This paper investigates the performance of the largest Brazilian hydropower plants. This study covers 78% of the total installed capacity from hydros in the country, and considers indicators reflecting operational and maintenance costs as well as quality of service. The assessment was conducted using a new approach for the construction of composite indicators, based on a directional distance function model. First, we assessed the hydropower plants allowing for complete flexibility in the definition of weights, enabling the identification of underperforming plants, and quantification of their potential for improvement. Next, we assessed the plants considering different perspectives regarding the importance attributed to each indicator. This allowed reflecting different points of view, focusing primarily on operation and maintenance costs or quality issues. The results identify the hydropower plants that can be considered benchmarks in different scenarios, and allow testing the robustness of plants' classification as benchmarks in the unrestricted model. exploitation occurs through concession or authorization. Transmission services are provided under the concession regime, while electricity distribution is carried out through concession or permission. 1 According to the current legislation, all hydropower plants with installed capacity more than 50 MW are given a concession grant. These hydros participate in public auctions, which operate through competition with a single buyer or purchasing agency, and where companies offer price bids considering that both fixed and variable costs will be recovered along the concession period.Recently, the Brazilian Government gave a referral to the issue of the renewal of the electricity generation concessions through the provisional measure no. 579/2012, converted into the law no. 12.783, of 11 January 2013 (Brazilian Presidency of the Republic, 2013). This norm enables the extension of the generation concession contracts for a period up to 30 years, provided that, among other conditions, the remuneration of assets fully depreciated or amortized is reduced until this compensation reaches the point to pay only the costs of operation and maintenance.Regarding the electrical generation activities, about 20% of the total hydro installed capacity of the country (equivalent of 22 GW) should be extended under this standard or tendered by public auctions. At the end of this process, the generation companies that passed through the process of granting extension are remunerated by a tariff stipulated by the Brazilian Electrical Regulatory Agency (ANEEL). Moreover, the normative resolution ANEEL no. 541 of 12 March 2013 (Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency, 2013), which establishes the standard quality of service that should be provided by these utilities, states that hydros observed performance should be taken into account for the calculation of their allowed revenue in each annual adjustment and review process. In other words, those that accept the conditions for the concession ren...

ResumoEste artigo visa apresentar o desenvolvimento de um programa ambiental na resolução dos problemas existentes em uma empresa fabricante de embalagens de papel localizada no Estado de Pernambuco. O estudo foi conduzido na empresa no período de novembro de 2001 a novembro de 2002, quando foram abordadas todas as fases referentes ao Programa de Produção mais Limpa. Os resultados alcançados superaram as expectativas iniciais, apesar de algumas oportunidades identificadas não terem sido introduzidas durante a pesquisa. O Programa enraizou alguns de seus princípios na mentalidade dos funcionários, que passaram a enxergar suas atividades de um outro ângulo. Palavras-chaveProdução mais limpa, melhoria contínua, avaliação ambiental, desenvolvimento sustentável. AbstractThis work seeks to present the development of an environmental program in the resolution of existent problems in a factory of paper packing located in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil. The study was led in the company during the period of November, 2001 to November, 2002

This article presents the Tetrahedron of Innovation Processes model that aims to diagnose, through the understanding and analysis of the three vertices, areas that need improvements in training to generate a change in knowledge. The present research is intended to show the managers of a company in the energy sector the relationship between training and development programs and how their application can help the organization to design an organizational context orienting human behavior towards activities of learning and innovation. The model can be used to understand the relationship between capacity and internal resources on the influence of employee skills in information processing, creativity, and critical thinking by encouraging employee behavior, guiding a flow of knowledge to the company. Given the context, the model was able to ponder and classify the main aspects that must be improved for the development of human capital in the company studied and can help to find significant solutions for the necessary improvements to occur. With this, the article brings a paradigm shift in training and learning that will aid in the development of human knowledge.

-In order to overcome a number of difficulties detected on the Brazilian electricity market this paper proposes and tests a bid based short-term market. To simulate the behavior of the hydros in this new market, it was implemented an Agent-Based Model -ABM using the reinforcement QLearning algorithm, Simulated Annealing, and linear programming. In the simulations we used real data from the Brazilian power system encompassing more than 98% of the total hydro installed capacity and three years of market data. The results indicate that the management of (virtual) reservoirs can be under the responsibility of each hydro, which could save water according to their own risk perception, while it is maintained the current efficiency and security levels. Results also suggest that the final monthly short-term market prices can substantially decrease in comparison with the current prices.Index Terms -Agent-based simulation, Brazilian power system, Q-learning, Virtual reservoirs.

The Brazilian electricity market has certain particularities that contribute to considerably distinguish it from other markets. With a continental interconnected transmission system in which around 70% of the total installed capacity comes from hydropower plants, this electricity market recently passed through two large institutional reforms and it currently contains a number of special features together with other usual market instruments. Nevertheless, the conciliation between the commercial commitments of the market participants and the physical dispatch is not smooth. Moreover, the Brazilian short-term market is a mechanism to settle differences rather than a market, and the electricity short-term market price and the schedule dispatch are not determined through the interaction between market participants. This paper focuses on these problems, discusses some dilemmas that have to be faced if a more conventional market oriented approach is to be adopted, and proposes a solution in order to address these issues. Pointing towards the enhancing of the flexibility for market participants to bear their contracts, while still ensuring the efficient use of the energy resources and maintaining the current level of the security of supply, this new framework was designed based on a virtual reservoir model.