Abstract
Wind power is the source of electrical energy that has grown more over the last years, with annual rate in installed capacity around 20%. Therefore, it is important to optimize the production efficiency of wind farms. In a wind farm, the electrical energy is collected at a central substation from different wind turbines placed nearby. This paper addresses the optimal design of the cable network interconnecting the turbines to the substation aiming to minimize not only the infrastructure cost but also the cost of the energy losses in the cables. Although this problem is non-linear, different integer linear programming models are proposed considering the wind farm technical constraints. The models are applied to three real cases Portuguese wind farms. The computational results show that the proposed models are able to compute the optimal solutions for all cases.

Abstract
Electrical power quality (PQ) is a crucial competitive and developing factor to all economic activities. The economic impact resulting from a bad PQ would be drastic on all consumers. Computers, uninterruptible and switched power supplies (UPS), and fluorescent lamps/tubes are examples of nonlinear loads that have the consumption of a nonsinusoidal current, which cause disturbances in the power supply system (that may be severe or not). This study discusses residential generic power circuitry analysis and simulation, under nonlinear loads, in connection with undergraduate electrical engineering education. It briefly reviews some of the basic techniques, and presents a software tool that has been found to be very useful in the context. The tool has an easy-to-use, friendly interface, and can be used to teach design techniques or as a laboratory support to study the applicability of known methods to real situations. The students can perform simulations with their own data on Microsoft (TM) Windows (R)-based platforms. (c) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 22:340-348, 2014; View this article online at ; DOI

Abstract
Nowadays, wind energy has an important role in the challenges of clean energy supply. It is the fastest growing energy source with a increasing annual rate of 20%. This scenario motivate the development of an optimization design tool to find optimal layout for wind farms. This paper proposes a mathematical model to find the best electrical interconnection configuration of the wind farm turbines and the substation. The goal is to minimize the installation costs, that include cable cost and cable installation costs, considering technical constraints. This problem corresponds to a capacitated minimum spanning tree with additional constraints. The methodology proposed is applied in a real case study and the results are compared with the ground solution. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.

Abstract
Further improvements in demand response programs implementation are needed in order to take full advantage of this resource, namely for the participation in energy and reserve market products, requiring adequate aggregation and remuneration of small size resources. The present paper focuses on SPIDER, a demand response simulation that has been improved in order to simulate demand response, including realistic power system simulation. For illustration of the simulator's capabilities, the present paper is proposes a methodology focusing on the aggregation of consumers and generators, providing adequate tolls for the demand response program's adoption by evolved players. The methodology proposed in the present paper focuses on a Virtual Power Player that manages and aggregates the available demand response and distributed generation resources in order to satisfy the required electrical energy demand and reserve. The aggregation of resources is addressed by the use of clustering algorithms, and operation costs for the VPP are minimized. The presented case study is based on a set of 32 consumers and 66 distributed generation units, running on 180 distinct operation scenarios.

Abstract
Wind energy production have been increasing in last years, with an annual growth of the installed capacity rate about 20%. It becomes important to develop optimization techniques to improve the effectiveness of the wind farms. One field in which this can be done is in the distribution network design that interconnects the turbines and the substation. This paper proposes two mathematical models to obtain the optimal electrical interconnection configuration of the wind farm turbines, considering technical constraints. One model minimizes the installation costs and the other one minimizes the installation costs and the energy losses costs registered during the wind farm lifetime. This problem corresponds to a capacitated minimum spanning tree with additional constraints. The proposed models were applied in two real wind farms. A sensitivity analysis is performed over two electrical parameters, the power factor and the load factor. The results show that the electrical losses of the wind farm must be taken into account in the optimization process.

Abstract
Power systems have been through deep changes, with their operation in the scope of competitive electricity markets (EM) and the increasingly intensive use of renewable energy sources and distributed generation. This requires new business models able to cope with the new opportunities. Virtual Power Players (VPPs) are a new player type which allows aggregating a diversity of players (distribution Generation, storage units, electrical vehicles, and consumers) to participate in the markets and to provide a set of new services promoting generation and consumption efficiency and to improving players’ benefits. A major task of VPPs is the remuneration of generation and of the services (e.g. market operation costs, and energy reserves) as well as charging energy consumption. This PhD research will contribute by developing fair and strategic remuneration and tariff methodologies, able to allow efficient VPP operation and VPP goals accomplishment in EM. © Springer International Publishing AG 2018.