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The increase in global electricity consumption has made energy efficiency a priority for governments. Consequently, there has been a focus on the efficient integration of a massive penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) into energy markets. This study presents an assessment of various strategies for EV aggregators. In this analysis, the smart charging methodology proposed in a previous study is considered. The smart charging technique employs charging power rate modulation and considers user preferences. To adopt several strategies, this study simulates the effect of these actions in a case study of a distribution system from the city of Quito, Ecuador. Different actions are simulated, and the EV aggregator costs and technical conditions are evaluated.

The industry sector has a significant responsibility for the depletion of fossil fuels and emission of carbon dioxide. Thus, several initiatives have been implemented by the industry sector to mitigate those issues. One initiative corresponds to the implementation of energy efficiency strategies. In particular, the food industry is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, and the food demand is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. Therefore, developing energy efficiency strategies for this particular industrial sector is crucial. This paper investigates the different opportunities for energy efficiency in the food industry. It first provides a brief overview of the various food industries and related energy consumption. Then, the different options for energy efficiency in the thermal and electric sector are discussed. New trends and opportunities, arising from industry 4.0 and demand response, are also presented.INDEX TERMS Energy efficiency, food industry, industry 4.0, renewable energy, waste-to-energy.

Growing environmental concerns have contributed to urban transit alternatives, such as Electric Vehicles (EVS). As a result, the market for EVs is growing each year, which are a solution to mitigate these concerns. Although EVs present several environmental advantages, a massive introduction of them could generate power systems issues. Several works have proposed strategies to mitigate those issues. Since EVs posses batteries with significant capacity, they could provide services to the power grid, such as ancillary services. Thus, this paper presents a methodology where EVs could participate in Secondary frequency response through an EV aggregator. Moreover, EV user's preferences are taken into account to facilitate their participation. The case study of Quito, Ecuador is considered. The results of this methodology show that the EV aggregator has a significant potential for providing electricity market regulation services, especially in view of the use of V2G mode.

The market for electric vehicles (EVs) has grown with each year, and EVs are considered to be a proper solution for the mitigation of urban pollution. So far, not much attention has been devoted to the use of EVs for public transportation, such as taxis and buses. However, a massive introduction of electric taxis (ETs) and electric buses (EBs) could generate issues in the grid. The challenges are different from those of private EVs, as their required load is much higher and the related time constraints must be considered with much more attention. These issues have begun to be studied within the last few years. This paper presents a review of the different approaches that have been proposed by various authors, to mitigate the impact of EBs and ETs on the future smart grid. Furthermore, some projects with regard to the integration of ETs and EBs around the world are presented. Some guidelines for future works are also proposed.

Islands located far away from the mainland and remote communities depend on isolated microgrids based on diesel fuel, which results in significant environmental and cost issues. This is currently being addressed by integrating renewable energy sources (RESs). Thus, this paper discusses the generation planning problem in diesel-based island microgrids with RES, considering the electrification of transportation and cooking to reduce their environmental impact, and applied to the communities of Santa Cruz and Baltra in the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. A baseline model is developed in HOMER for the existing system with diesel generation and RES, while the demand of electric vehicles and induction stoves is calculated from vehicle driving data and cooking habits in the islands, respectively. The integration of these new loads into the island microgrid is studied to determine its costs and environmental impacts, based on diesel cost sensitivity studies to account for its uncertainty. The results demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits of investing in RES for Galapagos' microgrid, to electrify the local transportation and cooking system.

Environmental concerns push governments to invest in renewable energy (RE). They are natural sources with a low carbon footprint and do not pollute locally. However, it is technically difficult to deploy high penetration of RE into the utility grid, due to the generation uncertainties and high installation costs, which are some of the most critical issues in RES use in this area. To address this issue, DC microgrids arise as a solution to integrate local distributed generation (DG) and storage, and to mitigate the issues related to AC/DC and DC/AC converters. Thanks to their main advantages for the power grid and energy consumers, microgrids have gained significant interest in recent years. By another side, the electric vehicles (EVs) market is expected to grow in the coming years, which represent a new load that must be properly managed to avoid grid issues. Thus, this paper discusses the operation of DC microgrid considering the introduction of EVs. A nonlinear control is presented, including the modeling of charging of EVs. The simulated DC microgrid includes solar PV, a battery, and a supercapacitor. Significant variations from PV generation were included to highlight the performance of the methodology. The results show that the voltage fluctuations are small, which provides the DC microgrid with the required voltage stability. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that DC microgrids can be integrated in isolated locations that are not connected to the main grid in view of the RESs and EVs.