Abstract
In the European Union (EU), the greenhouse emissions from the transportation sector increased around 36% since 1990, which degraded the environmental quality. This sector, owing to its oil dependency, is responsible for around a quarter of EU greenhouse emissions, and the road transportation represents about 20% of the total CO[[inf]]2[[/inf]] emissions in EU. Moreover, concerns such as the dependency on oil supply and the foreseen prices increase during this century have motivated a wide range of policy and technological measures for the transportation sector. A large part of these measures were to incentivize the electric vehicle (EV) adoption, which is one element with great potential to decarbonize the transportation sector and decrease its oil dependency. This chapter describes relevant methodologies to actively manage EV charging/discharging (as distributed storage devices) to achieve different goals, such as avoid grid congestion, the EV participation in primary frequency control, and the coordination of EV charging with renewable generation. To contextualize the methodologies described, a brief state of the art in active management functionalities for EV is provided. Some of the results obtained with the described approaches are also presented to demonstrate their overall performance. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abstract

Abstract
This paper evaluates the benefits of introducing electricity powered vehicles (EV) in one island of the Azores archipelago in Portugal, the island of Flores. A Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) for the road transportation sector including EV was performed and the EV impacts in the electricity grid were evaluated. Two scenarios considering the introduction of EV were considered (Scenarios 2 and 3 with a shift in the car stock in 2050 of 30% and 70% to EV) and compared to the baseline scenario (Scenario 1 with no EV penetration). The results show that, if no alternative solutions are adopted, the road transportation sector LCA energy consumption will increase 58% in 2050, compared to 2009. In the most attractive scenario studied regarding EV integration in Flores, the LCA energy consumption in 2050 decreases by 34% and CO2 emissions by 39%, when comparing with Scenario 1. Moreover, the island's electricity network is ready for EV arrival, at least until 2020. Thereafter, a smart charging scheme should be implemented to manage the vehicles' energy demand according to the network technical limitations and the presence of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) should be reinforced, to decrease the island's dependency on fossil fuels and, consequently, CO2 emissions.

Abstract
This paper presents an approach to design the transformer and the link inductor for the high-frequency link matrix converter. The proposed method aims to systematize the design process of the HF-link using analytic and software tools. The models for the characterization of the core and winding losses have been reviewed. Considerations about the practical implementation and construction of the magnetic devices are also provided. The software receives the inputs from the mathematical analysis and runs the optimization to find the best design. A 10 kW / 20 kHz transformer plus a link inductor are designed using this strategy achieving a combined efficiency of 99.32%.

Abstract
This paper aims at presenting a Home Energy Management System ( HEMS) module capable of scheduling electric water heater ( EWH) appliances in order to optimize the PV self-consumption. A multi-period optimization model is presented. Laboratory tests were conducted to validate the model and to demonstrate the capability of this HEMS module to address recent challenges of self-consumption in a domestic environment. A commercial EWH device developed by Bosch communicating with the HEMS module is used to perform the tests.

Abstract
This work presents a methodology to manage Electric Vehicles (EVs) charging in quasi-real-time, considering the participation of EV aggregators in electricity markets and the technical restrictions of the electricity grid components, controlled by the Distribution System Operator. Two methodologies are presented in this paper to manage EV charging, one to be used by the EV aggregators and the other by the Distribution System Operator (DSO). The methodology developed for the aggregator has as main objective the minimization of the deviation between the energy bought in the market and the energy consumed by EVs. The methodology developed for the DSO allows it to manage the grid and solve operational problems that may appear by controlling EVs charging. A method to generate a synthetic EV data set is used in this work, providing information about EV movement, including the periods when EVs are parked and their energy requirements. This data set is used afterwards to assess the performance of the algorithms developed to manage the EV charging in quasi-real-time.