Abstract
For a long time, controlling AC motors in an efficient way, was a task only in the reach of some very specific electronic design Engineers. Now, with the up rise of Integrated Platforms it is possible to implement, with almost no effort, the desired application, customizing almost everything at the reach of a simple and user friendly software interface. However, the simplicity in control and monitoring has a major settle back. As expected, such products, very desirable by the market, are only sold in conjunction with an evaluation platform. Sometimes this platform does not fit the consumer needs and buying the full package is not a satisfactory solution, especially if it is just to get the control and monitoring software. In this paper, it will be shown that low cost alternatives are possible. Using free tools and manufacturer's documentation, it is simple to implement Motor Control with the desired IC by means of a very intuitive and complete Graphical Unit Interface (GUI), built attending our special needs.

Abstract
Factors such as uncertainty associated to fuel prices, energy demand and generation availability, are on the basis of the agents major concerns in electricity markets. Facing that reality, price forecasting has an increasing impact in agents' activity. The success on bidding strategies or on price negotiation for bilateral contracts is directly dependent on the accuracy of the price forecast. However, taking decisions based only on a single forecasted value is not a good practice in risk management. The work presented in this paper makes use of artificial neural networks to find the market price for a given period, with a certain confidence level. Historical information was used to train the neural networks and the number of neural networks used is dependent of the number of clusters found on that data. K-Means clustering method is used to find clusters. A study case with real data is presented and discussed in detail.

Abstract

Abstract
It is well known that optimization problems for the decision-making process in real environments should consider uncertainty to attain robust solutions. Although this uncertainty has been usually modelled using probability theory, assuming a random origin, possibility theory has emerged as an alternative uncertainty model when statistical information is not available, or when imprecision and vagueness have to be considered. This article proposes two different criteria to obtain robust solutions for linear optimization problems when the objective function coefficients are modelled with possibility distributions. To do so, chance constrained programming is used, leading to equivalent crisp optimization problems, which can be solved by commercial optimization software. A simple case example is presented to illustrate the use of the proposed methodology.

Abstract
The application of artificial neural networks or other techniques in load forecasting usually outputs quality results in normal conditions. However, in real-world practice, a remarkable number of abnormalities may arise. Among them, the most common are the historical data bugs (due to SCADA or recording failure), anomalous behavior (like holidays or atypical days), sudden scale or shape changes following switching operations, and consumption habits modifications in the face of energy price amendments. Each of these items is a potential factor of forecasting performance degradation. This paper describes the procedures implemented to avoid the performance degradation under such conditions. The proposed techniques are illustrated with real data examples of current, active, and reactive power forecasting at the primary substation level.

Abstract
Pitch control has so far been the dominating method for power control in modern variable speed wind turbines. This paper proposes an improved control technique for pitching the blades of a variable speed wind turbine, using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). The control objective is decided according the two states of operation: below rated operation and above rated operation. In the below rated power state, the aim of control is to extract maximum energy from the wind. In the above rated power, the control design problem is to limit and smooth the output electrical power. A model has been constructed and evaluated with experimental data obtained from Vestas V-47 660 kW wind turbine.