INNOVATIVE MODEL OF PRODUCT CERTIFICATION WITHIN THE ENERGY DEREGULATED MARKET. 
EXAMPLE OF APPLICATION TO A SMART ENERGY AREA 
IN THE SECTOR OF LOCAL TRANSPORT SERVICE
Creators: name: Di Florio, Giuliana
Publisher: name: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Year: 2015

description: Certification services are widely expanding  with the growing  request  of  process and product validation on the part of the organizations, organized communities, municipalities, institutions, as well as production and services companies.
Certification is required in order to safeguard markets, mainly users, buyers and consumers during purchase of products and services, and of performances.
More and more interesting is the growth potential of certification services in the field of energy,  where, owing to the well-known developments following Kyoto Protocol, the production market and services appear to be widely expanding, following the liberalization of energy market,  a growing diffusion of the renewable power sources, the development of IC technologies, the aim at energy savings and efficiency, the worldwide strategic target of environmental sustainability.
This study deals with the problem of certification applied to the institutions, energy processes and products, starting from the cultural and applicative platform of certifications already existing, consolidated and  approved  both  at institutional and market levels, such as those referred to products (CE, IMQ, etc) and to organizational standard (ISO) as well as to the security and interoperability in the field of railway transportation (TSI). 
The study aims to investigate the possibility to extend at the system and to systematize the different certification activities that could be already considered as 'emerging'  within the evolution of processes and products following the development in the electric power field.
With  reference  to  future applications of smart engineering  to the various  sectors of production and use of the energy product-service, the present work  aims  to  verify the practical feasibility  of a "voluntary product certification program", proposed at system level, for the energy sector. The approach consists of  defining  a template for a generalized certification procedure to be used in a flexible way  in function of the large variety of types of product and in an evolutionary way, depending on the technological development and on the benchmarks derived from a deregulated energy market. Its flexibility involves many and various parameters such as complexity of the configuration, in terms of number of elements and types of distributed energy resources (DERs) and renewable energy sources (RESs).
To develop the certification  model,  for an operative management of all aspects connected to  the complexity of the energy product, reference was made to some analogies with the railway certification, referring specifically to the Technical  Specifications for Interoperability standards.
State and trends of certification's market models was firstly systematized,  starting from the definition and classification of the different types and sectors of application. Among the latter, the field of energy was mainly investigated. Later, the evolutions of energy market and pertaining technologies were considered, in order to define a targeted certification and qualification of techniques and products. 
The approach used in this study is strongly influenced by the identification of the criticalities introduced by technological innovations, services and mechanisms of commercial transactions, introduced into energy market  and upon which is based the need to guarantee the measurements and estimates of consumptions, data and operating results about technological systems,  production potentials, power efficiency,  reliability, forecast and uncertainty parameters, environmental impacts, costs and economic evaluations.
According to the growth trend of  the sector, an innovative certification of energy product was proposed, flexible if compared to the peculiar targets of the product qualification, in accordance with the type, complexity and innovation of the planning methods and technologies considered.  This study was aimed to the identification and implementation of a certification scheme related to the market of energy services, which could emerge from the re-organization and development on the physical, managerial, infrastructural and environmental context of future cities.  Smart cities are characterized by new urban concepts deriving from a constant  growth of residential areas, and respective energy requirement, from the evolution of energy services models, following the application of  paradigms as Smart Grids and micro grids, as well as from the development of electrical power systems integrated with ICT. Among the different fields of application of future certification models linked to the energy sector,  special reference was made to the field of electrified public local transport.  In this context, let us mention three areas of interest  of the parallel development of drivers such as: city, energy market, and smart technologies. 
In this context,  the field of local public transportation, based on eco-sustainable electrified techniques, may potentially represent a segment for future requests of an energy certification. In this view, urban and regional public transport appears to be particularly significant since, at present, their organizational and technological structure is less programmed than railway long-distance transportation (such as high speed railway transport). For this reason it was considered relevant for this study, since it open to a new  proposals of standards and  regulations, for the current development in markets of energy and certification.
Case study has been set up with reference to eco-sustainable electrified mass transit systems  which represent a basic resource for supporting the sustainable development of future cities, in a scenario of innovation based  mainly on rationalization processes of planning and design - at a systemic level – of all types of energy resources. 
Focusing on innovation related to the implementation of smart grid concepts into the urban context, the case study proposes a systemization of principles for an energy efficiency management based on a new approach of Global Energy Efficiency (GEE). This new paradigm enhances the traditional definition and application of energy efficiency (EE) by simply connecting the applicative platform of smart methodologies and technologies to the potential wider energy efficiency objectives of users' area, at the system level, pursued by optimizing the use of all their available primary and infrastructural energy resources, and maximizing the economic benefits of both energy providers and consumers. The GEE approach is "customized" to the metropolitan assets for mass transport services within the urban context. The interest of dealing with such a type of infrastructure derives from several factors, such as centrality, extension, dispersion, electrical powering and consumptions, structuring and organization of service. Given the intrinsic systemic approach, the model provides strong and flexible capability of supporting the EE management in planning and decision-making problems with smart and dynamic transactions, addressing participation in the future electricity market. Therefore, it is very suitable for GEE in a smart city environment.
Moreover, on the basis of the developed optimal power flow model, a complete management of power flow and energy dispatching can be scheduled and implemented,  according to the ordinary operation of the components of a Smart User Grid, accepting their possible variations over the time related to compatible technical procedures. In particular, a variety of tasks can be considered, such as Demand Response Program (DRP) management, load leveling and shifting, ancillary services supporting Distribution System Operator's ordinary operation, electricity market transactions, or at fulfilling emergency requirements. 
The choice of the Case study was made with a twofold view: firstly the Case Study can be clearly included in the class of most complex and advanced future energy systems or areas, consisting of a very heterogeneous and largely distributed energy area centered on a urban mass transit system; secondly also the model of intelligent energy management tool for its operation was featured and developed to highlight the feasibility and significance of the proposed new scheme of energy product certificate.
This thesis reports some demonstrative cases to give evidence to the smart proprieties of the model and the potentiality of the energy smart system, that was chosen as an ideal pattern of complex and flexible energy area, particularly suitable to be an objective of the proposed certification scheme. In the demonstrative applications the operator's operational strategy aims to gain maximum profit by best coordinating of the available energy resources, within the limits deriving from the activities both of the SUG, representing the users, and the DSO, representing the Distribution Network (DN).In the last part of the thesis, an exemplification of the new procedure for Voluntary Product Certification Program (VPCP) was performed, considering the energy area represented  by the referential case study.
This thesis consists of  8 chapters, as follows.
In the first chapter, an overview of certification and accreditation is presented. Then, the state of the art of the certification is explained in the second ones, giving particular attention to the energy sector, on which the present work is centered. The third and fourth chapters consist in a dissertation of the recent evolution of power systems physical structure and technologies, as well as on the certification services needs within the energy market. The proposal of a new energy Voluntary Product Certification Program is presented in the chapter 5. The case study and pertaining applications is explained in the chapter 6 and 7, they are related to a metro- funicular transportation system and its neighborhood. Finally, in chapter 8 the  model proposed in chapter 5 is implemented in the Energy Area defined in the case study.