Project Management and Engineering Research

Research quality is commonly evaluated by the quantity of papers published in high impact factor-indexed journals. In fact, many of these journals and conference articles show partial or final results of research projects done individually or together with other research centers, universities, and companies. However, the visibility and impact on society of these projects, even with the existence of specific websites, funding, and publicizing requirements, are generally low. This study takes the example of the ReViBE project, in which the Research Group on Project Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia takes part, by presenting how the use of three tools designed to generate ideas, such as surveys, brainstorming, and teamstorming, serves at the same time to give support to research and as a loudspeaker to enhance the visibility of the project. The study compares the quality and quantity of data collected or generated by each tool and methodology and evaluates its capacity for dissemination.

The application of the SCRUM methodology to construction projects may provide improvement and significant benefits to their management without compromising the project’s rigor and control, thus, minimizing risks, lowering costs and reaction times for the required changes during the project evolution. In the first place, the more relevant aspects with regard to the state of the art of the mentioned methodology are highlighted in the present work. Also, a review of different applications for construction projects is performed. Then, a generic comparative study is performed of the SCRUM methodology with regard to the classic project management methodology established by the Project Management Institute, PMI. In order to verify the applicability of the SCRUM methodology to construction project management, it is applied to the construction of a wind farm. Advantages and disadvantages of SCRUM are identified compared to those of the traditional PMI methodology.

Several studies and publications support the idea that it is critical for companies to manage projects successfully, thus gaining a competitive edge. The effort made in the last decades to develop project management has led to a dramatic progress of this discipline. As a result, the theories, know-how, means and capabilities available today are superior by far to those available a few years ago. However, it has also been concluded that projects continue to struggle to achieve their objectives. Furthermore, some authors consider that the respective approach in itself is one of the main causes for this situation. This study is a real-world based comparison of two approaches, applied to the same project. In particular, the regular approach of the company, based on a traditional project management perspective, has been confronted with a holistic perspective. The results suggest that aspects which are generally considered to be adequate can be counterproductive.

Evidence shows that companies with a business model based on innovation have a higher growth in terms of sales and operating margins. The objective of this work is to study through a practical case the innovation indicator applied to the tools and techniques of monitoring and controlling processes of the different project management knowledge areas. Two real cases are analyzed to study the information that this indicator can provide in order to improve forecasts for future projects using the earned value technique, knowing past project innovation indicators with the same characteristics and where similar efforts and investments have been made in innovation of control tools.

Project management maturity models are increasingly being considered important building blocks in modern organizations. The majority of these maturity models have their roots in the discipline of total quality management and claim that better processes lead to better outcomes. Thus, academics, consultants and project management institutions have played an important role in the development of maturity models and today’s offer exceeds the number of 30 different maturity models. However, there is no empirical study supporting the link between higher level of maturity and improved project and/or organizational performance. This paper presents an original maturity model that abandons the process perspective and focus on the development of capabilities and project-based learning. Specifically, we state that project-based maturity instead of project management maturity is the dimension directly linked with an improved organizational performance; hence, we propose a project-based maturity model.

The purpose of this communication is to associate the different knowledge areas of the PMBOK and the different software in the market, and how can they be used to add value to the BIM project through its development according to the Levels Of Development (LOD) established by the document G202-2013 “Project Building Information Modeling Protocol Form” from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). For this objective, an analysis of available software and their role in the BIM process will be performed, in order to classify them firstly by their use and function in the different areas of knowledge of the PMBOK, and secondly, by the Level Of Development (LOD) from which they can begin to be used. Given that one software can be used in more than one area of knowledge or LOD, a classification according to the suitability for the use will be performed, establishing a matrix relationship that places the different existing software in the market according to the area of knowledge and Level Of Development to which they are applicable.

(English) The Portuguese Project Management Association—APOGEP planned to assess the project management community toward identifying an average profile. Based on an inquiry to the community, we’ve obtained 534 valid answers, on a global sample of 734 responses. The topics addressed in the inquiry were mainly focused on the project managers’ background, the sector, the organizational dimension and project categories, the average wage, and the characterization of the professional certifications. The primary results point to the following Portuguese Project Management profile: Male; age between 36 and 45; living and working in the big Lisbon; with a full-time activity in organizations with more than 250 employees; with 15 years of working experience; working in the IT and construction sectors; with a minimum academic curriculum of a 5 years Bachelor degree; with an average salary between 20 K and 40 K/year. The study proved the contribution of the professional certification to the career’s development and to the average salary increase.

Managing a project successfully implies that project managers have to be experts at initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing projects. For that, tools and techniques are utilized as a help, in order to manage activities properly during the entire project life cycle, because these tools and techniques allow them to implement the bases of this discipline more easily. The main objective of this work consists of studying the utilization of project management tools and techniques by chemical engineers, and establishing relationships with the success of the projects in which they have participated. The study begins with the selection of the most widely used project management tools and techniques. This selection was made taking into account not only the tools and techniques of traditional methodologies but also those related to agile methods, owing to their increase in use. After that, a survey was designed and handed to a panel of experts in Chemical Engineering to assess their professional profile, the success of the projects in which they have participated, and the utilization of the project management tools and techniques taken into account.

Having tools and techniques of project management are a necessary but not a sufficient condition for project success. If a manager cannot handle people, she or he will have difficulty with managing projects. Many successful projects have teams of people that are involved and committed; however, friction between the team members still occurs due to misunderstandings, conflicts, and personality differences. Project managers must be prepared to deal with these behavioral problems of team members. One way to minimize the impact of behavioral problems is to provide training for all team members (including managers themselves) in interpersonal skills. This area has often been neglected in many organizations; other times, just managers are required to be trained but not team members. This paper presents a unique opportunity for both managers and team members to gain insight into understanding the complex nature of collective behavior. The only way to understand how individual behavioral problems translate into those of a team is to model problems using a bottom-up simulation method like the one presented here. This introductory paper presents basic concepts and a simple application of Agent-based modeling.

In certain project-based contexts, the most effective managerial approach may be different from a “pure” Project Management approach. Thus, under certain circumstances, a Production Management approach may be more suitable. This research offers some important insights into the problem of addressing contexts in which both, Project and Production Management characteristics, coexist. This paper presents a real-world case study in an industrial company devoted to designing and manufacturing special cutting tools. Depending on the items in the orders, different lead times, resources, and batch sizes occur, leading to different levels of complexity. Production Management approaches are preferred for standard items, whereas complex items are better managed by applying a Project Management approach. In an attempt to maximize effectiveness, the management followed the suggestion to apply the DBR production approach in order to harmonize the capacity of the plant and the requirements of the orders. Thus, this research deals with the implementation of this methodology in the abovementioned environment. The consequences, limitations, and conclusions are discussed, offering insights for further research.

Project Management has become a core activity for organizations and professionals, independently of their area of expertise, bearing in mind that the objective of Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, and techniques to implement, manage, and develop projects effectively and efficiently. It is necessary for organizations and professionals to develop a results-oriented culture, effective decision-making, and collaboration through the development of professional skills associated with it. To this purpose, there are different competency development models, including the ICB 4.0 model of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). In this way, this research proposes a bibliometric analysis of the main scientific journals within the Project Management field, in order to know the main research lines and see how these are related to the ICB 4.0 model. To do that, bibliometric techniques and tools have been used to analyze and visualize the intellectual structure of the scientific journals of project management.

The management of a project is considered successful provided that it has been finished within the agreed period of time, if it does not exist any budget overrun, as long as all client requests and expectations are fulfilled, and on condition that the project team management has been appropriate. For that, there are many tools and techniques which allow the task management to be effective and efficient. The purpose of this work consists of studying the amount of success of the projects performed by Project Managers and Chemical Engineers without training in Project Management, by using tools and techniques of this discipline. The study starts with a selection of the most widely used project management and agile methodologies tools and techniques, from research made by specialists. Afterwards, a survey, given to an expert panel for each field, has been made, in which they have been asked for the scale of use of the chosen tools and techniques, as well as the level of success achieved in the executed projects. Finally, a statistical study has been performed, in order to determine if the fact of knowing and utilizing those tools and techniques improves the level of success.

Design Thinking is a methodology that can be used for business innovation, allowing to address complex problems and provide viable solutions by placing the user in the center of reflection. But this methodology can corrupt the reflected and argued work of the design project when it is not carried out applying the appropriate knowledge. This work is structured around a reflection on this methodology and its application in different areas. Firstly, a comparative analysis of representative bibliography is conducted to outline a theoretical basis on Design Thinking. In the second part, a fieldwork based on interviews and observation of creative workshops helps decipher how the Design Thinking is used in different fields, to see up to what extent its application can modify the design results. This article concludes that the broad description of Design Thinking helps to explain the methodology of a project at an educational level, its tools helping to unlock a project at a business level, and its techniques helping to explain the phases of a project at a professional design level.

There are proven techniques and tools that project managers use to monitor and control the project. Some of them are as common as the Earned Value methodology (EVM). Due to the limitations of the previous methodology, procedures arise that incorporate uncertainty in the project control. However, the advance in research on advanced statistical techniques allows the development of more current tools that determine, on the one hand, the status of the project, and on the other, predict the future situation at the end of the project. In this article, we show how to use these advanced classification and regression techniques applied to project management, focused on the supervision and control of the time and the cost of the project. An example is included where we apply Monte Carlo simulation to obtain a set of data that will be treated with statistical tools and algorithms, which will allow us to determine, for any project control point, the probability of compliance with the planned objectives of time and cost and, where appropriate, predict what will be the deviation from such planning.

Project-focused structures in infrastructure endeavors involve the execution of simultaneous efforts with shared resources. This research highlights to what end such organizational structure is complex to manage. The study focuses on project governance structures’ impact over project-oriented organizations, particularly by exploring the ineffective co-operation/interaction between project(s) and the program. The paper is based on a single case study carried out at a Railway Infrastructure Companies’ programs located in Northern Europe, involving two embedded projects. From the study, it becomes possible to understand the relevance of the governance approaches in projects and programs. Moreover, some guidance is proposed in order to help in the accommodation procedure.

People believe that the way we live and work will be transformed—digitally transformed. The proactive attitude toward such change is to be prepared, meaning, it is a very relevant issue to ask for the required competences which enable a person not only to cope with the digital transformation but maybe even to shape and steer it. For the project management community, this raises the question of how the well-elaborated project management competences match with the ones required for the digital transformation. On the one hand, we expect projects to be a major tool for shaping the digital transformation, on the other hand, we expect the way we do projects to be digitally transformed. Besides that pull effect caused by the obvious need for projects and the digital transformation, there is a possible push effect since the project management community could transfer their elaborated and proven view on competences (for project management) into the new domain of the digital transformation. This contribution attempts to structure the topic “competences” with the ambition to document what consequences the digital transformation has for our dealing with competences and what our elaborated systems of competence models, etc., can provide for the definition of the relevant competences for the digital transformation. By defining structures and terminologies, the foundation for a continuous development and iterative refinement of a competence baseline for the digital transformation is laid.

As has traditionally been considered, the gap between photovoltaic modules within the same array would be one of the key factors in the development of wind pressure on the tables of a solar farm and, therefore, in the resulting wind action on these surfaces. Irrespective of how widespread this belief is, currently, there is no specific standard directly applicable on which to base these considerations. In this paper, various numerical analyses are carried out to assess the actual influence of the separation between modules on the pressure produced locally by the wind on both sides of a panel. To do this, numerical simulation techniques of the wind field are used by applying algorithms of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), performing a battery of tests on common design geometries in utility-scale plants. In these tests, the influence of different geometric parameters is studied, including the separation between modules and the inclination of the arrays. Parallel computing techniques in a general-purpose cluster are implemented. The results indicate that the gaps between the panels tend to reduce the total force on the array in a proportion similar to that in which the net area of the surface is reduced.

According to the World Economic Forum (2014), trillions of US dollars have been invested over the past decades to build and maintain the global infrastructure asset base, and every year, US$ 2.7 trillion is invested in new infrastructure. Construction and maintenance activities have a significant impact on the three pillars of sustainability; i.e., social, environmental, and economic sustainability. It is thus crucial to improve sustainable performance in this sector. In order to implement sustainable procurement, it is important to assess the current status of the use of the triple bottom line of sustainability (i.e., social, environmental, and economic factors) in the procurement process. This study is intended to show the current state of sustainable procurement in the field of road maintenance at the international level and the sustainable selection criteria identified in the content of tenders.

People begin their ageing process well before the age of 65. In addition, although some patterns have been identified, each person ages differently. The tools of Inclusive Design help us to understand peoples’ capabilities, and therefore, develop products to meet their needs. However, these tools often require the involvement of users, and the tool itself is the initial obstacle. This study describes the different kinds of ageing, collects and classifies tools according to the degree of exclusion they cause. A selection of Inclusive Design tools is finally made and recommendations for their application are proposed for each stage of the ageing process.

The present paper shows a methodological approach for the realization of studies on designer’s emotional parameters during the idea generation phase. This approach is based on a comparative analysis of the different experiences carried out for measuring emotional states using different methods and tools. The aim of this methodological approach is to know the reactions of designers when solving a design problem or when using a specific method, and their relation with the results achieved, both at functional, creative or emotional level. This fact will allow a great advance in the field of design method development, since a better method-designer adaptation can be achieved, and consequently a better design results. The methodological approach has been tested thanks to the collaboration of the Vitale design study’s staff, from Castellón de la Plana (Spain). The present paper also shows this experience performance, as well as the results registered during it

Small diameter hydrocyclones, or micro-hydrocyclones (below 100 mm), are commonly used in the industry due to their ability to achieve cut sizes lower than 40 μm. In order to know this cut sizes, the analysis of the particle size of the hydrocyclone streams is required. There are different techniques to obtain this information, like sieving, laser diffraction, sedimentation or microscopy. The work presented is part of one of the stages of an R&D project performed between the CPWV research group of the Chemical Engineering Department of the UPV/EHU and NOVATTIA DESARROLLOS Ltd. with the objective of achieving a more flexible, compact, and efficient hydrocyclone technology than the actual one. The goal of the study was to test the influence of the technique used to analyze the particle size of the streams on the cut size of the micro-hydrocyclone. The equipment employed to measure the particle size were Mastersizer 2000 (laser diffraction) and Sedigraph III (sedimentation). The results showed that there is a great influence of the analysis technique on the cut size.

This study focuses on the design of a Snow-bike (snow scoot), paying special attention to the structural optimization of the mainframe and the design and development of an innovative impact absorption system on the front skate, which favors the absorption of impacts produced during the jumps typical of this sport. From the development point of view, this project is approached through the use of a multi-criteria methodology, which involves different knowledge areas related to ergonomics, mechanical behavior, manufacturing economy, and final usability of the product. The different areas involved, feed each other in order to find the best final product among the different conceptual alternatives arising from the creative stage. For the analysis and structural optimization of the Snow-bike, a methodology based on the numerical calculation by finite elements is proposed to comply with the strong structural requirements to which the Snow-bike is subjected.

The modeling of surface finish in machining processes is very important in order to optimize cutting conditions and ensure surface quality. In the literature, many research works have presented specific surface roughness models for a given application. However, these models are not applicable in other environments with different machine tools, cutting tool, starting material, etc. In this work, different roughness models presented in the literature for milling carbon steels are studied. The most significant factors of each model, the ability to apply these models in different environments, and their robustness are analyzed. The study enables the analysis of the basic structure of the roughness model that provides greater robustness for the estimation of surface roughness under changes in the process. The model is validated in different machine tools under different cutting conditions.

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is presented as a set of alternative technologies to conventional manufacture. AM can cause profound changes in the industry, the economy, and the society of the future. These changes will affect in different degrees, all aspects that make up the current manufacturing landscape. The Delphi method is a technique that allows collecting the opinion of a group of individuals (experts) using repeated inquiries. This method is used, among other cases, when attempting to have a vision about future events. The main objective of this work is to analyze the responses to a Delphi inquiry addressed to Spanish experts from the professional and university field committed to the manufacturing and engineering sector. The consensual answers to the issues this consultation raises can provide a horizon indicating what changes the Additive Manufacturing will bring to the manufacturing scene. The issues that arise revolve around groups of technologies to be established in the future, to the different business models that will be used, and the standards and regulations that will be required.

An econometric model based on official data from the Balearic Regional Government is presented. The main objective is to determine, through a multivariate regression analysis, the most significant variables that directly affect the generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) in the study area. A set of environmental and socioeconomic data has been obtained for the period 2000 to 2014, and panel data have been selected to generate and develop the model. Furthermore, the previous scientific literature on MSW management and generation, as well as econometric models, on MSW management are analyzed. As a result, six key variables that have a significant influence on the generation of municipal waste in the Balearic archipelago have been identified. Of these, five have a direct influence, with the resident population and the tourist population having the greatest influence, while the level of education has an inverse influence. The obtained linear model does not present autocorrelation or heteroscedasticity although a slight multicollinearity is omitted since the model’s explanatory capacity reaches 99.8%. Finally, the conclusions obtained are presented and the coefficients associated with the model are interpreted.

Buildings are responsible for 40% of the energy consumption and around 36% of CO2 emissions in the European Union. Administrations are funding projects enhancing energy efficiency to achieve a zero-emission building. As a consequence, many companies perceive the business potential. Several public buildings are analyzed by comparing their energy rating labels against their real energy consumption. Results show that highly rated buildings are also the ones with higher consumption. This study analyzes and discusses the factors that end up in this paradox. Results show that new buildings consume more energy, which is caused by higher interior-comfort standards. Moreover, control systems that should warrant optimal functionality of the building consume non-negligible amounts of energy. Finally, technical exigencies on buildings have increased in recent years. In conclusion, project management should incorporate the structure, control, security, and comfort systems together in the design phase. Moreover, this phase should also include the operating definition of the building during the day and throughout seasons of the year.

The expanding agri-food industry is highly interested in product and process innovation and acutely aware of climate change’s impact on the sector; however, it has still not seen an energy transformation that could lead to huge savings. These savings could come from energy efficiency and from the total or partial replacement of traditional fuels by renewable technology. Saving energy and using it more efficiently will enable companies in the sector to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, generate wealth, and improve their competitiveness. In this industry, wineries are more innovative than the rest of the sector and they can serve as a model of how adopting energy efficiency and renewable use measures on a small scale can be profitable. The purpose of this study is to discover how willing Spanish wineries are to implement renewable energies in their vineyards and the measures they have taken or plan to take to improve their energy efficiency.

Over the last two decades, an increase in social awareness has occurred regarding the sustainability of all areas of human activity. Engineering and construction projects are no exceptions to this trend. In order for project developers to make their social corporate responsibility policies visible, many companies have opted for certification methods, which, at an international level, have attended to this awareness, increased the added value of the projects developed. Some examples of these methods are LEED, BREEAM, PASSIVHAUS, VERDE, and CASBEE. Enough time has passed for a critical review of these methods to be carried out and for possible improvements in the sustainability management of projects to be analyzed, which could lead to greater involvement on the part of the public administrations and institutions.

LED technology is consolidated as the main alternative for lighting in all areas (home, industrial, and road). Its generalized implementation is guaranteed with excellent energy results and great life expectancy and quality. The conventional systems of lighting, incandescence, fluorescence, HM (Metal Halide) or VSAP (High Pressure Sodium Vapor) have been exhaustively analyzed and studied in depth. However, the sudden irruption of the LEDs has brought about doubts about the consequences and their effects on people, animals, and plants, which are associated with the unique characteristics of the LEDs: Their electronic nature, discrete high intensity point light sources, directional emission, high radiation energy (blue 440 nm), etc. Recently, studies have analyzed the effects LEDs can have on the health, visual perception, or well-being of living beings (glare, stroboscopic effects, circadian regulation processes, or systemic diseases). In this work, we establish mechanisms for observing the results of these investigations, analyze and assess associated risks, and establish criteria, guidelines, and components to properly manage implementation processes, renovation, or reconversion of facilities with LED technology. For this, we apply the procedures of the rules for the management of risks in projects: ISO 21500 and UNE-EN 62198.

The study of energy efficiency through life cycle assessment—LCA— unlike other researches that focus on minimizing direct energy consumption only during exploitation and maintenance phase, allows to evaluate the environmental impact of a building in all its phases, considering the energy incorporated in all the processes involved, from the manufacture of its components, its construction, and subsequent use until the end of its life—dismantlement—. Beginning with the study of a couple of cases, a Sports Complex and a Center for Children Education in their drafting phases of the executive project—stage in which the design team defines the technical specifications— and in order to bring on the design not only of more efficient buildings but also more sustainable ones, a series of alternative constructive solutions—building envelope and lighting and air-conditioning facilities— are proposed to those originally prescribed, which, although they meet the minimum legal requirements, can be optimized considering not only the costs incurred in the operations and the energy efficiency in service but also the whole LCA, concluding that it is necessary to take this factor into account when defining priorities and actions in terms of energetic sustainability.

Water distribution networks are considered as large energy consumers and usually have excess of energy that, in a classical methodology, are evaluated from the difference between the pressure and the minimum required (potential energy recovery, PRE). These excesses could be recovered either by the users (consumers) of the system (PREu) or by the managers of the water supply systems (PREr). This distribution depends mainly on the topography of the network. In this paper, an algorithm to determine the PREr of a water distribution network is presented. Traditionally, water distribution network sizing projects ware based on the determination of the diameters with the lower investment but satisfying the hydraulic requirements of the network. In this paper, a different sizing alternative based on the determination of the PREr is presented. This method allows defining an energy efficiency index that could be used as an indicator for comparing different solutions. The method is applied to several networks in the literature in order to validate the study.

To determine the air ventilation flows in a room deterministic approaches based on the CO2 tracer-gas mass balance equation are usually used. Those equations do not enable to introduce to the system uncertainties such as the sensor measurement error. In this paper, the use of the stochastic differential equations based on the CO2 tracer-gas mass balance are presented to obtain the air ventilation flows in a room introducing uncertainty elements. This kind of modeling, also known as grey-box modeling, combines physical knowledge of the system and information embedded in the monitored data to identify a suitable parametrization of the differential equation used. Finally, a set of statistical tests are used to assess the model's accuracy. Models that fulfill the tests are considered correct, and as a consequence, its parametrization too. Having the parametrization a physical meaning, it is possible to obtain the air ventilation flow of the room. Results show the viability of this kind of approach.

In Mexico, 68 indigenous ethnic groups have common cultural traits: use of native languages or own forms of organization. Efforts to address social deficiencies in the population have proven to be ineffective due to cultural and linguistic barriers that hinder social mobility. Obtaining material and financial resources to promote community development has been a major constraint in rural areas. A two-year training program for Bilingual Local Managers (BLM) inside the Mayo ethnicity in Sonora, Mexico was implemented to identify local development needs, formulate projects, and design rural innovation programs linked to endogenous resources based on individual and collective initiatives. Forty-six BLM and several diagnoses identify and prioritize in localities initiatives related to management, infrastructure development, desired welfare levels, profits generation for reinvestment inside the community, and levels of initial capital contribution. Main development axes are related to agriculture, livestock, forestry, rural infrastructure, seafood small business, local language identity conservation, culture, housing and food sovereignty. BLM formalized some projects and legal society’s producers.

For the International Cooperation Sector, the project is the most used financing mechanism for the transfer of resources, and given the peculiarities of the sector, the projects have a set of differentiating characteristics that catalogs them as a highly complex particular typology, which makes its successful management a permanent challenge. Despite the significant amounts of money mobilized by the sector and the importance of the objectives of these projects for aid recipient countries, the low performance rates of these projects have become a generalized result and the empirical study of the causes of this situation is scarce. This descriptive and exploratory research statistically analyzes the perception of a representative sample of project managers from the sector in Colombian Non-Governmental Organizations in order to understand the general context for the adoption of good project management practices in this sector and their impact on the success of these interventions. The results demonstrate a low rate of adoption of project management methods and a relationship between their use and project performance.

International Development (ID), which is often questioned for its lack of effectiveness, is a specific sector in the application of Project Management (PM) in relation to the use of projects that are undertaken to generate changes. In this case, ID seeks to have an impact on living standards of the most vulnerable groups of the population. This study reveals, by an extensive review of the most pertinent literature, the particularities and complexities of ID projects. It initiates the debate on the convenience of adapting existing tools in PM that are broadly used in, and familiar to, the industrial sector (PMI, Prince or any other) to Cooperation, or the need to improve those tools that are already in place, mainly the Logical Framework Approach (LFA), or even to design new alternatives. Due to the respect owed to a tool that has been used for nearly five decades, this research studies the development and evolution of LFA from its origins to the latest presentations, including its strengths and limitations. The proposals to improve LFA, as a result of these investigations, are re-examined in cooperation with professionals, whose valuable opinions on the matter facilitate an increase in efficiency level in ID.

This communication describes the developed web system by which companies of the industrial and service sectors can access their energy consumption data (electricity, gas, and water) and perform energy efficiency analysis. Data is collected using measuring devices installed in the clients’ premises and transmitted to the analysis platform. Each client of this service, after being authenticated, can access and consult his historical consumption data, displayed in the form of graphs and personalized reports. The user can obtain consumption performance patterns through advanced data analysis.

Particle Swarm Optimization algorithms (or PSO) have been widely studied in the Literature. It is known that they provide highly competitive results. However, they suffer from fast convergence to local optima. There exist works proposing the swarm decentralization by including some specific topologies in order to deal with this problem. These approaches highly improve the results. In this work, we propose PSO-CO, a PSO algorithm able to reduce the exploitation of the algorithm by introducing the concept of coalitions in the swarm. There is one leader in each of these coalitions, so that the particles belonging to a coalition are only influenced by their local leader, and not the global one. This mechanism allows different coalitions to explore different parts of the search space, reducing thus the convergence speed and enhancing the exploration capabilities of the algorithm. Moreover, the particles can leave a coalition and join another, facilitating the exchange of information between coalitions. For testing the efficiency of the proposed PSO-CO, we have chosen a relevant benchmark in the literature, specially designed for continuous optimization. Results show that PSO-CO highly improves the results obtained compared to classical PSO.

Geographic latitudes that have high solar radiation utilization and are susceptible to the installation of photovoltaic plants must be subject to risk management and assessment to verify the viability of such plants during their useful life. To demonstrate the profitability of these projects, we present a study that allows planning mitigation responses and comparing quantifiable technical and financial data. For this purpose, a quantitative risk analysis is performed combining two decision methods (ANP-TOPSIS) to evaluate the influence of one risk on another. Through a group of experts, the effect of the risks on the photovoltaic installations from the design stage right through to the construction and start-up is determined. The risks taken into account have been identified by carrying out the process recommended by the project management guide (PMBOK) in its risk management section. In the work, the most profitable facility is selected from the comparison in countries like Spain and Dominican Republic, specifically in the Region of Murcia and Santo Domingo. This analysis helps photovoltaic developers and investors to make decisions in cases of uncertainty.