Gianfranco Chicco

Bio: Gianfranco Chicco is an academic researcher from Polytechnic University of Turin. The author has contributed to research in topics: Distributed generation & Cogeneration. The author has an hindex of 42, co-authored 372 publications receiving 8205 citations. Previous affiliations of Gianfranco Chicco include University of California, Berkeley & Instituto Politécnico Nacional.

Distributed multi-generation: A comprehensive view

Abstract: The recent development of efficient thermal prime movers for distributed generation is changing the focus of the production of electricity from large centralized power plants to local generation units scattered over the territory. The scientific community is addressing the analysis and planning of distributed energy resources with widespread approaches, taking into account technical, environmental, economic and social issues. The coupling of cogeneration systems to absorption/electric chillers or heat pumps, as well as the interactions with renewable sources, allow for setting up multi-generation systems for combined local production of different energy vectors such as electricity, heat (at different enthalpy levels), cooling power, hydrogen, various chemical substances, and so forth. Adoption of composite multi-generation systems may lead to significant benefits in terms of higher energy efficiency, reduced CO2 emissions, and enhanced economy. In this light, a key direction for improving the characteristics of the local energy production concerns the integration of the concepts of distributed energy resources and combined production of different energy vectors into a comprehensive distributed multi-generation (DMG) framework that entails various approaches to energy planning currently available in the literature. This paper outlines the main aspects of the DMG framework, illustrating its characteristics and summarizing the relevant DMG structures. The presentation is backed by an extended review of the most recent journal publications and reports.

Comparisons among clustering techniques for electricity customer classification

Abstract: The recent evolution of the electricity business regulation has given new possibilities to the electricity providers for formulating dedicated tariff offers. A key aspect for building specific tariff structures is the identification of the consumption patterns of the customers, in order to form specific customer classes containing customers exhibiting similar patterns. This paper illustrates and compares the results obtained by using various unsupervised clustering algorithms (modified follow-the-leader, hierarchical clustering, K-means, fuzzy K-means) and the self-organizing maps to group together customers with similar electrical behavior. Furthermore, this paper discusses and compares various techniques-Sammon map, principal component analysis (PCA), and curvilinear component analysis (CCA)-able to reduce the size of the clustering input data set, in order to allow for storing a relatively small amount of data in the database of the distribution service provider for customer classification purposes. The effectiveness of the classifications obtained with the algorithms tested is compared in terms of a set of clustering validity indicators. Results obtained on a set of nonresidential customers are presented.

Customer characterization options for improving the tariff offer

Abstract: This paper deals with the classification of electricity customers on the basis of their electrical behavior. Starting from an extensive field measurement-based database of customer daily load diagrams, the authors searched for the most appropriate indices or sets of indices to be used for customer classification. They propose two original measures to quantify the degree of adequacy of each index. Using the indices as distinguishing features, they adopt an automatic clustering algorithm to form customer classes. Each customer class is then represented by its load profile. They use the load profiles to study the margins left to a distribution company for fixing dedicated tariffs to each customer class. They take into account new degrees of freedom available in the competitive electricity markets, which increase flexibility in the tariff definition under imposed revenue caps. Results of a case study performed on a set of customers of a large distribution company are presented.

I and i

Abstract: There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality. Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …