الإدارة العامة للشركة بغزة وبلغ عدد العاملين في الجهات الإشرافية (71) عاملاً. واستخدم الباحثان أسلوب الحصر الشامل نظراً لصغر حجم المجتمع، حيث تم توزيع الاستبانات على جميع أفراد مجتمع الدراسة، وتم استرداد (63) استبانة، أي ما نسبته (88.7%) من مجتمع الدراسة. وقد أظهرت النتائج وجود علاقة طردية قوية بين أبعاد اليقظة في مكان العمل والحد من الآثار السلبية لنفخ الصافرة، وأكدت أنه لا توجد فروق ذات دلالة إحصائية عند مستوى دلالة (α≤ 0.05) بين متوسطات إجابات أفراد العينة حول مدى توافر أبعاد اليقظة في مكان العمل والحد من الآثار السلبية لنفخ الصافرة في شركة توزيع الكهرباء بالمحافظات الجنوبية تعزى للمتغيرات الديمغرافية. وأن معامل الارتباط يساوي (0.995)، ومعامل التحديد يساوي (0.991) مما يلاحظ بأن هناك أثراً ذا دلالة إحصائية عند مستوي الدالة (α≤.05) لتوافر أبعاد اليقظة في مكان العمل (الانشغال في مواجهة الفشل، الالتزام بالمرونة، والرجوع لذوي الخبرة) والحد من الآثار السلبية لنفخ الصافرة. وأوصي الباحثان بضرورة مكافأة من يبلغ عن المخالفات بالعمل وتعزيز عملية الاتصال والتواصل بين الإدارة العليا والعاملين في الشركة حتي يكون هناك اطلاع دائم ومستمر على سير العملية لتصحيح أية انحرافات قد تحدث بقصد أو بدون قصد. الكلمات المفتاحية: اليقظة في مكان العمل، نفخ الصافرة، شركة توزيع الكهرباء بالمحافظات الجنوبية. Abstract The study aims to find out the role of workplace vigilance (preoccupation of facing failure, commitment of flexibility, and referring to experienced) in reducing the negative effects of blowing the whistle from the viewpoint of workers in the supervisory authorities of the Electricity Distribution Company in the Southern governorates. The study uses the descriptive and analytical approach, and the study population consists of all workers in the supervisory authorities of the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza governorates. The company’s general administration branch is chosen in Gaza, and the number of workers in the supervisory authorities reaches (71) workers. The researchers use the comprehensive enumeration method due to the small size of the community, as the questionnaires are distributed to all members of the study population, and (63) questionnaires are retrieved, i.e.) 88.7%) of the study population. The results show a strong positive relationship between the dimensions of vigilance in the workplace and the reduction of the negative effects of blowing the whistle. The study confirms that there are no statistically significant differences at the level of significance (α≤ 0.05) between the averages of the responses of the sample members about the availability of the dimensions of vigilance in the workplace and the reduction of the negative effects of blowing the whistle in the Electricity Distribution Company in the Southern governorates due to the demographic variables. And that the correlation coefficient is equal to (0.995), and the coefficient of determination is equal to (0.991), which is noted that there is a statistically significant effect at the level of the function (α≤.05) for the availability of dimensions of vigilance in the workplace (preoccupation in the face of failure, commitment to flexibility, and return to experience). And reduce the negative effects of blowing the whistle. The researchers recommended the necessity of rewarding those who report violations with work and strengthening the process of communication and communication between the senior management and employees of the company so that there is a permanent and continuous knowledge of the progress of the process to correct any deviations that may occur, intentionally or unintentionally. Keywords: Work Mindfulness, blowing the whistle, and Electricity Distribution Company in the Southern governorates.

The unfolding rationales surrounding management accounting innovations: a balanced scorecard case

PurposeThe Balanced Scorecard (BSC) possesses an inherent duality, as it has been described as a carrier of institutions (i.e. the BSC is a “management ideology” or “mode of thinking”) and a flexibly interpretive boundary object at the same time. This study examines how this inherent duality of the BSC may influence the unfolding rationales surrounding its implementation and use.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical support for this investigation is gathered from an in-depth field study. The focal firm is a Brazilian electricity distribution company that transitioned from state to private ownership under hyper-regulation, and whose holding company experienced strategic and structural changes.FindingsThe study identified a misalignment between the characteristics of the firm (e.g. organizational logics) and the perceived BSC features. This misalignment initially produced tensions and institutional logics complexity for the organization forcing the BSC implementers to rationalize it to provide meaning regarding its implementation in the firm. The findings also show why and how the promoters of the BSC conducted its “strategy of translation” in order to disentangle and reassemble both the material and symbolic components of the BSC to facilitate its implementation and use. It was found that promoters of the BSC engaged in contextualization work, which featured two main actions: a combination of coupling and selective decoupling and a change of meaning.Originality/valueThis paper advances current understanding of the process of the unfolding rationales surrounding management accounting innovations (e.g. the BSC). The study shows that the BSC unfolds in more complex, time-related and simultaneous ways than has previously been reported in the literature. Moreover, the paper contributes by explaining how the management's rationales, relating to their historical understanding, perception of legitimation needs and social skills, contributed to the continuous unfolding of the BSC. In addition, four potentially interesting areas for further research were identified.

Transportation performance improvement through lean thinking implementation

Purpose The application of lean thinking in the transportation industry provides opportunities to streamline operations with a value-added orientation. Prior literature shows evidence of limited application of lean thinking in the transportation operations of the pharmaceutical industry. This study aims to close this research gap by investigating the application of lean thinking for improving pharmaceutical transportation performance. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted an action research approach at an Indonesian pharmaceutical distribution company. One cycle in one year was analyzed; empirical data were collected and analyzed through direct observations, interviews and the study of company data and documentation. Findings The application of lean thinking in waste elimination allowed the delivered project to achieve a remarkable 40% reduction in overall transportation costs, 75% reduction in total lead time, 200% improvement in truck productivity and 100% improvement in truckload capacity utilization. Practical implications This study can guide the pharmaceutical industry toward achieving excellence in transportation operations through lean thinking implementation. Originality/value There has been limited research on this topic, and this study is the first attempt to generate new and significant evidence of a real-life application of lean thinking within the field of pharmaceutical transportation.

Shapley value cooperative game theory-based locational marginal price computation for loss and emission reduction

An iterative method based on Shapley Value Cooperative Game Theory is proposed for the calculation of local marginal price (LMP) for each Distributed Generator (DG) bus on a network. The LMP value is determined for each DG on the basis of its contribution to reduce loss and emission reduction, which is assessed using the Shapley Value approach. The proposed approach enables the Distribution Company (DISCO) decision-maker to operate the network optimally in terms of loss and emission. The proposed method is implemented in the Taiwan Power Company distribution network 7 warnings consisting of 84 buses and 11 feeders in the MATLAB environment. The results show that the proposed approach allows DISCO to operate the network on the basis of its priority between the reduction of active power loss and emission in the network