Effects of stochastic energy prices on long-term energy-economic scenarios

In view of the currently observed energy prices, recent price scenarios, which have been very moderate until 2004, also tend to favor high future energy prices. Having a large impact on energy-economic scenarios, we incorporate uncertain energy prices into an energy systems model by including a stochastic risk function. Energy systems models are frequently used to aid scenario analysis in energy-related studies. The impact of uncertain energy prices on the supply structures and the interaction with measures in the demand sectors is the focus of the present paper.

For the illustration of the methodological approach, scenarios for four EU countries are presented. Including the stochastic risk function, elements of high energy price scenarios can be found in scenarios with a moderate future development of energy prices. In contrast to scenarios with stochastic investment costs for a limited number of technologies, the inclusion of stochastic energy prices directly affects all parts of the energy system. Robust elements of hedging strategies include increasing utilization of domestic energy carriers, the use of CHP and district heat and the application of additional energy-saving measures in the end-use sectors. Region-specific technology portfolios, i.e., different hedging options, can cause growing energy exchange between the regions in comparison with the deterministic case.     

MooNMD – a program package based on mapped finite element methods

The basis of mapped finite element methods are reference elements where the components of a local finite element are defined. The local finite element on an arbitrary mesh cell will be given by a map from the reference mesh cell. This paper describes some concepts of the implementation of mapped finite element methods. From the definition of mapped finite elements, only local degrees of freedom are available. These local degrees of freedom have to be assigned to the global degrees of freedom which define the finite element space. We will present an algorithm which computes this assignment. The second part of the paper shows examples of algorithms which are implemented with the help of mapped finite elements. In particular, we explain how the evaluation of integrals and the transfer between arbitrary finite element spaces can be implemented easily and computed efficiently. Communicated by: M.S. Espedal, A. Quarteroni, A. Sequeira     

Fast Multiplication on Elliptic Curves over Small Fields of Characteristic Two

We discuss new algorithms for multiplying points on elliptic curves defined over small finite fields of characteristic two. This algorithm is an extension of previous results by Koblitz, Meier, and Staffelbach. Experimental results show that the new methods can give a running time improvement of up to 50 % compared with the ordinary binary algorithm for multiplication. Finally, we present a table of elliptic curves, which are well suited for elliptic curve public key cryptosystems, and for which the new algorithm can be used. Received 14 January 1997 and revised 4 September 1997     

Software-Escrow

Quellcodehinterlegung ist in Deutschland in den letzten Jahren zum üblichen Bestandteil eines wirksamen Risikomanagements geworden. Softwareh?user k?nnen davon genauso profitieren wie deren Kunden. Dieser Artikel erg?nzt auch den Artikel “Escrow Management bei elektronischer Archivierung” von Frau Rechtsanw?ltin Prof. Ursula Sury¹ um die rechtlichen und technischen Aspekte der Quellcodehinterlegung.