This paper presents the design and evaluation of RuralVPP, a decentralized Virtual Power Plant (VPP) architecture designed for rural energy communities. The system integrates ten semi-autonomous municipalities into a coordinated structure based on a dual-layer market framework, consisting of Local Energy Markets (LEMs) and a Supra-Municipal Market. Energy transactions within and between communities are managed through smart contracts implemented on a permissioned blockchain platform using Hyperledger Fabric, ensuring secure, transparent, and auditable settlements. The communication infrastructure is based on the IEC 61850 standard, enabling interoperability among distributed energy resources (DERs), smart meters, and flexible loads. To support efficient market operation and grid management, the system incorporates advanced forecasting techniques using deep learning models, including Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks and Transformer architectures. These models are trained on real energy generation and demand data collected from the participating communities. Results show high forecasting accuracy, effective automation of energy trades, and enhanced local energy utilization. The proposed solution improves energy resilience, lowers operational costs, and provides a scalable reference model for decentralized rural energy systems based on blockchain and artificial intelligence.

ABSTRACT An accurate prediction of wind power generation is crucial for optimizing the integration of wind energy into the power grid, ensuring energy reliability. This research focuses on enhancing the accuracy of wind power generation forecasts by combining data from mesoscale and reanalysis models with Machine Learning (ML) approaches. We utilized WRF forecast data alongside ERA5 reanalysis data to estimate wind power generation for a wind farm located at Valladolid, Spain. The study evaluated the performance of ML models based on WRF and ERA5 data individually, as well as a combined model using inputs from both datasets. The hybrid model combining WRF and ERA5 data with ML resulted in a 15% improvement in root mean square error (RMSE) and a 10% increase in compared with standalone models, providing a more reliable 1‐h forecast of wind power generation. Additionally, the availability of data over time was addressed: WRF provides the advantage of projecting data into the future, whereas ERA5 offers retrospective data.

Abstract This paper presents a novel implementation of the Coral Reef Optimization with Substrate Layers (CRO‐SL) algorithm. Our approach, which we call TensorCRO, takes advantage of the TensorFlow framework to represent CRO‐SL as a series of tensor operations, allowing it to run on GPU and search for solutions in a faster and more efficient way. We evaluate the performance of the proposed implementation across a wide range of benchmark functions commonly used in optimization research (such as the Rastrigin, Rosenbrock, Ackley, and Griewank functions), and we show that GPU execution leads to considerable speedups when compared to its CPU counterpart. Then, when comparing TensorCRO to other state‐of‐the‐art optimization algorithms (such as the Genetic Algorithm, Simulated Annealing, and Particle Swarm Optimization), the results show that TensorCRO can achieve better convergence rates and solutions than other algorithms within a fixed execution time, given that the fitness functions are also implemented on TensorFlow. Furthermore, we also evaluate the proposed approach in a real‐world problem of optimizing power production in wind farms by selecting the locations of turbines; in every evaluated scenario, TensorCRO outperformed the other meta‐heuristics and achieved solutions close to the best known in the literature. Overall, our implementation of the CRO‐SL algorithm in TensorFlow GPU provides a new, fast, and efficient approach to solving optimization problems, and we believe that the proposed implementation has significant potential to be applied in various domains, such as engineering, finance, and machine learning, where optimization is often used to solve complex problems. Furthermore, we propose that this implementation can be used to optimize models that cannot propagate an error gradient, which is an excellent choice for non‐gradient‐based optimizers.

In this paper the performance of different Machine Learning and Deep Learning approaches is evaluated in problems related to green mobility in big cities. Specifically, the forecasting of bike sharing demand in Madrid and Barcelona (Spain) is approached, for different prediction time-horizons, and also a problem of cable car demand forecasting in Madrid city. An important number of predictive variables are considered, which are grouped into four different sets (categorical/calendrical, persistence-based, meteorological and, as a novelty of the paper, information about analogue past instances), whose relevance is studied for all cases. A feature selection mechanism is also incorporated in order to improve the prediction accuracy of the proposed algorithms. A total of 12 different multivariate regression techniques are implemented, covering from Machine Learning methods to time-series Deep Learning approaches. Excellent results in all the prediction problems approached are reported. Finally, the consequences of obtaining accurate prediction in these three problem of green mobility in big cities are discussed. In addition, it is studied how the results could be exported to other similar cases in more general urban mobility studies. Novelties of the work include: (1) Addressing the forecast problem of passenger flow on a cable car using ML and DL multivariate techniques; (2) using the demand of analogous past instances as an additional feature to solve the demand prediction problems; and (3) the extraction of global conclusions about feature relevance when addressing a demand forecasting problem in green mobility.

Each year, wildfires destroy larger areas of Spain, threatening numerous ecosystems. Humans cause 90% of them (negligence or provoked) and the behaviour of individuals is unpredictable. However, atmospheric and environmental variables affect the spread of wildfires, and they can be analysed by using deep learning. In order to mitigate the damage of these events, we proposed the novel Wildfire Assessment Model (WAM). Our aim is to anticipate the economic and ecological impact of a wildfire, assisting managers in resource allocation and decision-making for dangerous regions in Spain, Castilla y León and Andalucía. The WAM uses a residual-style convolutional network architecture to perform regression over atmospheric variables and the greenness index, computing necessary resources, the control and extinction time, and the expected burnt surface area. It is first pre-trained with self-supervision over 100,000 examples of unlabelled data with a masked patch prediction objective and fine-tuned using a very small dataset, composed of 445 samples. The pretraining allows the model to understand situations, outclassing baselines with a 1,4%, 3,7% and 9% improvement estimating human, heavy and aerial resources; 21% and 10,2% in expected extinction and control time; and 18,8% in expected burnt area. Using the WAM we provide an example assessment map of Castilla y León, visualizing the expected resources over an entire region.

This paper presents a method for providing explainability in the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and data mining techniques when dealing with meteorological prediction. Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) refers to the transparency of AI systems in providing explanations for their predictions and decision-making processes, and contribute to improve prediction accuracy and enhance trust in AI systems. The focus of this paper relies on the interpretability challenges in ordinal classification problems within weather forecasting. Ordinal classification involves predicting weather phenomena with ordered classes, such as temperature ranges, wind speed, precipitation levels, and others. To address this challenge, a novel and general explicable forecasting framework, that combines inductive rules and fuzzy logic, is proposed in this work. Inductive rules, derived from historical weather data, provide a logical and interpretable basis for forecasting; while fuzzy logic handles the uncertainty and imprecision in the weather data. The system predicts a set of probabilities that the incoming sample belongs to each considered class. Moreover, it allows the expert decision-making process to be strengthened by relying on the transparency and physical explainability of the model, and not only on the output of a black-box algorithm. The proposed framework is evaluated using two real-world weather databases related to wind speed and low-visibility events due to fog. The results are compared to both ML classifiers and specific methods for ordinal classification problems, achieving very competitive results in terms of ordinal performance metrics while offering a higher level of explainability and transparency compared to existing approaches.

In the context of reinforced concrete members subjected to shear, the steel behaviour, assumed as embedded in the concrete, has been modelled through different strategies. One of them, the so-called Refined Compression Field Theory (RCFT), is based on the concept of the concrete tension stiffening area, and shows a better fitting with the experimental results than other shear theories. However, for certain standard design conditions, the RCFT non-linear formulation does not throw a real physical solution for the steel yield strain, what hinders its numerical calculation. In fact, previous works have defined a solvability region for such strain. This non-linear equation is usually solved by iterative methods. However, the convergence of these methods depends on the root location. Moreover, their robustness may diminish in the boundary of the solvability region. This work validates Machine Learning (ML) approaches as alternative tools for the iterative prediction of the steel yield strain. To this aim, the calculation of the steel yield strain is performed in two stages, first locating the root to calculate using ML-based classification techniques, and second calculating such root with an accurate adjustment as a function of its location, using ML-based regression algorithms. As result, the efficiency of the proposed method no longer depends on the steel strain location. Finally, despite the high influence of the concrete bond parameter in the yield strain field, the ML prediction error is homogeneous over all the problem physical domain.

In this paper we propose and discuss different Deep Learning-based ensemble algorithms for a problem of low-visibility events prediction due to fog. Specifically, seven different Deep Learning (DL) architectures have been considered, from which multiple individual learners are generated. Hyperparameters of the models, including parameters concerning data preprocessing, models architecture and training procedure, are randomly selected for each model within a pre-defined discrete range. Also, every model is trained with slightly different data sampled randomly, assuring that every models introduce variety in the ensemble. Then, three different information fusion techniques are employed to build the ensemble models. The influence of the filtering process and the elitism level (the percentage of the individual models entering the ensemble) is also assessed. The performance of the proposed methodology have been tested in two real problems of low-visibility events prediction due to orographical and radiation fog, at the north of Spain. Comparison with different Machine Learning, alternative DL algorithms and meteorological-based methods show the good performance of the proposed deep learning ensembles in this problem.

Abstract Optimal power flow (OPF) is a complex, highly nonlinear, NP-hard optimization problem, in which the goal is to determine the optimal operational parameters of a power-related system (in many cases a type of smart or micro grid) which guarantee an economic and effective power dispatch. In recent years, a number of approaches based on metaheuristics algorithms have been proposed to solve OPF problems. In this paper, we propose the use of the Cross-Entropy (CE) method as a first step depth search operator to assist population-based evolutionary methods in the framework of an OPF problem. Specifically, a new variant of the Coral Reefs Optimization with Substrate Layers algorithm boosted with CE method (CE+CRO-SL) is presented in this work. We have adopted the IEEE 57-Bus System as a test scenario which, by default, has seven thermal generators for power production for the grid. We have modified this system by replacing three thermal generators with renewable source generators, in order to consider a smart grid approach with renewable energy production. The performance of CE+CRO-SL in this particular case study scenario has been compared with that of well-known techniques such as population’s methods CMA-ES and EPSO (both boosted with CE). The results obtained indicate that CE+CRO-SL showed a superior performance than the alternative techniques in terms of efficiency and accuracy. This is justified by its greater exploration capacity, since it has internally operations coming from different heuristics, thus surpassing the performance of classic methods. Moreover, in a projection analysis, the CE+CRO-SL provides a profit of millions of dollars per month in all cases tested considering the modified version of the IEEE 57-Bus smart grid system.

Optimal active–reactive power dispatch problems (OARPD) are considered large scale optimization problems with a high nonlinear complexity. Usually, in OARPD the objective is to minimize the cost of the system operation. In 2018, the IEEE PES committee proposed a competition, the “Operational planning of sustainable power systems”, in which a test bed relating the OARPD and a renewable energy generation challenge within a smart grid was proposed. In this work we consider three test scenarios proposed in that competition. Specifically, we present a hybrid meta-heuristic optimization approach applied to the OARPD, the Canonical Differential Evolutionary Particle Swarm Optimization (C-DEEPSO), to tackle these test scenarios. Comparative results with other algorithms such as CMA-ES, EPSO, and CEEPSO indicate that C-DEEPSO shows a competitive performance when solving the OARPD problems.

This work proposes the design of both Single-Input–Single-Output (SISO) and Multiple-Input–Multiple-Output (MIMO) isolation controllers, when the interaction between the isolator system and the base structure is considered. The problem to be addressed is based on the reduction of the vibration of every platform, and also on the alignment between the different isolators. Both techniques, SISO and MIMO, are optimally tuned by the recently-proposed Coral Reefs Optimisation with Substrate Layers (CRO-SL), a multi-method ensemble evolutionary approach. In the proposed design, the stability of both systems (the isolators and the supporting structure) is verified. Also, the importance of considering the supporting structure dynamic is shown, by comparing the results with those obtained when the base structure is assumed to be rigid and infinitely heavy. This work shows considerable and not obvious improvements when the interaction between the isolator system and the base frame is considered. Numerical examples are included to illustrate the significant differences between using SISO and MIMO cases, and to motivate the use of CRO-SL. In addition, a real application example is analysed based on experimental data. Verified practical guidelines to be followed in experimental tests are finally shown.