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In a highly polarized political environment, political discourse on divisive topics is all the more important. Heeding the many calls for higher education to teach political discourse skills, this study investigates the impact of political discourse lessons in a college-level, political science classroom. Further, it explores the effectiveness of student-peers as teachers. The study finds peers, compared to faculty, are better able to relate to students, and this strength is ideal for teaching subjects that require social connections such as the active listening and perspective taking techniques. Discussion of sensitive political topics can easily lead to discomfort and uneasiness. Our findings suggest that student learners may be more receptive to peer-leaders than to instructors when it comes to such situations. Further peer-teachers experienced increased comfort levels when involved in controversial political discussions and increased ability to engage in political dialogue.

In the ongoing transition towards distributed Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and the concurrent transformation of critical energy infrastructures, the efficient coordination of load, storage, and generation flexibilities while avoiding grid congestion is crucial. To orchestrate the growing myriad of distributed devices, digital solutions based on scalable information and communication technologies (ICT) that go far beyond the existing state-of-the-art, are the key enablers.To open a new avenue towards robust and resilient power and energy systems, this paper proposes the concepts of holarchies and holonic structures as underlying design principles for grid automation and coordination of flexibilities in power and energy systems. We argue that the holonic concept and its theoretic underpinning enables designing and building future resilient power systems that can cope with the otherwise overwhelming complexities of the energy transition. Our long-term vision is that the proposed holonic concept encompasses already existing trends in power and energy systems, i.e. decentralization, digitalization as well as observability and controllability improvements, into one holistic framework, whereby holistic integration is likewise pun and serious ambition. Beyond the existing holonic approach in general and partly for limited power system applications so far, our design proposal encompasses ICT infrastructures and the data domain into a consistent novel architectural approach.Holonic structures, or holarchies, extend and build upon the recursiveness and self-similarity of autonomous sub-structures, i.e. holons, of a system. It is a system-of-systems approach and, thus, conceptionally, very different from existing and well-known multi-agent system approaches. In essence, holonic concepts allow for the formalisation of hierarchical system relations regarding physics, information, and data using a part-whole architecture. Hence, they are well-suited for the conceptualisation of automation functionality across all dimensions of the cyber-physical domain of energy infrastructures and potentially also beyond.This paper investigates holonic structures from different novel perspectives, such as control and automation, system modeling and digital twins, as well as the corresponding ICT-infrastructure and data requirements. Three case studies are drawn upon as examples to illustrate how holonic concepts and approaches are already emerging in power and energy systems operation.© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This paper introduces multi-use applications to unlock behind-the-meter flexibility by integrating grid-serving capabilities with user-oriented control strategies. We deploy a hierarchical flexibility coordination process in a co-simulation research environment and propose a control strategy prioritizing self-consumption optimization with a secondary focus on grid-serving applications. This approach enhances the viability of behind-the-meter technologies, particularly benefiting battery energy storage systems with high investment costs. It also facilitates active grid operation amid the growing presence of distributed energy resources. The research’s key contribution lies in designing an information architecture to efficiently utilize behind-the-meter flexibility for grid-serving processes. The paper demonstrates the feasibility of a multi-use operation, combining user-oriented optimization and grid-serving flexibility provision for local grid congestion management. The implemented control algorithm in a home energy management system achieves grid-serving objectives while maintaining behind-the-meter asset performance. Co-simulation results show that in less than 2.5% of simulated time steps, transformer utilization exceeds operational limits in both scenarios, indicating the viability of multi-use operation for leveraging new value streams and managing grid congestion simultaneously.

The Kopernikus ENSURE Co-Demonstration Platform enables the investigation of components and processes for the changing power system with grid models adapted to the respective problem. The platform is developed from the power system's perspective. A central aspect of the platform is to analyze several technical solutions of different stakeholders in shared power system models. Furthermore the platform enables the investigation of interactions between different technologies, the system stability or protection scenarios that cannot be simulated in the real power system or only to a very limited extent. The comparison of solution approaches on a common model basis enables reliable overall systemic statements. To realize this, a multi-domain and multi-vendor approach is pursued, covering electromagnetic transients, electromechanical transients, continuous power flow simulations, and real-time simulators from different manufacturers. The core components of the platform are distributed real-time simulations, including the coupling of different laboratories in Germany and the developed power system models. Investigations with the real-time capable platform can be carried out purely simulatively or, depending on the connected laboratory, as Control/Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop simulations.

Abstract The transformation of power grids into intelligent cyber-physical systems brings numerous benefits, but also significantly increases the surface for cyber-attacks, demanding appropriate countermeasures. However, the development, validation, and testing of data-driven countermeasures against cyber-attacks, such as machine learning-based detection approaches, lack important data from real-world cyber incidents. Unlike attack data from real-world cyber incidents, infrastructure knowledge and standards are accessible through expert and domain knowledge. Our proposed approach uses domain knowledge to define the behavior of a smart grid under non-attack conditions and detect attack patterns and anomalies. Using a graph-based specification formalism, we combine cross-domain knowledge that enables the generation of whitelisting rules not only for statically defined protocol fields but also for communication flows and technical operation boundaries. Finally, we evaluate our specification-based intrusion detection system against various attack scenarios and assess detection quality and performance. In particular, we investigate a data manipulation attack in a future-orientated use case of an IEC 60870-based SCADA system that controls distributed energy resources in the distribution grid. Our approach can detect severe data manipulation attacks with high accuracy in a timely and reliable manner.

Scholars and journalists alike have pointed out the poor state of political discourse in contemporary American politics. Younger generations echo these concerns, reporting that they choose to avoid engaging in political discussion because it is too partisan and riddled with rhetoric to be productive. While many offer little hope that the level of incivility evident across the nation will ebb anytime soon, we experimentally test a method for building political discourse skills that might serve to quell some of the coarseness that often pervades political discussions. The findings show that a relatively simple and short classroom intervention can affect both cognitive understanding of political discourse and improve the quality of discussion surrounding controversial issues.

Abstract The ongoing energy transition requires the planning of low-emission municipal energy supply systems. These systems comprise distribution grids for electricity, gas, and heat, as well as energy conversion units such as heating systems. This paper presents a linear optimization model considering these elements in order to identify the cost-minimizing system design while achieving a given CO2 emission limit. The model is applied to an exemplary test case comprising 900 buildings. In order to increase scalability of the model to larger system sizes, the effect of reducing the spatial resolution on the optimization results is analyzed. The results show that the effect is small and that spatial aggregation is indeed a valid approach to reduce problem complexity and to allow significant speedups, reaching a factor of 200 for the given case study.

In a highly polarized political environment, political discourse on divisive topics is all the more important. Heeding the many calls for higher education to teach political discourse skills, this study investigates the impact of political discourse lessons in a college-level, political science classroom. Further, it explores the effectiveness of student-peers as teachers. The study finds peers, compared to faculty, are better able to relate to students, and this strength is ideal for teaching subjects that require social connections such as the active listening and perspective taking techniques. Discussion of sensitive political topics can easily lead to discomfort and uneasiness. Our findings suggest that student learners may be more receptive to peer-leaders than to instructors when it comes to such situations. Further peer-teachers experienced increased comfort levels when involved in controversial political discussions and increased ability to engage in political dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do individual-level student learning styles affect appreciation for and benefit from the use of classroom response system technology? This research investigates the benefit of in-class electronic classroom response systems ("classroom clickers"). With these systems, students answer questions posed to them in a PowerPoint presentation through the use of handheld remote control devices. Aggregate results can be immediately displayed and discussed. Although this technology is rapidly gaining use in university classrooms across the nation, most of the published academic research on the use of classroom response systems focuses on the "nuts and bolts" of using the system or on ways that such systems might be useful in particular types of classes. Little research assesses the ways in which individual-level student characteristics might influence the utility of this technology. I utilize original survey data collected from four introductory American Government courses (Fall 2009 and Fall 2010) to investigate whether students exhibiting a preference for tactile learning value the use of the classroom response system more than less tactile learners. Findings confirm the expectation that tactile learners will appreciate using the system more and consequently have improved evaluations of the class and instructor.