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The distribution sector has been hard hit by the energy/ecology crisis. Higher fuel costs coupled with reduced availability of many energy sources have adversely affected distribution activities. Growing levels of pollution have caused global concern. As a part of the physical distribution activity, the transportation modes have been particularly vulnerable to the energy/ecology crisis because they rely so heavily on energy resources. It is important that those involved in physical distribution understand the distribution‐energy/ecology interface. Recognition of the effects that the energy/ecology crisis has had, and will have, on distribution is an integral part of logistics planning and control. The energy/ecology crisis will not go away and it behoves the physical distribution manager, educator and public policy maker to: (1) Understand the Problem, (2) Recognise how the problem pertains to him directly and/or indirectly, and (3) Determine how he and others will react to the problem in the future.

This study aims to investigate the impact of the 2013 privatization of Nigeria’s energy sector on the technical performance of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) and its workforce.

This study used a questionnaire-based approach, and 196 participants were randomly selected. Analytical tools included standard deviation, Spearman rank correlation and regression analysis.

Before privatization, the energy sector, managed by the power holding company of Nigeria, suffered from inefficiencies in fault detection, response and billing. However, privatization improved resource utilization, replaced outdated transformers and increased operational efficiency. However, in spite of these improvements, BEDC faces challenges, including unstable voltage generation and inadequate staff welfare. This study also highlighted a lack of experience among the trained workforce in emerging electricity technologies such as the smart grid.

This study’s focus on BEDC may limit its generalizability to other energy companies. It does not delve into energy sector privatization’s broader economic and policy implications.

The positive outcomes of privatization, such as improved resource utilization and infrastructure investment, emphasize the potential benefits of private ownership and management. However, voltage generation stability and staff welfare challenges call for targeted interventions. Recommendations include investing in voltage generation enhancement, smart grid infrastructure and implementing measures to enhance employee well-being through benefit plans.

Energy sector enhancements hold positive social implications, uplifting living standards and bolstering electricity access for households and businesses.

This study contributes unique insights into privatization’s effects on BEDC, offering perspectives on preprivatization challenges and advancements. Practical recommendations aid BEDC and policymakers in boosting electricity distribution firms’ performance within the privatization context.

The purpose of the paper is to analyze the development needs and opportunities in the distribution system operators’ (DSO) tariff structures in the smart-grid environment.

The impacts of the distribution pricing schemes for the stakeholders and their requirements for the tariff structures are evaluated by qualitative analyses. Furthermore, there is a case analysis concerning the practical development possibilities of the DSO tariff structures in Finland.

Major finding of the paper is that the demand-based power band tariff is the optimal solution for the DSO pricing structure, when taking into account the real-life limitations and the requirements of the stakeholders.

Outcomes of the paper can be applied in practice in design of the pricing schemes in the electricity distribution. Incentive provision impacts and cost reflectivity of the DSO tariffs can be improved by implementing the suggested pricing structure.

The paper provides a novel viewpoint on the study of the DSO tariff design by considering the impacts of the pricing for the stakeholders and their requirements for tariff structure. Furthermore, the real-life limitations in the tariff design have been taken into account by analyzing the development options in Finland. Results are useful, especially for the DSOs, regulators and academics, who are working with the tariff development issues.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze annual energy expenditure in the presence of non-linear load and substation voltage harmonics in distribution systems. Economic assessment of non-sinusoidal energy is a challenging task that involves complex computations of harmonic load powers and harmonic line losses.

The paper evaluates fundamental and non-sinusoidal components of electrical energy by applying backward/forward sweep technique in distorted distribution systems. This work involves harmonic power computations at the substation by including harmonic losses occurring in various lines of the distribution system.

The paper found that annual energy expenditure significantly depends upon the non-linear load, supply voltage harmonics and type of tariff structure considered in the distribution system. Impact of individual harmonic orders on the energy billing is also assessed.

The paper concludes that considering harmonic distortions in the distribution system analysis would help electricity regulators formulate adequate pricing structures, which would further generate appropriate economic signals for electricity utility and the consumers.

Energy systems are quickly in transition and their complexity has been dramatically increased. Although there are numerous studies and researches about future of energy in terms of technology or fuels, few studies have been done based on comprehensive socio-technical dimensions of energy systems’ futures. One key question to fill this gap is that how can we consider electricity as a sustainable common good/resource, beyond some conventional considerations related to public or private sector orientation? The purpose of this study is to find an acceptable answer for this question..

To achieve the purpose of this study, after reviewing some relevant studies, key effective factors on the future of energy have been recognized in an expert panel and structurally analyzed by Micmac software based on cross-impact analyze method. Thereafter, four scenarios for transforming the electricity distribution from a monopoly good to a common resource have been developed and described based on scenario workshops method..

Four scenarios for transforming the electricity distribution from a monopoly good to a common resource have been developed and described. These scenarios include “spider grid,” “local grid,” “intermediate grid” and “off-grid.” Furthermore, different dimensions of electricity as a common good/resource have been investigated. As a result, the authors find out that common resource is a creatable concept that can be referred to some goods depending on certain conditions.

Electricity, like any other resource with common characteristics, can be considered and treated as a common resource, depending on the way we generate, share and distribute it, ownership and property rights, management and decision-making mechanisms, social participation processes and governance criteria.

Points out that differences in the background of the working population, are often made responsible for the observed inequality of income distribution. Explores whether the observed distribution in incomes in countries such as the Federal Republic of Germany (West and East), Great Britain, Sweden, the United States and Brazil could not be the result of a statistical distribution process in which households participate. Recalls the early work in statistical thermodynamics by Boltzmann and Maxwell, who studied the distribution of energy among an ensemble of identical molecules, and which showed that not all molecules hold the same energy, but rather that the distribution has an exponential fall‐off character, with most molecules being in the lower energy bracket. Adapts the Maxwell‐Boltzmann distribution to incomes, and transforms these distributions into well‐known Lorenz graphs, and obtains a perfect match for each examined country. Suggests that, as the distributions can be directly related to their corresponding statistical weights, and as their logarithms are proportional to entropy in statistical thermodynamics, it could be shown that the unequal income distribution has a higher entropy, and therefore is more stable than the corresponding low entropy distribution resulting from Boulding′s principle of equal advantage where all households earn the same income. Supposes that neither of the two extreme stand‐points to explain the inequality of incomes can lead to a totally satisfactory explanation. Proposes that evolutionary strategies may be an interesting lead to follow up in more detail.

The purpose of this paper is to study the method of hysteresis energy distribution and maximum relative lateral displacement in buildings’ stories, under the influence of scaled records for near-fault and far-fault earthquakes. The bracings in the considered buildings’ plan are distributed in two different ways: in the first case, the braces are added in external frames of the building, and in the second case, in the internal ones.

This research first selects some steel buildings with concentric braces and studies the seismic vulnerability of buildings under different earthquakes in accordance with the concepts of input and Hysteresis energy. In order to study the impact of braces’ distribution in the building’s plan, the buildings were modeled in this study in two ways. In the first way the braces were added to the building’s external frames and in the second way in its internal ones.

Results show that the need for far-fault scaled records’ displacement is more than the near ones and that the resultant relative lateral displacements in buildings with external braces are more than those with internal ones.

After these studies on the way of hysteresis energy distribution, it was shown that in case of buildings with internal braces, as the building’s height increases, the share of higher stories of the hysteresis energy rises. Also, it was illustrated that hysteresis energy distribution in buildings with internal braces is more uniform than those with external ones.

This paper aims at building a discharge model for the power cable bellows based on plasma energy deposition and analyzing the discharge ablation problem.

Aiming at the multiphysical mechanism of the discharge ablation process, a multiphysical field model based on plasma energy deposition is established to analyze the discharge characteristics of the power cable bellows. The electrostatic field, plasma characteristics, energy deposition and temperature field are analyzed. The discharge experiment is also carried out for result validation.

The physical mechanism of the bellows ablative effect caused by partial discharge is studied. The results show that the electric field intensity between the aluminum sheath and the buffer layer easily exceeds the pressure resistance value of air breakdown. On the plasma surface of the buffer layer, the electron density is about 4 × 1,019/m³, and the average temperature of electrons is about 3.5 eV. The energy deposition analysis using the Monte Carlo method shows that the electron range in the plasma is very short. The release will complete within 10 nm, and it only takes 0.1 s to increase the maximum temperature of the buffer layer to more than 1,000 K, thus causing various thermal effects.

Its physical process involves the distortion of electric field, formation of plasma, energy deposition of electrons, and abrupt change of temperature field.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that overcapacity and tariff deficit (external constraints) negatively affect the efficiency of distribution firms in the Spanish electricity sector. To do this, the paper is based on the theory of constraints and theory of economic regulation.

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) window methodology is carried out on the constant scales (I-C) with a sample consisting of five main distribution firms during the period from 2006 to 2015. In turn, an analysis of the Malmquist index is carried out to assess whether it has had a displacement with respect to the efficiency frontier.

The results show that the overcapacity and the tariff deficit negatively affect the efficiency of the distribution firms of the Spanish electricity sector. In addition, there is an existence of external constraints that affect the activities of regulated organisations and the importance of adequate legislation in regulated sectors.

This study defines a model that shows how the efficiency problems associated with electricity distribution companies such as productive overcapacity or tariff deficit can be measured based on the theory of constraints and theory of economic regulation.

Given the dominance of energy costs in retailing and distribution, it would seem logical to turn our attention away from traditional methods of displaying goods in the shops and look again at mail order. A recent Post Office study indicates that mail order distribution is a much more efficient use of our energy resources, and this could augur well for the growth of mail order.