Abstract
Electric mobility with all of its advantages has gained momentum during the last decade with increasing utilization by many sectors of the society. However, professional fleets' operators (e.g. taxis) are still conservative in switching to this new mobility paradigm in many parts of the world. In this paper, we empirically evaluate whether electric vehicles together with conventional charging stations could replace current internal combustion engine vehicles for taxi mobility and study the implications for the taxi business. To perform this study, we resort to a detailed mobility dataset of a taxi fleet collected in a mid-sized European city. The results provide a first indication that such transition towards electric mobility is feasible for the vast majority of the vehicles of the fleet and that simple AC chargers at taxi stands could suffice to provide the necessary range autonomy.

Abstract
This study proposes a benchmarking approach to assess water supply and sanitation services' performance in Brazilian municipalities from an integrated perspective of efficiency and access. The regional differences and the impact of the governance models adopted by different municipalities (local public entities, regional public entities, and private entities) on efficiency levels are also explored. The results revealed significant heterogeneity in the efficiency levels of Brazilian municipalities, as the average efficiency score is relatively low (45%). The Southeast and Center-west regions stand out both in terms of efficiency and access dimensions. There is evidence that municipalities with services provided by local public entities have higher efficiency than those with regional providers. On the other hand, efficiency differences between municipalities with public and private providers are statistically significant. Finally, regulatory strategies are suggested based on the outcome of the integrated analysis.

Abstract
This paper proposes an innovative framework based on optimisation techniques that can support decision-making in water services. The proposed models estimate a Best-Practice frontier recurring to a ‘Benefit-of-the-Doubt’ formulation that enables benchmarking performance across decision-making units. We propose an innovative estimation of a pseudo-Malmquist index to compare the performance of groups. The framework’s relevance is illustrated using data of the Brazilian water and sanitation regulator, collected at the municipality level for the year 2019. The groups compared correspond to three Brazilian macro-regions. The results obtained show that the Southeast exhibits the best overall performance. The Northeast has a few municipalities with the best practices at a national level, but this macro-region has significant heterogeneity in performance levels. The South has a more homogeneous performance, but the best-performing municipalities in this macro-region are still far from Brazil’s best practices. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Abstract
Driven by the need for decarbonizing energy carriers across sectors, and the increasing availability of low-cost renewable electricity generation future energy systems will see a rise of power-to-gas technology. For example, hydrogen and its derivates can make enable the usage of carbon-neutral electricity for hard-to abate industry sectors and serve as long-term seasonal storage. Given recent drafts of ambitious political hydrogen strategies around the world, the question arises which power-to-gas configurations provide the highest value for money from a power system perspective. This work provides a flexible framework to compare the performance of current power-to-gas sites all over the world. Power-to-gas technologies are assessed with a benchmarking framework based on Composite Indicators to compare the system value of existing conversion technologies, plant sizes, cost structures, and configurations. Our analysis confirms recent research that suggests that plant performance is higher for larger projects and improves as projects move from research stage over pilot stage to commercial stage. Our findings inform policy makers and electricity system planners who aim to identify the economically and technically most promising solutions for investment.

Abstract
Wastewater treatment plants constitute an essential part of the sewage system. They have the role of removing pollutants from wastewater to enable the safe disposal of the treated effluent in the natural environment. This research seeks to evaluate plants' efficiency and effectiveness, which involves minimizing energy consumption while obtaining a quality level of the treated water aligned with legislation requirements. We explore two policy scenarios regarding the measurement of effluent quality. The first assumes that pollutants' emission quotas (EQs) are fixed at each plant. The second assumes that quotas are set for the receiving waters (e.g., river or watercourse in the natural environment) so that trade-offs in EQs among plants sharing the same discharge site are possible. This latter scenario requires a system-wide analysis to identify optimal targets for pollutants removal at each plant that allow fulfilling the expected average quality levels of the effluent discharged. This paper develops a methodology to fully realize the potential for energy savings based on an innovative mixed-integer linear programming model. This model follows the data envelopment analysis axioms to estimate the frontier of the production possibility set. The approach proposed is tested in a real-world context using the plants of a Portuguese water company. The results show that the two scenarios combining efficiency and effectiveness perspectives have advantages in terms of energy savings compared to the conventional situation focused only on efficiency gains. The saving potential is slightly higher in the scenario allowing reallocation of EQs among plants.

Abstract
Purpose - The World State of Quality (WSQ) Project aims to evaluate, analyse, rank and categorise countries according to their performance in quality as a multidimensional concept. The Project involves the computation of an overall score for each country, obtained as a weighted average of ranking positions of 16 metrics, with weights determined by a panel of experts. Methodology-This work proposes an alternative strategy for that procedure, using a Benefit-of-the-Doubt (BoD) Composite Indicator approach under the framework of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This strategy avoids the need of using subjective weights and normalising data by rank positions, using a more objective procedure to obtain the countries’ ranking. A new overall score of the World State of Quality is proposed, which allows the categorisation of countries’ performance. The novel insights resulting from the use of this methodology are discussed, including the identification of strengths and weaknesses of the various countries, and the peers that can be used for facilitating continuous improvements policies. Findings - The results show that the BoD approach and the original method used by the WSQ Project present comparable results. Countries’ strengths and weaknesses and their suitable peers and targets for benchmarking are presented with illustrative examples. Originality/value – A novel frontier approach for countries’ benchmarking regarding their performance in quality is proposed, incorporating new insights into the current method. © 2022 Universidade do Minho. All rights reserved.