M.Comm. / South Africa's demand for electricity is expected to outstrip the industry's generation capacity by 2010. If the government wants to avoid this situation, the construction of new plants must commence. At the moment this task has been delayed because the Government is at loggerheads with COSAU and Eskom about restructuring the electricity supply industry. This debate will remain unsolved unless the government can substantiate why exposing the industry to competition will improve its performance. Unfortunately this task is not as simple as it seems. Even though competition is one of the most widely used terms in economics, it still remains an elusive concept. The ambiguity regarding tl1e meaning of competition arises from the failure to divorce the concept of competition from a market structure; as a consequence an operational meaning of what it means to compete \n terms of contemporary business behaviour does not exist. As a result activities associated with industrialisation, such as a changing production function, the development of new products and t~chniqu'::s and business structures are not related to the concept of competition. In order to develop n clear understanding of "what it means to compete", this dissertadon uses a behavioural definition of competition to determine why exposing firms to. competitive pressure improves their performance, reflected in superior static and dynamic efficiency levels. Based on this conceptual framework, Schumpeter' s approach to competition, which emphasises innovation, profits and the entrepreneur as the agent of improvement combined with the idea that it is the uneven development of knowledge that matters in the process of creative destruction", is accepted (Metcalfe & Ramlogan &Uyarra: 2001). Based on the above notion of competition, competitive pressure positively influences firms' performance, improving their static and dynamic efficiency levels. A micro-economic analysis of a C!)IDp.etitive electricity industry is conducted in order to test the abov~ assumption. This case study demonstrates that the competitive process ultimately improves thr: integration of knowledge throughout the supply chain, which is used an input to stimulate innovation within firms and exploit new technologies (Murphy, 2002:21). As a result, firms facing competition will try to retaii1 their market position 2 by exploiting all knowledge and exploring all avenues of technological invention, before selecting the best method (Khan: 1998). In addition, this case study illustrates that stimulating dynamic efficiency goes beyond developing and implementing "hardware" (computers, CCGT plants, fuel cells etc). Although technology plays an important role in shaping industrial organisation, it is not the catalyst that drives innovation and change. Rather organisational innovation changes market participants' schemas, breeding new ideas that become the input to create technology. Therefore organisational innovation has profound efficiency consequences (Williamson, 1994: 183). If technological and organisational inncvation is intertwined, then innovation is a complex evolutionary process, which occurs over time. Furthermore innovation cannot occur in a vacuum, but is interconnected, interwoven and interdependent with an industry's physical and institutional context (Perez, 2000). Based on the stylised facts a competitive market provides the institutional context that stimulates innovation, and therefore it might be worth incurring the transactions costs and short-term losses in order to create these opportunities.

M.Ing. (Electrical and Electronic Engineering) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering / Anil Pahwa / Power distribution systems are transitioning from traditional centralized-control distribution grids to the modern distribution grids that are more customer-interactive and include microgrids (MGs) as well as various unpredictable and multi-scale distributed energy resources (DERs). However, power fueled by renewable DERs such as wind and solar is highly variable and high penetration of renewable DERs in distribution system may potentially degrade the grid reliability and power quality. Moreover, the growth of such generation sources will increase the number of variables and cause scalability concerns for distribution system operators (DSOs) in handling system optimization problems. Further, with development of MGs, DSO and MG may have different owners and schedule renewable and non-renewable DERs based on their own economic rules and policies while secure and economic operation of the entire system is necessary. The widespread integration of wind and solar and deployment of MGs in distribution system make the task of distribution system operation management quite challenging especially from the viewpoint of variability, scalability, and multi-authority operation management. This research develops unique models and methodologies to overcome such issues and make distribution grid operation, optimization and control more robust against renewable intermittency, intractability, and operation complexity. The objectives of this research are as follows: 1) to develop a three-phase unbalanced large-scale distribution system to serve as a benchmark for studying challenges related to integration of DERs, such as scalability concerns in optimization problems, incremental power losses, voltage rise, voltage fluctuations, volt/var control, and operation management; 2) to develop a novel hierarchical and multilevel distributed optimization for power loss minimization via optimal reactive power provisioning from rooftop PVs which addresses the scalability issues with widespread DER integration in large-scale networks; 3) to develop a dynamic operational scheme for residential PV smart inverters to mitigate the fluctuations from rooftop PV integration under all-weather-condition (fully sunny, overcast and transient cloudy days) while increasing network efficiency in terms of power losses, and number of transformer load tap changer (LTC) operation; 4) to develop a stochastic energy management model for multi-authority distribution system operating under uncertainty from load and wind generation, which is able to precisely account interactions between DSO and MGs.

Thesis (M.S. in electrical engineering)--Washington State University, December 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 57-58).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 274-276). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-93).

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xiv, 106 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-92).

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