René Schumann

Performance Maintenance of ARTS Systems

Autonomic Road Transportation Support (ARTS) systems will operate with adaptive system behavior to make them self-managing. In this chapter, we discuss methods for analyzing the performance of these kinds of systems. The performance of these systems not only depends on the state of the environment but also on the adaptation the system has made so far. Analyzing the performance can hardly be done analytically; we have to rely on empirical studies. A structured way for implementing such analysis of adaptive systems, like ARTS, is presented. Furthermore, we discuss different approaches and provide examples how such problems could be encountered during the design of ARTS systems.

The Future of Swiss Hydropower - A Review on Drivers and Uncertainties

Swiss Hydropower (HP) is currently facing a wide range of challenges that have initiated a debate about future prospects and its role within the envisioned energy transition. Building on this debate, this paper provides an overview of the status and prospects of Swiss HP by identifying and evaluating the different drivers and uncertainties that Swiss HP faces. Based on a review and the perceptions held by some of the main Swiss HP stakeholders the two main topics that need to be addressed are the market driven impacts and the political, legal and social aspects. While the market dynamics cannot directly be influenced by Swiss companies or authorities, the regulatory framework can and needs to be adjusted. However, this requires a comprehensive stakeholder process and is at least a medium-term process.

An Ontology Driven Model Approach for the Creation and Evaluation of Models in the Electricity Retail Market: A Research in Progress

Agent Based Simulation has enabled economist tomodel and analyse strategic decisions of participants as wellas political decision markers by using social-behavioural andeconomic technical aspects simultaneously. While Agent-basedSimulation has had a significant contribution to the study theenergy market by allowing economists and researchers to modelthe complexity and dynamics of real electricity markets, it hasproved to be limited in some ways: Agent-based models donot involve methodological aspects for enabling the creation ofmodels from a participative multi-disciplinary perspective. Inmany cases, modellers (programmers, economists or researchers) need to assume the knowledge of multiple domain areas fordesigning and implementing the models, they must have theability to handle different domain such as sociology, economyand computer science. This paper shows how the use of anOntology Driven Model approach in conjunction with methodsfrom the Agent Computational Economics and other comple-mentaries methodological aspects can contribute to improve such shortcomings.

Configuration of Hydro Power Plant Mathematical Models

The ongoing energy transition towards large shares of renewable generation poses challenges for hydro power producers. We revisit the problem of optimising the operation of hydro power plants using mathematical modelling, but utilising computer science concepts in the design of the models and configuration of these models. We use a modular design allowing us to activate features, such as what markets or which technical aspects to consider, by activating or deactivating a specific module. In this paper we give an example of how our method can be used to configure which markets a model should operate on. Furthermore, we use a configuration process based on the SPEA2 evolutionary algorithm to explore the relationship between the scale of the model and the time required to solve it. Such methods assist in identifying configurations that are the best fit in terms of runtime, realism and accuracy.

Solver Tuning and Model Configuration

This paper addresses the problem of tuning parameters of mathematical solvers to increase their performance. We investigate how solvers can be tuned for models that undergo two types of configuration: variable configuration and constraint configuration. For each type, we investigate search algorithms for data generation that emphasizes exploration or exploitation. We show the difficulties for solver tuning in constraint configuration and how data generation methods affects a training sets learning potential.

Hydropower operation in a changing environment

In Europe hydropower (HP) plays an important role in the energy transition. However, due to low electricity market prices the profitability of HP is decreased. In this paper, we analyze historic revenue potentials and future market prospects for HP taking into account different paths towards the energy future. We develop a short-term HP operation model which is applied to three generic HP plants. Looking back into the past, the HP revenues on the spot market decreased due to decreasing electricity prices. In theory balancing markets could provide significant additional revenues for HP. Taking into account uncertainties and market characteristics the potential of the balancing markets is reduced. Looking into the future, the global fuel markets and the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) will be the decision makers for Swiss HP. The balancing market benefits for HP will be reduced in the future if full Swiss HP aims for balancing.

An Ontology-Driven Approach for Modeling a Multi-agent-Based Electricity Market

Model Driven Development has prompted domain experts to use high-level languages for specifying, testing, verifying and code final application. While Model Driven Development has had a significant contribution to the development of Multi-Agent-Based Simulation, it becomes more and more important to develop appropriate means for representing and integrating the knowledge of domain experts into auto-generated simulation agent-based models. This paper proposes an approach for modeling and simulating agent-based models on the basis of an Ontology-Driven Conceptual Modeling approach in a quite generic scenario for modeling electricity markets. The contribution of this paper is focused on the creation of set of methods, mechanisms and tools to support the design, implementation and experimentation of agent-based models from the instantiation of an ontology-based conceptual modeling.

Autonomic Road Transport Support Systems: An Introduction

One of the most persistent problems that plague modern-day road transport facilities is the quality of service provided. Especially during rush hours, this expensive infrastructure does not operate at capacity nor does it provide the level of service required by its users. Congestion has become a problem with severe economic and environmental repercussions. Hence, efficient road traffic management is more important than ever.