This paper presents an intelligent system for the detection of non-technical losses of electrical energy associated with the fraudulent behaviors of system users. This proposal has three stages: a non-supervised clustering of consumption profiles based on a hybrid algorithm between self-organizing maps (SOM) and genetic algorithms (GA). A second stage for demand forecasting is based on ARIMA (autoregressive integrated moving average) models corrected intelligently through neural networks (ANN). The final stage is a classifier based on random forests for fraudulent user detection. The proposed intelligent approach was trained and tested with real data from the Colombian Caribbean region, where the utility reports energy losses of around 18% of the total energy purchased by the company during the five last years. The results show an average overall performance of 82.9% in the detection process of fraudulent users, significantly increasing the effectiveness compared to the approaches (68%... [more]

I4.0 promotes a future in which highly individualized goods are mass produced at a competitive price through autonomous, responsive manufacturing. In order to attain market competitiveness, organizations require proper integration of I4.0 technologies and manufacturing strategy outputs (MSOs). Implementing such a comprehensive integration relies on carefully selecting I4.0 technologies to meet industrial requirements. There is little clarity on the impact of I4.0 technologies on MSOs, and the literature provides little attention to this topic. This research investigates the influence of I4.0 technologies on MSOs by combining reliable MCDM methods. This research uses a combination of fuzzy DEMATEL and fuzzy TOPSIS to evaluate the impact of I4.0 technologies on MSOs. The fuzzy theory is implemented in DEMATEL and TOPSIS to deal with the uncertainty and vagueness of human judgment. The FDEMATEL was utilized to identify interrelationships and determine criterion a’s weights, while the fuzz... [more]

The article presents the problems of diagnostics of low-power solar power plants with the use of the three-valued (3VL) state assessment {2, 1, 0}. The 3VL diagnostics is developed on the basis of two-valued diagnostics (2VL), and it is elaborated on. In the (3VL) diagnostics, the range of changes in the values of the signals from the 2VL logic was accepted for the serviceability condition: state {12VL}. This range of signal value changes for logic (3VL) was divided into two signal value change sub-ranges, which were assigned two status values in the logic (3VL): {23VL}—serviceability condition and {13VL}—incomplete serviceability condition. The state of failure for both logics applied of the valence of states is interpreted equally for the same changes in the values of diagnostic signals, the possible changes of which exceed the ranges of their permissible changes. The DIAG 2 intelligent system based on an artificial neural network was used in diagnostic tests. For this purpose, the a... [more]

Cities have been struggling for many years with many transport problems, including the impact of carbon monoxide emitted by vehicles on the environment, traffic jams, high energy consumption, numerous accidents or high infrastructure costs. There is also a dynamic growth of vehicles on the roads, which is why an increasing number of cities are introducing intelligent transportation systems (ITS), which is part of the concept of smart cities. This paper proposes a new matrix to assess the effects of the ITS implementation in the context of a concept Smart City, which consists of five criteria: (1) movement speed; (2) safety; (3) environmental; (4) economic; (5) satisfaction and amenities for society/passengers. In this new approach the benchmark values of the indicators assigned to the criteria are involved and, therefore, it is possible to determine the level of effectiveness of the ITS in public transport that uses low-carbon energy. This research used literature studies to establish... [more]

Nowadays, one of the main sources of renewable energy is wind energy; therefore, a wind farm’s electricity system must be effective. As a result, wind farm (WF) equipment must continuously operate without failure or damage. To achieve this, it is necessary to regularly monitor and assess the reliability of WF systems at every point of their “life”, including design, implementation, and continued use. Three key goals are presented in the article. First, a theory of fundamental theoretical quantities that can be used in reliability and maintenance analysis is presented. The second is to put forth a theoretical reliability link between mean time to failure and WF system fitness probability (Mean Time to Failures (MTTF—Mean time between failures. MTTF = t1 + t2 + … + tn/m, where: m—the number of all failures at time T, ti—i—ty time to failure)). The third goal is to analyze the time to failure as a function of service life and to assess the dependability of the WF under consideration as a... [more]

This paper analyses innovative activities, including renewable energy sources (RES) in the housing market, the motivations for their introduction, effectiveness, benefits, limitations and management—which are open and current problems of Polish and international sustainable construction. This problem is part of a research gap concerning, among others, the role of developers and entities responsible for introducing energy innovations into housing construction. The aim of the paper is to analyse innovations, with particular emphasis on RES, introduced by residential developers in Poland in the context of global trends. The work is based on the results of surveys conducted among developers of the primary housing market. The research of 130 questionnaires received from entities such as multi-storey buildings and multi-family houses in Poland, was carried out on a nationwide sample using the CATI Computer Assisted Telephone Interview method. The results of the survey research were summarize... [more]

The drastic consequences of emergencies force us to look for ways to increase the stability of the device operation at overhead power transmission lines (OHPTL). It can be achieved by developing new algorithms for determining the protection operation setpoints and detecting the damage location. Fault detection at OHPTL of 10 kV and above is mainly carried out by the devices based on the measurement of emergency mode parameters. For fault detecting one should analyze the parameters of not only current and voltage at the accident time, but also of the overhead power line. Specific active resistance, specific reactance, specific active conductivity and specific reactive conductivity are used to characterize the overhead power transmission lines. As a rule, these parameters are normalized to the unit of length of the overhead line (OHL) and linear values are used in the calculations. When analyzing power lines, tabular approximate values of longitudinal and transversal parameters in equiva... [more]

The study of power load forecasting is gaining greater significance nowadays, particularly with the use and integration of renewable power sources and external power stations. Power forecasting is an important task in the planning, control, and operation of utility power systems. In addition, load forecasting (LF) aims to estimate the power or energy needed to meet the required power or energy to supply the specific load. In this article, we introduce, review and compare different power load forecasting techniques. Our goal is to help in the process of explaining the problem of power load forecasting via brief descriptions of the proposed methods applied in the last decade. The study reviews previous research that deals with the design of intelligent systems for power forecasting using various methods. The methods are organized into five groups—Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Support Vector Regression, Decision Tree (DT), Linear Regression (LR), and Fuzzy Sets (FS). This way, the revi... [more]

Buildings are one of the primary consumers of energy. In addition to the electricity grids, renewable energies can be used to supply the energy demand of buildings. Intelligent systems such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and wireless sensor technologies can also be applied to manage the energy consumption in buildings. Fortunately, integrating renewable energies with these intelligent systems enables creating nearly zero-energy buildings. In this paper, we present the results of our experimentation to demonstrate forming such a building and showing the benefits for building users and the society. We create a system by integrating photovoltaic (PV) technology with an IoT-based control mechanism to supply and consume energy. We further illustrate “how the integration of IoT and PV technology can bring added value to the users?”. To this end, we evaluate the performance of our system against conventional ways of energy supply and consumption for a lighting use case in a dairy store. We a... [more]

Sustainable development and the increasing demand for equitable energy use as well as the reduction of waste of energy are the author’s social and scientific motivations. This new paradigm is the selection of a pertinent methodology to evaluate the efficiency of habitat thermomodernization, which is one of the scientific tasks of the presented study. In order to meet the social and scientific requirements, 380 buildings from the end of the last century (made of large plate technology), which were thermally improved at the beginning of the XXI century, were designed for a comparative analysis of the predictive modelling of heating energy consumption. A specific set of important variables characterizing the examined buildings has been identified. Groups of variables were used to estimate the energy consumption in such a way as to achieve a compromise between the difficulty of obtaining them and the quality of forecast. To predict energy consumption, the six most appropriate neural method... [more]

In recent years, power-to-gas technologies have been gaining ground and are increasingly proving their reliability. The possibility of implementing long-term energy storage and that of being able to capture and utilize carbon dioxide are currently too important to be ignored. However, systems of this type are not yet experiencing extensive realization in practice. In this study, an overview of the experimental research projects and the research and development activities that are currently part of the power-to-gas research line is presented. By means of a bibliographical and sitographical analysis, it was possible to identify the characteristics of these projects and their distinctive points. In addition, the main research targets distinguishing these projects are presented. This provides an insight into the research direction in this regard, where a certain technological maturity has been achieved and where there is still work to be done. The projects found and analyzed amount to 87,... [more]

Corporate responsibility is an effective management strategy which, through conducting social dialogue at the local level, contributes to increasing the competitiveness of enterprises at a global level and simultaneously shaping favourable conditions for social and economic development. A review of the literature on the subject provided the theoretical motivation to undertake an emirical study of the implemented social innovations by the property manager and their reception by resource residents. The main aim of this study was to diagnose the attitudes of residents towards the implementation of social innovations by the municipal property manager. The research presented in the above article has been conducted in the first and second quarter of 2021 among residents of the Department of Housing “TBS” (ZGM TBS) in Częstochowa, Silesian voivoideship, Poland. The research was conducted using the survey method. The measurement instrument was a prepared questionnaire. The survey was completed... [more]

In industrial maintenance activity, very sophisticated technical and human factors are needed to achieve the great process or service that the company provides, with a large dose of knowledge based on the personal experience of maintenance technicians. However, the management and application of knowledge in this activity is often relegated to a third level (or simply forgotten). The aim of this study is to identify, classify and prioritize the different barriers and facilitators that can be found in maintenance organizations of the company in reference to knowledge management in strategic maintenance activities, and what competitive advantages could be used for their appropriate introduction in the company. For this, qualitative techniques have been used through a field study and observation, as well as semi-structured interviews between company directors and maintenance managers of first-level companies in various sectors (industrial or services), to draw conclusions on the applicatio... [more]

In this article, a description is presented of simulation investigations concerning the quality of regeneration effects of a technical object in an intelligent system with an artificial neural network. All repairable technical objects used are subject to a cyclic (random) process of damages and repairs in the time of their operation. A reduction of the parameters connected with the use of objects is the fundamental feature of this process. This results in the need of a regeneration (technical maintenance) of this object. Regeneration of an object in an intelligent system with an artificial neural network constitutes an effective approach to this problem. The problem of qualitative assessments of a maintenance process organized in this manner is the focus of this article. For this purpose, a program of simulation investigations is presented. The research program consists of a description of the models of the operation processes of technical objects, determination of the input data to th... [more]

Systematic failure analysis generally enhances the ability of engineering decision-makers to obtain a holistic view of the causal relationships that often exist within the systems they manage. Such analyses are made more difficult by uncertainties and organisational complexities associated with critical and inevitable industrial maintenance activities such as major overhauls, outages, shutdowns, and turnarounds (MoOSTs). This is perhaps due to the ratio of tasks-to-duration typically permitted. While core themes of MoOSTs including planning, contracts, costing, execution, etc., have been the focus of most research activities, it is worth noting that the ability to successfully transfer and retain MoOSTs knowledge is still under-investigated. Effectively implementing a case study-based approach for data collection, the current study explores the harmonisation of various risk assessments (i.e., fault tree analysis and reliability block diagrams) and multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA)... [more]

The concept of predictive and preventive maintenance and constant monitoring of the technical condition of industrial machinery is currently being greatly improved by the development of artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms in particular. The advancement of such methods can vastly improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of systems designed for wear analysis and detection of vibrations that can indicate changes in the physical structure of the industrial components such as bearings, motor shafts, and housing, as well as other parts involved in rotary movement. Recently this concept was also adapted to the field of renewable energy and the automotive industry. The core of the presented prototype is an innovative interface interconnected with augmented reality (AR). The proposed integration of AR goggles allowed for constructing a platform that could acquire data used in rotary components technical evaluation and that could enable direct interaction with the user.... [more]

The timeliness of the complex automated diagnostics of the metal condition for all characteristics has been substantiated. An algorithm for the automation of metallographic quality control of metals is proposed and described. It is based on the use of neural networks for recognizing images of metal microstructures and a precedent method for determining the metal grade. An approach to preliminarily process the images of metal microstructures is described. The structure of a neural network has been developed to determine the quantitative characteristics of metals. The results of the functioning of neural networks for determining the quantitative characteristics of metals are presented. The high accuracy of determining the characteristics of metals using neural networks is shown. Software has been developed for the automated recognition of images of metal microstructures, and for the determination of the metal grade. Comparative results of carrying out metallographic analysis with the dev... [more]

Fire protection is a basic safety issue for all categories of buildings. The criteria for effective fire suppression and the characteristics of extinguishing systems in insulated areas depend on a combination of factors. The main influences include the type of combustible material, ambient temperature, type of spray extinguisher, air inflow and outflow conditions, and space geometry. This article analyzes the most widely used fire-extinguishing technologies in different locations. The main aspects of using the pulsed delivery technology of extinguishing liquid are considered. Based on the analysis of publications from the last decade, it is possible to develop intelligent systems for recording fires and extinguishing fires in the premises.

This paper introduces the issue of reliability simulation studies of wind farm equipment in the process of an operation. By the improvement, retrofitting and insertion of new (optimal) solutions to change the quality and terms of the use of wind farm equipment, an evaluation of their impact on reliability under real conditions can be carried out over a long period of time. Over a brief period, testing the reliability of a technical facility is only possible in a simulation. The aspect of evaluating the reliability of wind farm equipment after the application of intelligent systems, including the Wind Power Plant Expert System (WPPES), can be tested in the manner of a simulation. It was accepted in this article that the operation of the wind farm equipment is detailed based on Markov processes. The results of such research activities are the development of reliable and appropriate strategies and an exploitation policy of PE facilities. The above-mentioned issues in such a comprehensive... [more]

This paper analyzes the challenges and requirements of establishing energy data ecosystems (EDEs) as data-driven infrastructures that overcome the limitations of currently fragmented energy applications. It proposes a new data- and knowledge-driven approach for management and processing. This approach aims to extend the analytics services portfolio of various energy stakeholders and achieve two-way flows of electricity and information for optimized generation, distribution, and electricity consumption. The approach is based on semantic technologies to create knowledge-based systems that will aid machines in integrating and processing resources contextually and intelligently. Thus, a paradigm shift in the energy data value chain is proposed towards transparency and the responsible management of data and knowledge exchanged by the various stakeholders of an energy data space. The approach can contribute to innovative energy management and the adoption of new business models in future ene... [more]

The article deals with simulation tests on the reliability of the equipment of the wind farm WF in the operation process. The improvement, modernization, and introduction of new solutions that change the reliability, as well as the quality and conditions of use and operation of wind farm equipment, require testing. Based on these tests, it is possible to continuously evaluate the reliability of the equipment of WF. The issue of reliability assessment of wind farm equipment, for which intelligent systems, diagnostic systems DIAG, and Wind Power Plant Expert System (WPPES) are used to modernize the operation process, can only be tested in a simulative way. The topic of testing the reliability of complex technical objects is constantly developing in the literature. In this paper, it is assumed that the operation of wind farm equipment is described and modeled based on Markov processes. The adoption of this assumption justified the use of the Kolmogorov−Chapman equations to describe the de... [more]

Among the most valuable types of renewable energy available today is wind energy. The reliability of WF systems must be regularly evaluated at every stage of their “life,” from design to operation, if a wind farm energy system is to be effective and function damage-free. Three key goals are presented in the article. The theory of fundamental quantities in reliability and maintenance analysis should be derived and explained first. Second, as a consequence of maintainability, theoretical correlations between reliability and mean time between failures (MTBF) are provided. The three-state theory of the WF procedure for operation presented in the research serves as the foundation for the analytical analysis of WF reliability. The time between failures is investigated as a function of maintainability, and the dependability of the WF under examination is assessed as a function of service life. The WF owner can make the best decisions to renew the WF and increase its reliability, energy, finan... [more]

Among the technological developments for complex technical objects such as civil aircraft, energy systems, medical devices, etc [...]

This article deals with the importance of simulation studies for the reliability of wind farm (WF) equipment during the operation process. Improvements, upgrades, and the introduction of new solutions that change the reliability, quality, and conditions of use and operation of wind farm equipment present a research problem during study. Based on this research, it is possible to continuously evaluate the reliability of WF equipment. The topic of reliability testing of complex technical facilities is constantly being developed in the literature. The article assumes that the operation of wind farm equipment is described and modeled based on Markov processes. This assumption justified the use of Kolmogorov−Chapman equations to describe the developed research model. Based on these equations, an analytical model of the wind farm operation process was created and described. As a result of the simulation analysis, the reliability of the wind farm was determined in the form of a probability fun... [more]

In this paper, the basic structure of an ICT platform of energy indicators, Openergy, is analytically presented, leveraging energy open data to help address the energy crisis more democratically. More specifically, its applicability as a dynamic tool for the management of climate, environmental, and socioeconomic information is described, and its efficiency in helping uncover insights for optimal data-driven decisions is depicted. Openergy uses data from the official portal for European data and the Eurostat site. Its database consists of data related to six energy categories, EU 2020 energy targets, energy balance, electricity production, transport fuels, heat production, and gas emissions, and each one includes its own indicators for EU countries. The platform includes visualizations of these data as well as time series modeling and forecasting, and the results are depicted at Openergy platform. The time series modeling provides forecasts with confidence intervals of each indicator u... [more]