Abstract
The increasing use and development of renewable energy sources and distributed generation, brought several changes to the power system operation. Electricity markets worldwide are complex and dynamic environments with very particular characteristics, resulting from their restructuring and evolution into regional and continental scales, along with the constant changes brought by the increasing necessity for an adequate integration of renewable energy sources. With the eminent implementation of micro grids and smart grids, new business models able to cope with the new opportunities are being developed. Virtual Power Players are a new type of player, which allows aggregating a diversity of entities, e.g. generation, storage, electric vehicles, and consumers, to facilitate their participation in the electricity markets and to provide a set of new services promoting generation and consumption efficiency, while improving players' benefits. This paper proposes a clustering methodology regarding the remuneration and tariff of VPP. It proposes a model to implement fair and strategic remuneration and tariff methodologies, using a clustering algorithm, applied to load values, submitted to different types of normalization process, which creates sub-groups of data according to their correlations. The clustering process is evaluated so that the number of data sub-groups that brings the most added value for the decision making process is found, according to the players characteristics. The proposed clustering methodology has been tested in a real distribution network with 30 bus, including residential and commercial consumers, photovoltaic generation and storage units.

Abstract
The increasing use of renewable energy sources and distributed generation brought deep changes in power systems, namely with the operation of competitive electricity markets. With the eminent implementation of micro grids and smart grids, new business models able to cope with the new opportunities are being developed. Virtual Power Players are a new type of player, which allows aggregating a diversity of entities, e.g. generation, storage, electric vehicles, and consumers, to facilitate their participation in the electricity markets and to provide a set of new services promoting generation and consumption efficiency, while improving players' benefits. In order to achieve this objective, it is necessary to define tariff structures that benefit or penalize agents according to their behavior. In this paper a method for determining the tariff structures has been proposed, optimized for different load regimes. Daily dynamic tariff structures were defined and proposed, on an hourly basis, 24 hours day-Ahead from the characterization of the typical load profile, the value of the electricity market price and considering the renewable energy production. © 2018 IEEE.

Abstract
This paper presents a teaching/learning experiment running in the laboratorial curricular unit Project I of the 4th year of the Integrated Master in Industrial Electronics and Computers Engineering at the University of Minho. Project specifications were defined by the three teachers involved in the experience and students were encouraged to look on different solutions for a real-word problem. In a concurrent way, students designed, developed and implemented didactic rigs to control a gantry crane system. The control was performed in open-loop, based on the Posicast feedforward technique, and in closed-loop, using a two-degrees of freedom configuration. The experiment procedure and the project outcomes of two solutions proposed by the students are presented.

Abstract
With the implementation of micro grids and smart grids, new business models able to cope with the new opportunities are being developed. Virtual Power Players are a player that allows aggregating a diversity of entities, to facilitate their participation in the electricity markets and to provide a set of new services promoting generation and consumption efficiency, while improving players’ benefits. The elastic behavior of the demand consumption jointly used with other available resources such as distributed generation (DG) can play a crucial role for the success of smart grids. This paper proposes methodologies to develop strategic remuneration of aggregated consumers with demand response participation, this model uses a clustering algorithm, applied on values that were obtained from a scheduling methodology of a real Portuguese distribution network with 937 buses, 20310 consumers and 548 distributed generators. The normalization methods and clustering methodologies were applied to several variables of different consumers, which creates sub-groups of data according to their correlations. The clustering process is evaluated so that the number of data sub-groups that brings the most added value for the decision-making process is found, according to players characteristics. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.

Abstract
[No abstract available]

Abstract
This paper proposes a decision support model to define electricity consumers' remuneration structures when providing consumption flexibility, optimized for different load regimes. The proposed model addresses the remuneration of consumers when participating in demand response programs, benefiting or penalizing those who adjust their consumption when needed. The model defines dynamic remuneration values with different natures for the aggregator (e.g. flexibility aggregator or curtailment service provider) and for the consumer. The preferences and perspective of both are considered, by incorporating variables that represent the energy price, the energy production and the flexibility of consumers. The validation is performed using real data from the Iberian market, and results enable to conclude that the proposed model adapts the remuneration values in a way that it is increased according to the consumers' elastic, while being reduced when the generation is higher. Consequently, the model boosts the active consumer participation when flexibility is required, while reaching a solution that represents an acceptable g tradeoff between the aggregators and the consumers. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.