Abstract
This work addresses a case study in an intercontinental supply chain. The problem emerges in a company in Angola dedicated to the trade of consumable goods for construction building and industrial maintenance. The company in Angola sends the replenishment needs to a Portuguese company, which takes the decision of which products and in which quantities will be sent by shipping container to the company in Angola. The replenishment needs include the list of products that reached the corresponding reorder point. The decision of which products and in which quantity should take into consideration a set of practical constraints: the maximum weight of the cargo, the maximum volume the cargo and financial constraints related with the minimum value that guarantees the profitability of the business and a maximum value associated with shipping insurance. A 2-stage hybrid method is proposed. In the first stage, an integer linear programming model is used to select the products that maximise the sales potential. In the second stage, a Container Loading Algorithm is used to effectively pack the selected products in the shipping container ensuring the geometrical constraints, and safety constraints such as weight limit and stability. A new set of problem instances was generated with the 2DCPackGen problem generator, using as inputs the data collected in the company. Computational results for the algorithm are presented and discussed. Good results were obtained with the solution approach proposed, with an average occupation ratio of 92% of the container and an average gap of 4% for the solution of the integer linear programming model.

Abstract
In this article, we present a holistic framework for the integration of electric vehicles (EVs) in electric power systems. Their charging management and control methodologies must be optimized to minimize the negative impact of the charging process on the grid and maximize the benefits that charging controllability may bring to their owners, energy retailers, and system operators. We have assessed the performance of these methods initially through steady-state computational simulations, and then we validated them in a microgrid (MG) laboratory environment.

Abstract
Competitive transactions resulting from recent restructuring of the electricity market, have made achieving a precise and reliable load forecasting, especially probabilistic load forecasting, an important topic. Hence, this paper presents a novel hybrid method of probabilistic electricity load forecasting, including generalized extreme learning machine fin- training an improved wavelet neural network, wavelet preprocessing and bootstrapping. In the proposed method, the forecasting model and data noise uncertainties are taken into account while the output of the model is the load probabilistic interval. In order to validate the method, it is implemented on the Ontario and Australian electricity markets data. Also, in order to remove the influence of model parameters and data on performance validation, Friedman and post-hoc tests, which are non-parametric tests, are applied to the proposed method. The results demonstrate the high performance, accuracy, and reliability of the proposed method.

Abstract
This paper presents the analysis of a novel framework of study and the impact of different market design criterion for the generation expansion planning (GEP) in competitive electricity market incentives, under variable uncertainties in a single year horizon. As investment incentives conventionally consist of firm contracts and capacity payments, in this study, the electricity generation investment problem is considered from a strategic generation company (GENCO)'s perspective, modelled as a bi-level optimization method. The first-level includes decision steps related to investment incentives to maximize the total profit in the planning horizon. The second-level includes optimization steps focusing on maximizing social welfare when the electricity market is regulated for the current horizon. In addition, variable uncertainties, on offering and investment, are modelled using set of different scenarios. The bi-level optimization problem is then converted to a single-level problem and then represented as a mixed integer linear program (MILP) after linearization. The efficiency of the proposed framework is assessed on the MAZANDARAN regional electric company (MREC) transmission network, integral to IRAN interconnected power system for both elastic and inelastic demands. Simulations show the significance of optimizing the firm contract and the capacity payment that encourages the generation investment for peak technology and improves long-term stability of electricity markets.

Abstract

Abstract
The use of robotic palletizing systems has been increasing in the so-called Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry. However, because of the type of solutions developed, focused on high performance and efficiency, the degree of adaptability of packaging solutions from one type of product to another is extremely low. This is a relevant problem, since companies are changing their production processes from low variety/high volume to high variety/low volume. This environment requires companies to perform the setup of their robots more frequently, which has been leading to the need to use offline programming tools that decrease the required robot stop time. This work addresses these problems and, in this paper, is described the solution proposed for the automated offline development of collision free robot programs for palletizing applications. © Springer International Publishing AG 2018.