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Brazil has had issues in efficiently providing the required amount of electricity to its citizens at a low cost. One of the main causes to the decreasing performance of energy is due to reoccurring droughts that decrease the power generated by hydroelectric facilities. To compensate for the decrease, Brazil brought into use thermal power plants. The power plants being on average 23.7% more expensive than hydroelectric. Wind energy is potentially an alternative source of energy to compensate for the energy decrease during droughts. Brazil has invested in wind farms recently, but, due to issues with the delivery method, only 34% of wind farms are operational. This paper reviews the potential benefit Brazil could receive from investing more resources into developing and operating wind farms. It also proposes that utilization of the best value approach in delivering wind farms could produce operational wind farms quicker and more efficiently than previously experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project (THXP) in Central Lao PDR was developed and implemented in accordance with international good practices. The resettlement programme involved moving 4,367 people from 11 villages and hamlets to four resettlement sites over a three year period (2009-2011) in order to allow inundation of a 105 km2 reservoir. The work is still ongoing with the goal of achieving full restoration of livelihood within ten years of physical resettlement. The case study of the project examines the factors that contributed to the overall good results of its resettlement programme. Three phases are analysed: preparation, construction and operation. Actions undertaken during each of these phases and ongoing work reveal some essential aspects about the nature of resettlement in the context of a large hydropower project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islanding is the situation in which part of the power grid, consisting of load and distributed generation (DG) is isolated from the utility grid remaining active, i.e. serving load. The idea of islanding parts of the distribution network in case of faults, in order to increase the consumer quality of service, is the basic notion behind the formation of Microgrids. In the context of Microgrids, it becomes necessary to distinguish between intended islanding e.g. due to maintenance and unintended islanding due to faults at the upstream grid. When the emergency situation ceases, the Microgrid should reconnect seamlessly to the upper grid. In this paper, an islanding detection method (IDM) is proposed that is based on the insertion of a suitable, variable impedance at the low voltage side of the Grid. Islanding detection is effected by an intelligent agent embedded into the Microgrid's Central switch, which is transformed to a hybrid automatic transfer switch (HATS). The HATS agent detects the operation mode of the Microgrid based on local measurements and supervises the grid status. Both simulation studies and hardware laboratory tests are presented showing the performance and feasibility of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that infrastructure of the electric utilities will be changed because of the innovation in renewable energy sources. It discusses measures taken by the officials of the U.S. Department of Defense for reducing the regulatory risk involved in the development of these projects. It further discusses factors promoting growth of generation resources, complexity in the long-haul electric power transmission and use of solar photovoltaic (PV) products in electric utilities.

The article offers world news briefs as of September 16 to October 15, 2014. World Bank has approved $60 million worth of loans to the Republic of Congo to boost the country's access to electricity. Energy shortages in Ghana has already been addressed through the establishment of a natural gas plant that is due to open in December 2014. The World Bank has also approved the $19 million worth project in support to Morocco's reduction on fossil fuel dependency through renewable energy resources.