The Brista 1 plant is a wood chip-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant located near Märsta, northwest of Stockholm, Sweden. The primary purpose of the plant is to supply heat to the northwest district heating grid. In order to meet increasing demand for district heating, Fortum Heat is constructing a second CHP plant next to Brista 1. The Brista 2 plant will use a mixture of municipal and industrial waste as fuel. Due to changes in the European Green Certificate program, the fuel subsidies for wood chips will be significantly reduced. This will cause the Brista 1 plant to incur significantly increased operating costs. The Brista 2 plant, however, will not be affected by these changes and will therefore be much cheaper to run than Brista 1. However, due to the large demand for district heating it will be necessary to run both plants in parallel at certain times in order to meet the heating demand and/or maximize revenue during periods of high electricity demand. A computer program has been constructed using MATLAB which simulates the Brista 1 and 2 plants and their combined operation in both backpressure and direct condensing mode. The results show that the optimum allocation of heat production does not seem to be affected by electricity price assuming both plants are operated in backpressure mode. The reason for this would seem to be that the production costs (fuel, emissions, O&M) are unaffected by the electricity price. Therefore, the allocation which maximizes electrical power production, and thus revenue from electricity sales, will always be favored. In certain cases, it is more profitable to run the Brista 1 plant in direct condensing mode. The reason for this would seem to be that the thermal efficiency is somewhat higher, and that at low electricity prices the revenues from electricity sales do not offset the cost of the reduced heat production.

Operational performance of grid-connected microgrid with integrated solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity production and battery energy storage (BES) is investigated.  These distributed energy resources (DERs) have the potential to reduce conventionally produced electrical power and contribute to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.  This investigation is based upon the DER’s techno-economic specifications and theoretical performance, consumer load data and electrical utility retail and distribution data.  Available literature provides the basis for DER specification and performance.  Actual consumer load profile data is available for residential and commercial consumer sector customers.  The electrical utility data is obtained from Mälarenergi, AB.  The aim is to investigate how to use simulations to specify a grid connected microgrid with DERs (PV production and a BES system) for two consumer sectors considering a range of objectives.  An open-source, MATLAB-based simulation tool called Opti-CE has successfully been utilized.  This package employs a genetic algorithm for multi-objective optimization.  To support attainment of one of the objectives, peak shaving of the consumer load, a battery operational strategy algorithm has been developed for the simulation.  With respect to balancing peak shaving and self-consumption one of the simulations supports specification of a commercial sector application with 117 kWp PV power rating paired with a lithium ion battery with 41.1 kWh capacity.  The simulation of this system predicts the possibility to shave the customer load profile peaks for the month of April by 20%.  The corresponding self-consumption ratio is 88%.  Differences in the relationship between the load profiles and the system performance have been qualitatively noted.  Furthermore, simulation results for lead-acid, lithium-ion and vanadium-redox flow battery systems are compared to reveal that lithium ion delivers the best balance between total annualized cost and peak shaving performance for both residential and commercial applications.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:51:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3634.pdf: 1481408 bytes, checksum: d561cb2e4ab6a3abae07e5e1e88e2b20 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-25 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The use of lean manufacturing principles and techniques has been increasing considerably in companies over the past couple of decades. The employment of such techniques prompts profound transformations on both the project and work organization of the company that chooses to employ them. By this approach, companies that embrace the lean manufacturing model gain flexibility, acquire new principles, and adopt new techniques which enhance their manufacturing process management as well as their workforce management, supported upon the motivation of the worker as he performs his activities, upon team-work, and stimulated by qualification and engagement at work. The objective of this study is to deepen the knowledge of how workmen develop strategies and regulate work activities in productive situations that are planned and managed through principles and techniques based upon the lean manufacturing concept. In order to more clearly analyze the theme studied, a case study was conducted in the assembly line of a company that incorporated the lean manufacturing model to manage its manufacturing process. Work was analyzed through the analysis of activity, based on the precepts of the Ergonomic Analysis of Work. The case study certified that many aspects of the traditional assembly line remain evident in the lean assembly line; however, a new language is employed, due to the new culture and the more flexible model of lean manufacturing. Within the work situations that were analyzed in the case study, it was possible to establish some relevant aspects in the nature of regulations in which their relation to the lean techniques influence the strategies and operational modes of the workers during the process. Despite the diminishment of regulated space which takes place due to the application of lean manufacturing techniques, the operators continue to regulate work activities and fulfil production goals. / A utilização dos princípios e técnicas do modelo de produção enxuta tem crescido consideravelmente nas empresas nas últimas décadas. A ampliação da adoção das técnicas da produção enxuta nas empresas resulta em profundas transformações sobre o projeto e a organização do trabalho. Para essa abordagem, as empresas que adotam a produção enxuta passam a ser mais flexíveis, a ter novos princípios e a adotar novas técnicas na gestão da produção e da força de trabalho, apoiados na motivação do operário na execução de suas atividades, no trabalho em equipe, estimulados pelas qualificações e engajamento no trabalho. Diante disso, a ergonomia considera que as mudanças dos espaços de regulação fazem com que os trabalhadores adotem estratégias e modos operatórios a fim de regular seu estado interno e atingir os resultados esperados pela organização Esse estudo teve por objetivo aprofundar os conhecimentos sobre como os trabalhadores desenvolvem estratégias e regulam a atividade de trabalho em situações produtivas projetadas e geridas nos princípios e técnicas baseados na produção enxuta. Para melhor problematizar o tema estudado, foi realizado um estudo de caso em uma linha de montagem de uma empresa que adotou a produção enxuta como maneira de gerir a sua produção. O trabalho foi analisado utilizando como método a análise da atividade, apoiada nos pressupostos da Análise Ergonômica do Trabalho. No estudo de caso foi constatado que muitos aspectos da linha de montagem tradicional continuam evidentes na linha de montagem enxuta, porém utilizando-se de uma nova linguagem, devido à nova cultura, mais flexível do modelo de produção enxuta. Dentro das situações do trabalho analisado no estudo de caso foi possível constatar alguns aspectos relevantes na natureza das regulações, cuja relação com as técnicas enxutas influenciam nas estratégias e modos operatórios dos trabalhadores, durante o processo. Apesar da diminuição dos espaços de regulação com a utilização das técnicas da produção enxuta, os operadores, ainda assim, continuam a regular a atividade de trabalho e atingir os objetivos de produção.

An increased competitive climate has enhanced the importance for companies to differentiate from other companies. Today, the customer support within service organizations are often disregarded as a source of value due to the focus on costs. Further, it has become more important to leverage the contact with the customer at all encounters. New technological advancements within Business Intelligence have also enabled companies to increase their competitiveness through improved decision support. The objective of this thesis is through a case study investigate how an insurance company could leverage its customer support as a source of creating shareholder value as well as how to apply trends within Business Intelligence for increased decision support. This was done through developing a conceptual model based on academic theory in order to provide a tool for analysis and development of a customer support. The research questions intends to investigate how an customer support can contribute to, and balance a focus on service quality, costs and sales in order to enhance shareholder value. A business driven approach was further used in order to understand how a customer support could leverage the emerging trends of Business Intelligence. This since the thesis also aims to provide some first insights into how to leverage the trends of mobile- and Self-Service- Business Intelligence within the customer support within insurance companies. The research emphasizes the need to have a holistic view of what drives value and costs with regard to the retention, growth and acquisition of customers when viewing the customer support as a source of value. The thesis concludes that both the trends of mobile- and Self-Service- Business Intelligence could enable an insurance company to gain new insights through utilizing existing internal as well as external data in order to conduct a more continuous and flexible analysis of important matters.