At present, a harmonized pan‐European electricity market (EM) is a close reality. While in day‐ahead markets (DAMs) the harmonization is at an advanced stage, in balancing markets (BMs) still exist some challenging issues, notably the remuneration of imbalances: some countries have simple and clear methods, but others consider complex methods that are not appealing to the participation of variable renewable energy (VRE). The participation of VRE in BMs is technically feasible, although with some restrictions to guarantee security and stability. Thus the economic attractiveness of these markets should be increased in order to enable full integration of VRE without feed‐in‐tariffs or other incentives. This article presents an overview of EMs, focusing on European BMs, and also investigates the benefits of the participation of wind power producers (WPPs) in BMs at both economic and technical levels. In particular, the article presents a new strategy allowing WPPs to bid in BMs. It also presents a study involving four scenarios, where WPPs participate in: (a) the DAM (baseline scenario), (b) the DAM and the automatic‐activated frequency restoration reserve market, (c) the DAM and the manually activated FRR (mFRR) market, and (d) the DAM and a 15‐min mFRR market. The simulations are performed with the agent‐based system MATREM (for Multi‐Agent TRading in EMs). For the last scenario, the results indicate an increase around 6% in the wind energy value to the market, a decrease of 12% in the total reserve used, and a decrease around 16% in the costs from the BM.This article is categorized under: Wind Power > Systems and Infrastructure Wind Power > Economics and Policy Energy Systems Analysis > Economics and Policy

This paper presents a decision support methodology for electricity market players’ bilateral contract negotiations. The proposed model is based on the application of game theory, using artificial intelligence to enhance decision support method’s adaptive features. This model is integrated in AiD-EM (Adaptive Decision Support for Electricity Markets Negotiations), a multi-agent system that provides electricity market players with strategic behavior capabilities to improve their outcomes from energy contracts’ negotiations. Although a diversity of tools that enable the study and simulation of electricity markets has emerged during the past few years, these are mostly directed to the analysis of market models and power systems’ technical constraints, making them suitable tools to support decisions of market operators and regulators. However, the equally important support of market negotiating players’ decisions is being highly neglected. The proposed model contributes to overcome the existing gap concerning effective and realistic decision support for electricity market negotiating entities. The proposed method is validated by realistic electricity market simulations using real data from the Iberian market operator—MIBEL. Results show that the proposed adaptive decision support features enable electricity market players to improve their outcomes from bilateral contracts’ negotiations.

The new proposal for regulating the European Internal Market for Electricity (EIME) can motivate the harmonization of the various National markets. The process of harmonizing the day‐ahead markets (DAMs) is at an advanced stage, with an efficiency in the use of interconnectors of 86%. However, the harmonization of both intraday (IDMs) and balancing markets (BMs) is still in its infancy, with an efficiency in the use of interconnectors of 50 and 19%, respectively. The new proposal brings new targets to DAMs, and European countries should make efforts to comply with them. The same is true for IDMs and BMs, but involving more ambitious targets, requiring higher efforts to be accomplished. Both the analysis of the various National markets (according to their compliance with the new proposal for regulating the EIME) and the advantages of the new proposal for key market participants (particularly, consumers, variable renewable generation, and conventional generation) are presented. The analysis indicates that the proposal contributes to a potential increase of the general welfare of market participants. However, some aspects of the proposal can negatively affect the revenue obtained from the National markets, notably for variable renewable generation and conventional generation.This article is categorized under: Wind Power > Systems and Infrastructure Energy Policy and Planning > Economics and Policy Energy Systems Analysis > Economics and Policy Energy and Development > Economics and Policy

Objective: There are no specific criteria that define the level of amputation in diabetic patients. The objective of this study was to assess the influence of clinical and laboratory parameters in determining the level of amputation and the wound healing time. Methods: One hundred and thirty-nine diabetic patients were retrospectively assessed. They underwent surgical procedures due to infection and/or ischemic necrosis. Type of surgery, antibiotic use, laboratory parameters and length of hospital stay were evaluated in this study. Results: The most common amputation level was transmetatarsal, occurring in 26 patients (28.9%). The wound healing time increased with statistical significance in individuals undergoing debridement, who did not receive preoperative antibiotics and did not undergo vascular intervention. Higher levels of amputation were statistically related to limb ischemia, previous amputation and non-use of preoperative antibiotics. Conclusion: Patients with minor amputations undergo stump revision surgery more often, but the act of always targeting the most distal stump possible decreases energy expenditure while walking, allowing patients to achieve better quality of life. Risk factors for major amputations were ischemia and previous amputations. A protective factor was preoperative antibiotic therapy. Level of Evidence III, Retrospective Study.