Toward achieving persistent behavior change in household water conservation

Achieving persistence in household behavior modification has been a central but elusive goal of environmental conservation attempts that rely on behavioral interventions. We implemented a habit change intervention, designed to achieve persistent change in household water conservation behavior in an affluent residential community in urban India. We found a 15 to 25% reduction in household water consumption in the absence of any volumetric pricing. Most importantly, the effects of our 5-wk intervention persisted for more than a year, after which marginal pricing was introduced. The treatment gap was not bridged even after a year under the marginal price regime.

CONSISTENT UPPER PRICE BOUNDS FOR EXOTIC OPTIONS

We consider the problem of finding a consistent upper price bound for exotic options whose payoff depends on the stock price at two different predetermined time points (e.g. Asian option), given a finite number of observed call prices for these maturities. A model-free approach is used, only taking into account that the (discounted) stock price process is a martingale under the no-arbitrage condition. In case the payoff is directionally convex we obtain the worst case marginal pricing measures. The speed of convergence of the upper price bound is determined when the number of observed stock prices increases. We illustrate our findings with some numerical computations.

Locational Marginal Pricing and Daily Operation Scheduling of a Hydro-Thermal-Wind-Photovoltaic Power System Using BESS to Reduce Wind Power Curtailment

The Daily Operation Scheduling (DOS) gets new challenges while a large-scale of renewable energy is inserted into the power system. In addition to the operation, the power variability of these sources also causes a problem in the hourly pricing, represented here by Locational Marginal Pricing (LMP). Therefore, new applications, such as energy shifting, offer greater efficiency to the system, minimizing the negative effects caused by wind power curtailment (WPC). This paper shows the LMP formation in the DOS of the hydro-thermal-wind-photovoltaic power system with a battery energy storage system and the reduction of WPC. Here, the wind and photovoltaic power plants are designed to be dispatched, not mandatory, to be able to cut the generation, and the insertion of Distributed Generation is considered. Moreover, to solve the DOS problem, the interior-point method is used. Additionally, the DC optimal power flow, used to represent the DOS in addition to the representation of the electric grid, is modeled with an iterative approach. The analysis is made in an IEEE 24-bus system with data from Brazil. Lastly, the results of simulations are presented and discussed, demonstrating the effectiveness of the optimization to reduce the WPC, the total operation cost, and to provide the LMP curve.

Determination of Price Zones during Transition from Uniform to Zonal Electricity Market: A Case Study for Turkey

In the electricity market, different pricing models can be applied to increase market competitiveness. Different electricity systems use different market structures. Uniform marginal pricing, zonal marginal pricing, and nodal marginal pricing methods are commonly used market structures. For markets wishing to move from a uniform pricing structure to a more competitive zonal pricing structure, the determination of price zones is critical for achieving a competitive market that generates accurate price signals. Three different pricing zone detection algorithms are analyzed in this paper including the k-means clustering and queen/rook spatially constraint clustering. Finally, the results of a case study for the Turkish electricity system are shared to compare each method.