Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Domestic electricity'
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1
Sharam, Andrea, and n/a. "Market segementation and domestic electricity supply in Victoria." Swinburne University of Technology, 2005. http://adt.lib.swin.edu.au./public/adt-VSWT20061109.101315.
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If the observations of unregulated and recently deregulated essential services were to hold
for electricity reform, we could expect to see market segmentation of household
customers. This is a corporate strategy aimed at the acquisition of attractive customers
and the avoidance of unattractive customers. It is a function of market relations and
commodification. Some markets already segment and assign unattractive customers to
'residual' markets, 'sub-prime' markets or 'markets of last resort'. Residual markets tend to
involve market abuse by suppliers because these customers lack market power. It is
possible therefore to suggest that segmented markets are characterised by simultaneous
competition and monopoly. The implications for the supply of essential services, such as
electricity, are profound. This research sought to identify whether there is evidence of
emerging segmentation of the domestic electricity market in Victoria.
In practice, few essential services areas are completely deregulated. The history of
segmentation in the US insurance and lending industries provides valuable insights into
markets, market failure and social protections. Taking this history and the more recent
experiences of reforms in the US, the UK and Australia, it has been possible to identify
three models of social protection: 'universal service', a 'civil rights' model, and a 'market'
model. The Victorian reforms reflect some elements of each of these. The social
protections included in the reform package both encourage and present barriers to market
segmentation. At the time of the research, some elements of the safety net arrangements
and customer inertia (born out of negative attitudes to competition) have acted to inhibit
segmentation. Customer inertia in its own right poses questions for the efficacy of
competition policy.
The key understanding that is gained from this research is that both civil rights and socioeconomic
entitlements (social rights) are required to prevent markets in essential services
acting upon and exacerbating inequality. This suggests that universal service, as a model
of social protection, is most likely to ameliorate the impacts of inequality.
2
Sharam, Andrea. "Market segmentation and domestic electricity supply in Victoria." Swinburne Research Bank, 2005. http://adt.lib.swin.edu.au/public/adt-VSWT20061109.101315.
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Thesis (PhD) - Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology, 2005.Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology, 2005. Typescript. Bibliography: p. 188-207.
3
Richardson, Ian. "Integrated high-resolution modelling of domestic electricity demand and low voltage electricity distribution networks." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2011. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/7968.
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Assessing the impact of domestic low-carbon technologies on the electricity distribution network requires a detailed insight into the operation of networks and the power demands of consumers. When used on a wide-scale, low-carbon technologies, including domestic scale micro-generation, heat pumps, electric vehicles and flexible demand, will change the nature of domestic electricity use. In providing a basis for the quantification of the impact upon distribution networks, this thesis details the construction and use of a high-resolution integrated model that simulates both existing domestic electricity use and low voltage distribution networks. Electricity demand is modelled at the level of individual household appliances and is based upon surveyed occupant time-use data. This approach results in a simulation that exhibits realistic time-variant demand characteristics, in both individual dwellings, as well as, groups of dwellings together. Validation is performed against real domestic electricity use data, measured for this purpose, from dwellings in Loughborough in the East Midlands, UK. The low voltage distribution network is modelled using real network data, and the output of its simulation is validated against measured network voltages and power demands. The integrated model provides a highly detailed insight into the operation of networks at a one-minute resolution. This integrated model is the main output of this research, alongside published articles and a freely downloadable software implementation of the demand model.
4
Liddiard, Robert. "Characterising space use and electricity consumption in non-domestic buildings." Thesis, De Montfort University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/6105.
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Energy used in the operation of the United Kingdom’s non-domestic buildings contributes 18% of national carbon dioxide emissions and reducing these is government policy. The use of electrical equipment in buildings is a major contributor to overall consumption, due to both its intrinsic energy consumption and the effects of incidental internal gains resulting from its operation. Knowledge of how and where consumption and internal gains occur in buildings is important in understanding the consumption characteristics of the building stock. The overall aim of this research was to improve the prediction of energy consumption in the non-domestic stock through the inference of appliance electricity consumption and resultant heat gains, for internal space uses of premises, as identified in UK property taxation data. To achieve this, the objectives were to: 1. Develop a method for inferring space usage in premises. 2. Infer values for the electricity consumption of appliances, and hence internal gains, for space uses within premises. 3. Apply the method to a dataset at the urban scale and use a suitable model to deduce the energy consumption. 4. Compare the results with measured data. Objectives 1 and 2 were achieved through analyses of detailed energy surveys of more than 300 non-domestic premises. By excluding equipment used for heating and cooling, both intrinsic electricity consumption and internal gains from appliances have been characterised for combinations of internal space use and premises activity type. For each combination, the characteristics include the energy intensity (kWh/m2/year) for: • overall appliance use • 14 end uses of appliances (e.g. lighting, catering, computers) • 18 groups of appliance activity descriptions (e.g. sales, office work, process) These characteristics were mapped onto subdivisions of space use, within premises, listed in property taxation data for a test urban area (City of Leicester). Using only 115 descriptions of space use, appliance consumption characteristics have been inferred for 91.5% of the measured internal floor area of the test dataset; this achieved the third objective. More than 80% of the floor area was identified using standard space use descriptions utilised in real estate taxation datasets. The total estimated consumption accounted for 75% of the recorded annual electricity consumption of the test area (the fourth objective). This result is acceptable, given the known limitations of the datasets and suggests that the method constitutes an improvement to stock energy modelling, thus meeting the overall aim. By inferring appliance electricity consumption and internal gains at a finer spatial resolution than previous methods, the diversity of energy consumption characteristics of the non-domestic stock may be represented more faithfully than by values applied to entire homogenised premises or premises types. The method may be used by policy makers as part of an urban energy model and as a means of evaluating potential energy interventions in the non-domestic stock, or parts thereof.
5
Dent, Ian. "Deriving knowledge of household behaviour from domestic electricity usage metering." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2015. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/27972/.
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The electricity market in the UK is undergoing dramatic changes and requires a transformation of existing practices to meet the current and forthcoming challenges. One aspect of the solution is the deployment of demand side management (DSM) programmes to influence domestic behaviour patterns for the benefit of the overall network. Effective deployment of DSM requires segmentation of the population into a small number of groupings. Using a database of electricity meter data collected at a frequency of five minutes over a year from several hundred houses, households are clustered based on the shape of the average daily electricity usage profile. A novel method, incorporating evaluation criteria beyond compactness, of evaluating the resulting groupings is defined and tested. The results indicate the potentially most useful algorithms for use with load profile clustering. Patterns within the electricity meter data are approximated and symbolised to allow motifs (representing repeated behaviours) to be identified. Uninteresting motifs are automatically identified and discarded. The different possible parameters, including size of motif and number of symbols used in representing the data, are explored and the most appropriate values found for use with electricity meter data motif detection. The concept of variability of regular behaviour within a household is introduced and methods of representing the variability are considered. The novel method of using variability in timing of motifs is compared to other techniques and the results tested using the previously defined evaluation criteria. Combining the generated motif data with the meter data to produce a single set of archetypes does not produce more useful results for use with DSM. However, creating complementary sets of archetypes based on each set of data, provides a more complete understanding of the households and allows for better targeting of DSM initiatives.
6
Hubble, Sam. "Visions of domestic electricity use in a changing sociotechnical system." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2015. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/89970/.
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The domestic sector accounts for approximately one third of the UK’s energy demand. As such there is scope for significant change in domestic electricity demand to facilitate the transition towards a more sustainable electricity system. This thesis uses qualitative focus groups and interviews with public and expert participants to investigate how and why electricity is used in the home, and to unpick the assumptions within visions of possible future change to the electricity system. Public and expert interviewee suggestions for changes to increase the flexibility of domestic demand (a key aspect of enabling increased penetration of renewable generation technologies) were rooted in ecological modernisation, where technological solutions such as home automation were advocated as the most appropriate mechanisms for achieving change. Additionally, experts posited that information provision about the need for change to the wider electricity system, and thus ways in which people use electricity in the home, would ‘educate’ the public and result in acceptance and change. Solutions adopting assumptions of economic-rationality were also identified in public and expert discourse, where financial mechanisms were suggested to have the ability to influence behaviour. However, contradictory evidence suggested that financial mechanisms will not provide sufficient incentives for change, as people instead are influenced more directly by the desire to fulfil immediate needs.
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Darby, Sarah. "Awareness, action and feedback in domestic energy use." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2003. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:144896dd-f8d8-40ef-8122-5aeb3ac1551c.
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The nature of gas and electricity and the methods of distribution, billing and payment all contribute to the 'invisibility' of much domestic energy consumption in industrial and post-industrial societies. For the householder, understanding how to invest and behave in ways that will give affordable comfort with minimum environmental impact involves making sense of a hidden set of processes. This poses a major challenge, one that a range of energy advice programmes is attempting to meet. The main focus to date has been on the actions taken as a result of advice, with little attention paid to teaching and learning processes or to context. This thesis explores formal and informal processes by which householders learn about their energy use in order to develop a theoretical framework. Constructivist learning theory guides the investigation and a variant of the 'conscious competence' model of learning is used as a starting point. The concept of'tacit knowledge' (foundational knowledge, usually acquired informally) is used in tracing the development of energy literacy. Empirical data come from householder surveys and from interviews of householders and advisers in five contrasting locations in the UK. Interpretation of this material demonstrates the construction of meaning through experience and interaction with others, and the potential role of the energy adviser as a trusted and knowledgeable person. The building of tacit knowledge is crucial to the development of energy literacy and the householder's ability to absorb and evaluate new information. Energy advisers need to be able to identify and develop existing knowledge, and to form effective networks with social welfare programmes. The need to build awareness by following up advice wherever possible is stressed. There also needs to be a supportive learning infrastructure that includes easily accessible feedback on consumption, and the availability of accurate information for those who are knowledgeable and confident enough to teach themselves.
8
Drysdale, Brian. "Demand side management : flexible demand in the GB domestic electricity sector." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2014. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/69859/.
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In order to meet greenhouse gas emissions targets, the Great Britain (GB) future electricity supply will include a higher fraction of non-dispatchable generation, increasing opportunities for demand side management (DSM) to maintain a supply/demand balance. Domestic electricity demand is approximately a third of total GB demand and has the potential to provide a significant demand side resource. An optimization model of UK electricity generation has been developed with an objective function to minimize total system cost (£m/year). The models show that dispatchable output falls from 77% of total output in 2012 to 69% in 2020, 41% in 2030 and 28% in 2050, supporting the need for increased levels of future DSM. Domestic demand has been categorised to identify flexible loads (electric space and water heating, cold appliances and wet appliances), and projected to 2030. Annual flexible demand in 2030 amounts to 64.3TWh though the amount of practically available demand varies significantly on a diurnal, weekly and seasonal basis. Daily load profiles show practically available demand on two sample days at three sample time points (05:00, 08:00 and 17:30) varies between 838MW and 6,150MW. Access to flexible demand for DSM purposes is dependent on the active involvement of domestic consumers and/or their acceptance of appliance automation. Analysis of a major quantitative survey and qualitative workshop dataset shows that 49% of respondents don’t think very much or not at all about their electricity use. This has implications for the effectiveness of DSM measures which rely on consumers to actively modify behaviour in response to a signal. Whilst appliance automation can be a practical solution to realising demand side potential, many consumers are reluctant to allow remote access. Consumers are motivated by financial incentives though the low value of individual appliance consumption limits the effectiveness of solely financial incentives. A range of incentives would be required to encourage a wide cross-section of consumers to engage with their electricity consumption.
9
Cooper, David. "Narrowband powerline communications on the domestic mains in the CENELEC frequencies." Thesis, University of Surrey, 2000. http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/843671/.
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The object of this dissertation is to identify effective techniques for powerline communication using the low voltage (240V) domestic mains electricity supply in the sub 150 kHz frequency range as defined by the European CENELEC standard, concentrating on narrowband techniques suitable for low data rate telemetry applications. In order to conduct a comparison of communications techniques a model of the channel is invaluable. However a survey of the existing literature reveals that the presently available Knowledge of the channel characteristics and impairments of the low voltage mains is limited. In particular there is no widely accepted quantitative model of the mains as a narrowband communications link. The study consisted of four main phases. First, a new piece of equipment, the 'Channel Probe', was developed to perform channel soundings of the mains. The second phase was largely experimental; empirical channel sounding results were collected using the Channel Probe. In the third phase a model was defined to fit the empirical results and a quantitative simulation was constructed based on this model. Lastly, communications techniques were studied using this simulation. This document presents the key impairments introduced by the channel, and proposes a novel narrowband channel model. Quantitative values for these phenomena are identified and justified against the measured results. The simulation that was constructed in accordance with this channel model is entirely novel, and is used to study suitable modulation schemes, receiver structures and algorithms. Original performance results from this simulation are presented, and a novel low complexity narrowband communication scheme is presented which has significant advantages over existing commercially available systems.
10
Hankin, Emily. "Buying modernity? : the consumer experience of domestic electricity in the era of the grid." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2013. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/buying-modernity-the-consumer-experience-of-domestic-electricity-in-the-era-of-the-grid(04d58b36-244f-45ce-806e-538470e6b00f).html.
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In 1927 the Central Electricity Board began to oversee the building of the national grid. In the early development of electricity, electrical power was consumed by those privileged enough to be able to afford their own generators. A small number of local undertakings were established in urban centres during the 1920s but it was the nationalisation of electricity supply that gradually made electric power available to the masses. The electrical supply industry marketed electrical appliances as economical, efficient and clean alternatives to gas and coal, and, as time and labour saving appliances to the housewife. This thesis employs an interdisciplinary approach to the consumption of electricity and electrical technologies within the domestic environment, drawing upon the methodology of social construction of technology, historical geography, material culture studies and oral histories. It aims to compare and contrast constructions of the ideal modern electric home and electrical appliances with the lived reality of experiences of electricity in different homes across Britain to draw out the tensions between the two and explore how they mutually constructed and shaped each other. Using case studies of electric cookers, refrigerators, electric irons, vacuum cleaners, electric toys, radios, electric razors and hairdryers, it explores how the electrical industry constructed modernity and the ideal modern home in advertising material, the construction of the ‘housewife consumer’ and other users in the home, and the fluid nature of domestic space and its relationship with electricity.
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Elizondo-González, Sergio Iván. "Market-based coordination for domestic demand response in low-carbon electricity grids." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/28831.
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Efforts towards a low carbon economy are challenging the electricity industry. On the supply-side, centralised carbon-intensive power plants are set to gradually decrease their contribution to the generation mix, whilst distributed renewable generation is to successively increase its share. On the demand-side, electricity use is expected to increase in the future due to the electrification of heating and transport. Moreover, the demand-side is to become more active allowing end-users to invest in generation and storage technologies, such as solar photovoltaics (PV) and home batteries. As a result, some network reinforcements might be needed and instrumentation at the users’ end is to be required, such as controllers and home energy management systems (HEMS). The electricity grid must balance supply and demand at all times in order to maintain technical constraints of frequency, voltage, and current; and this will become more challenging as a result of this transition. Failure to meet these constraints compromises the service and could damage the power grid assets and end-users’ appliances. Balancing generation, although responsive, is carbon-intensive and associated with inefficient asset utilisation, as these generators are mostly used during peak hours and sit idle the rest of the time. Furthermore, energy storage is a potential solution to assist the balancing problem in the presence of non-dispatchable low-carbon generators; however, it is substantially expensive to store energy in large amounts. Therefore, demand response (DR) has been envisioned as a complementary solution to increase the system’s resilience to weather-dependent, stochastic, and intermittent generation along with variable and temperature-correlated electric load. In the domestic setting, operational flexibility of some appliances, such as heaters and electric cars, can be coordinated amongst several households so as to help balance supply and demand, and reduce the need of balancing generators. Against this background, the electricity supply system requires new organisational paradigms that integrate DR effectively. Although some dynamic pricing schemes have been proposed to guide DR, such as time of use (ToU) and real-time pricing (RTP), it is still unclear how to control oscillatory massive responses (e.g., large fleet of electric cars simultaneously responding to a favourable price). Hence, this thesis proposes an alternative approach in which households proactively submit DR offers that express their preferences to their respective retailer in exchange for a discount. This research develops a computational model of domestic electricity use, and simulates appliances with operational flexibility in order to evaluate the effects and benefits of DR for both retailers and households. It provides a representation for this flexibility so that it can be integrated into specific DR offers. Retailers and households are modelled as computational agents. Furthermore, two market-based mechanisms are proposed to determine the allocation of DR offers. More specifically, a one-sided Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG)-based mechanism and penalty schemes were designed for electricity retailers to coordinate their customers’ DR efforts so as to ameliorate the imbalance of their trading schedules. Similarly, a two-sided McAfee-based mechanism was designed to integrate DR offers into a multi-retailer setting in order to reduce zonal imbalances. A suitable method was developed to construct DR block offers that could be traded amongst retailers. Both mechanisms are dominant-strategy incentive-compatible and trade off a small amount of economic efficiency in order to maintain individual rationality, truthful reporting, weak budget balance and tractable computation. Moreover, privacy preserving is achieved by including computational agents from the independent system operator (ISO) as intermediaries between each retailer and its domestic customers, and amongst retailers. The theoretical properties of these mechanisms were proved using worst-case analysis, and their economic effects were evaluated in simulations based on data from a survey of UK household electricity use. In addition, forecasting methods were assessed on the end-users’ side in order to make better DR offers and avoid penalties. The results show that, under reasonable assumptions, the proposed coordination mechanisms achieve significant savings for both end-users and retailers, as they reduce the required amount of expensive balancing generation.
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Morris, Jonathan. "Benchmarking domestic gas and electricity consumption to aid local authority carbon reduction policy." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2013. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/12368.
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As part of an effort to be a world leader in international efforts in reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, the UK Government has set itself ambitious targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80% relative to 1990 levels by 2050. To meet this target, there is a strong emphasis in reducing carbon emissions from the domestic sector through the reduction of energy consumption in UK households by improving the energy efficiency of the housing stock, and the behaviours of the occupants. The Department of Energy and Climate Change have indicated that Local Authorities in England are potentially to work in partnership with businesses and community organizations to facilitate delivery; and as a promoter of domestic energy efficiency policies. Consultation with 11 Local Authorities across England confirmed that they are lacking a reliable mechanism that can detect areas within their administrative boundaries that are most in need of intervention to improve the energy efficiency of the housing stock. For the year 2008 the regression models demonstrate that geographical variations in the size of the house, median household income, and air temperature account for 64% of the variation in English domestic gas consumption, and that variations in the size of the house, median household income, and proportion of households connected to the national gas grid account for 73% of the variation in domestic electricity consumption. The predicted values from these regression models serve as benchmarks of domestic gas and electricity consumption in England having accounted for household income, house size, house type, tenure, and climatic differences and could be used to identify areas within Local Authorities with higher than expected energy consumption for energy efficiency interventions. These results contribute to the wider academic debate over how best to achieve the overall aims of household CO2 reductions by moving beyond a purely technical or behavioural-based approach to reducing domestic energy consumption.
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Mansouri-Azar, Iman. "Energy consumptions and environmental impacts of household electrical appliances." Thesis, Cranfield University, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.336522.
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McKenna, Eoghan. "Demand response of domestic consumers to dynamic electricity pricing in low-carbon power systems." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2013. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/12120.
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The ability for domestic consumers to provide demand response to dynamic electricity pricing will become increasingly valuable for integrating the high penetrations of renewables that are expected to be connected to electricity networks in the future. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether domestic consumers will be willing and able to provide demand response in such low-carbon futures. A broad approach is presented in this thesis, with research contributions on subjects including data privacy, behavioural economics, and battery modelling. The principle argument of the thesis is that studying the behaviour of consumers with grid-connected photovoltaic ('PV') systems can provide insight into how consumers might respond to dynamic pricing in future low-carbon power systems, as both experience irregular electricity prices that are correlated with intermittent renewable generation. Through a combination of statistical and qualitative methods, this thesis investigates the demand response behaviour of consumers with PV systems in the UK. The results demonstrate that these consumers exhibit demand response behaviour by increasing demand during the day and decreasing demand during the evening. Furthermore, this effect is more pronounced on days with higher irradiance. The results are novel in three ways. First, they provide quantified evidence that suggests that domestic consumers with PV systems engage in demand response behaviour. Second, they provide evidence of domestic consumers responding to irregular electricity prices that are correlated with intermittent renewable generation, thereby addressing the aim of this thesis, and supporting the assumption that consumers can be expected to respond to dynamic pricing in future markets with high penetrations of renewables. Third, they provide evidence of domestic consumers responding to dynamic pricing that is similar to real-time pricing, while prior evidence of this is rare and confined to the USA.
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Stinson, Jonathan William. "Smart energy monitoring technology to reduce domestic electricity and gas consumption through behaviour change." Thesis, Edinburgh Napier University, 2015. http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/9828.
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If the UK is to address its energy reduction targets, it is vital to understand energy use behaviours and to devise technology that positively encourages domestic occupants to use less energy. This study is cross-over research that spans energy research, social science and socio-technology. The work presented in this dissertation reveals the domestic energy saving potential of the use of In-hone Displays (IHDs) by quantifying changes in actual energy consumption and then evaluating these changes using social science research techniques to document the psychological nature of the human interaction with a digital user interface (UI). Many studies have investigated how IHDs for domestic electricity use change behaviour; the findings of this unique 37 month pre-normative study, the first of its kind in the UK, show that the coloured dual-fuel IHD had a positive effect on consumption behaviour and energy reduction. However, the exact difference in energy consumption between experimental groups is dependent on the type of normalisation condition applied to the recorded energy consumption. After the first six months of monitoring, those with a coloured IHD reduced their gas consumption by an average of 20% compared to a control group; this was tested to be statistically significant (p < .05). This difference in consumption was similar for those living in flats and those living in houses. The quantitative figures are reinforced by the findings from questionnaire and the semi-structured interviews, which show that those with an IHD were significantly more likely to reduce their gas consumption and reported increased use of the controls and settings like thermostats for heat-related appliances. Thirty-one months later, this change in gas use behaviour persisted. Over the total 37 month monitoring period, the majority of participants continued to engage with the IHD on a daily basis and consumed 27% less gas than the control group. This difference reached statistical significance (p=.05). The questionnaires conducted 31 months after the initial findings found that those in the intervention group had statistically higher gas reducing behaviour change scores (p < .05). The first six months of energy data show that the sample group with the IHD used 7% less electricity than the control group. The difference in group means was found to not be statistically significant (p > .05). The difference in electricity consumption was considerably higher in the sample living in houses than in the sample living in flats. Qualitative feedback from the participants suggests that the use of the IHD had a slight positive effect on users' consciousness of reducing electricity consumption. However, a larger portion of the occupants with no IHD were similarly confident in ingrained methods of regulating and reducing their electricity consumption. Thirty-one months later, the difference in electricity consumption was substantially higher than was measured for the first six months. Over the total 37 month monitoring period, the intervention group consumed 21% less electricity than the control group. This was not statistically significant (p > .05), the interviews found that those with an IHD did not directly attribute their reduced use of electricity to the IHD. Rather, they maintained low levels of electricity use because it was an ingrained habit long before they used the IHD and for fire and safety reasons. Between the 6 month report and 31 month report, both experimental groups reduced the amount of electricity and gas they consumed. This was attributed to changes in weather patterns and occupants growing more accustomed to their new home. The properties with highest gas consumption reduced their consumption closer to that predicted by the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP). The research found contrasting differences in how the two utilities where perceived and used. This was evident when the energy data was divided into groups based on occupancy. Larger savings in gas consumption was seen in the intervention group with lower occupancy: the intervention group consumed considerable more electricity than the control group in the lower occupancy dwellings, and consumed considerably less in the larger occupancy dwellings. Electricity was described as a luxury, used to maintain a certain quality of life. Those with younger dependents felt it necessary to provide them with as much electronic luxury as they could. Electricity was relatively freely accessed and used by all residents with little resistance if a justified reason was given for its use. However, space heating was perceived as a sacrificial commodity. Heat was described as being relatively easy to regulate with the use of blankets and extra clothing. Heating controls were perceived to be out of reach for many but one or two in the household. This tended to be in control of the person responsible for the majority of household tasks. The users of Ewgeco IHD commented more on the device's ability to promote new gas saving behaviour in order to reduce gas consumption. In contrast, the visual representation of real-time electricity consumption was used more as a safety feature, and appears to fail to produce significant electricity reduction. The participants used the electricity consumption information to reinforce their existing levels of electricity use awareness and it highlighted electrical appliances that had been left on to them. This was reported to be specifically useful at times when the occupants were retiring from the living spaces in the home. These findings demonstrate that a simple ‘push-information' style IHD may need to evolve further with greater smart home control functionality, internet capability and user interaction for this technology to be part of the low-carbon solution. However, it has also been demonstrated that, for particular household groups, IHDs can lead to longer term changes in energy consumption behaviour, specifically for heat.
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Waja, Aadil Ahmed. "Load recorder." Thesis, Cape Technikon, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11838/1165.
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Thesis (Masters Diploma (Electrical Engineering)) --Cape Technikon, Cape Town, 1987This thesis describes the development of a computerized Load Recorder. The load recorder is used by the Cape Town City Council to assist in the tariff investigation of electricity consumers. This investigation assists the consumers in selecting the best cost effective electricity tariff. It also motivates the consumers to maintain a constant load which in turn assists the Council in supplying the required electricity. The load recorder replaces a manual and time consuming method used in conducting the tariff investigation. The development of the load recorder involved the design of hardware and software. It was designed in a compact enclosure to hook up to the electricity meters of the consumer for a period of 7 days. The software was designed in the 6805 assembly language to log data and record the electricity load every 15 or 30 minutes for this period. At the end of this period the data is downloaded into the HP85 personal computer. A basic program was designed for the HP85 to analyse and compute the downloaded data. A graphical representation and analysis is printed by the HP85 computer. The given graph of the results represents the electricity used for this period. The tariff rates are analysed and calculated to determine the best cost effective tariff. A CMOS micro computer intergrated circuit was chosen due to the determined specification of the load recorder. In order to make the development of the load recorder possible an aid (tool) had to be designed and built for the chosen microprocessor. This development aid, the emulator, is included as part of this thesis. The Motorola exorciser only supported a cross assembler for the chosen microprocessor family. The emulator was designed and built to enable testing and debugging on the Exorciser. The development on the emulator involved a detailed analysis of the Exorciser development system. The emulator was designed using hardware and software. The hardware emulator board was designed as a standard Motorola size card which plugs into the Exorciser. The software was designed for the 6809 exorciser and for the 6805 emulator. The emulator was soak tested and debugged during the development of the load recorder. The emulator opened further avenues for future microcomputer design projects especially where a confined area and compactness is an important factor. The design and development of the emulator and the load recorder was conducted in the Computer Section of the City Electrical Engineer's Department of Cape Town.
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Rönnberg, Sarah. "Emission and interaction from domestic installations in the low voltage electricity network, up to 150 kHz." Doctoral thesis, Luleå tekniska universitet, Energivetenskap, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-17227.
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This thesis work has focused on conducted emission (up to 150 kHz) from common lowvoltage appliances. The emphasis has been on equipment that contributes to a sustainable energy system: photovoltaic (PV) installations and energy-saving lamps (LED lamps). The frequency components present in the grid in addition to the fundamental 50 Hz component can be divided into harmonics (up to 2 kHz in a 50 Hz system) and supraharmonics (2 kHz to 150 kHz). These frequency components are partly the effect of normal operation of equipment due to power-electronic converters and the switching technique used. Power line communication, PLC, is an important source of frequency components in the range 9 to 95 kHz. Even though from an equipment viewpoint there is no difference between a signal used for communication and a signal that is a residue from a switching circuit, PLC is a useful signal for operation of the grid and for communication with electricity meters. The amplitude of the communication signal is in in almost all cases higher than the emission from any other equipment connected to the grid.Understanding the different types of interaction between PLC and end-user equipment has been a major part of this work. Five types of interaction have been identified; some negative for PLC, some negative for end-user equipment. An important conclusion from this part of the work is that loss of communication with PLC, as is often reported with remote reading of electricity meters, is not due to emission by end-user equipment but due to the EMC filter of the end-user equipment providing a low-impedance path. The understandings acquired from the work with PLC have been applied to other types of emission as well. Supraharmonics from individual devices, above about 10 kHz, flow mainly to neighboring devices, not into the grid. This behavior was found by laboratory experiments and confirmed by other studies as well. A circuit-theory model has been developed that explains this behavior. The EMC filters are shown to be the main cause of this behavior. Other configurations of those filters may result in a larger flow of emission towards the grid.One type of appliance that has been introduced recently is the LED lamp. LED lamps come in different designs with different emission spectra. A possible distinction is between lamps with high levels of low-order harmonics (up to a few 100 Hz) and those with high levels of supraharmonics. Restricting the emission in the lower frequency range, through standardization, could result in higher distortion levels at higher frequencies. Replacement of incandescent lamps by CLF and LED lamps is not expected to result in a noticeable increase in harmonic voltage and current levels in the grid. This has been shown through several laboratory experiments and field experiments.Emission from PV inverters is low at low-order harmonics, this have been shown by a number of measurements both on single phase connected installations, so called rooftop installations and larger, three phase connected installations (20 kW). In addition to emission in the low frequency range, PV inverters emit at their switching frequency, e.g. around 16 kHz. The emission at this frequency is shown to vary by a factor of 5 or more, depending on the presence of neighboring equipment. This was shown by measurements and has been explained by a circuit-theory model. This thesis work has resulted in further understanding on the emission from PV panels and energy-saving lamps and on the propagation of conducted emission from common household appliances. This work is an important contribution to the research on distortion of voltage and current in the frequency range 2 to 150 kHz.Godkänd; 2013; 20131021 (ronsar); Tillkännagivande disputation 2013-11-25 Nedanstående person kommer att disputera för avläggande av teknologie doktorsexamen. Namn: Sarah Rönnberg Ämne: Elkraftteknik/Electric Power Engineering Avhandling: Emission and Interaction from Domestic Installations in the Low Voltage Electricity Network, up to 150 kHz Opponent: Professor Enrique Acha, Dept of Electrical Engineering, Tampere University of Technology, Finland Ordförande: Professor Math Bollen, Institutionen för teknikvetenskap och matematik, Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Onsdag den 18 december 2013, kl 10.00 Plats: Hörsal A, Campus Skellefteå, Luleå tekniska universitet
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White, Sara Louise Batley. "The impact of domestic electricity supply competition on the application of renewable energy technologies in the UK." Thesis, De Montfort University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/4098.
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Higginson, Sarah L. "The rhythm of life is a powerful beat : demand response opportunities for time-shifting domestic electricity practices." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2014. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/16018.
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The 2008 Climate Change Act set legally-binding carbon reduction targets. Demand side management (DSM) includes energy use reduction and peak shaving and offers significant potential to reduce the amount of carbon used by the electricity grid. The demand side management (DSM) schemes that have tried to meet this challenge have been dominated by engineering-based approaches and so favour tools like automation (which aims to make shifting invisible) and pricing (which requires customer response) to shift demand. These approaches tend to focus on the tools for change and take little account of people and energy-use practices. This thesis argues that these approaches are limited and therefore unlikely to produce the level of response that will be needed in future. The thesis therefore investigates the potential for time-shifting domestic energy demand but takes a different angle by trying to understand how people use energy in their daily lives, whether this use can be shifted and some of the implications of shifting it. The centrepiece of the work is an empirical study of eleven households energy-use practices. The interdisciplinary methodology involved in-house observations, interviews, photographs, metered energy data and disruptive interventions. The data was collected in two phases. Initially, a twenty-four hour observation was carried out in each household to find out how energy was implicated in everyday practices. Next, a series of three challenges were carried out, aimed at assessing the implications of disrupting practices by time-shifting food preparation, laundry and work/ leisure. A practice theory approach is used to shift the focus of attention from appliances, tools for change, behaviour or even people, to practices. The central finding of this work is that practices were flexible. This finding is nuanced, in the light of the empirical research, by an extended discussion on the nature of practices; in particular, the relationship between practices and agency and the temporal-spatial locatedness of practices. The findings demonstrate that, in this study at least, expanding the range of demand response options was possible. The research suggests numerous possibilities for extending the potential of practices to shift in time and space, shift the energy used in practices or substitute practices for other non-energy-using practices, though there are no simple technological or behavioural fixes . More profoundly, however, the thesis concludes that infrastructures of provision , such as the electricity grid and the companies that run it, underpin and facilitate energy-use practices irrespective of the time of day and year. In this context technology-led demand response schemes may ultimately contribute to the problem they purport to solve. A more fundamental interrogation of demand and the infrastructures that serve it is therefore necessary and is almost entirely absent from the demand response debate.
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Gyamfi, Samuel. "Demand Response Assessment and Modelling of Peak Electricity Demand in the Residential Sector: Information and Communcation Requirements." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Mechanical Engineering Department, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/5063.
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Peak demand is an issue in power supply system when demand exceeds the available capacity. Continuous growth in peak demand increases the risk of power failures, and increases the marginal cost of supply. The contribution of the residential sector to the system peak is quite substantial and has been a subject of discussion internationally. For example, a study done in New Zealand in 2007 attributed about half of system peak load to the residential sector. International research has attributed a significant influence of human behaviour on households energy use. “Demand Response” is a demand side management tool aimed at achieving peak energy demand reduction by eliciting behaviour change. It encompasses energy needs analysis, information provision to customers, behaviour induction, smart metering, and new signalling and feedback concepts. Demand response is far advanced in the industrial and commercial demand sectors. In the residential sector, information barriers and a lack of proper understanding of consumers’ behaviour have impeded the development of effective response strategies and new enabling technologies in the sector. To date, efforts to understanding residential sector behaviour for the purpose of peak demand analysis has been based on pricing mechanism. However, not much is known about the significance of other factors in influencing household customers’ peak electricity demand behaviour. There is a tremendous amount of data that can be analyzed and fed back to the user to influence behaviour. These may include information about energy shortages, supply security and environmental concerns during the peak hours.
This research is intended to begin the process of understanding the importance of some of these factors in the arena of peak energy consumption behaviour.
Using stated preference survey and focus group discussions, information about household customers’ energy use activities during winter morning and evening peak hours was collected. Data about how customers would modify their usage behaviour when they receive enhanced supply constraint information was also collected. The thesis further explores households’ customer demand response motivation with respect to three factors: cost (price), environment (CO2-intensity) and security (risk of black-outs). Householders were first informed about the relationship between these factors and peak demand. Their responses were analyzed as multi-mode motivation to energy use behaviour change.
Overall, the findings suggest that, household customers would be willing to reduce their peak electricity demand when they are given clear and enhanced information. In terms of motivation to reduce demand the results show customers response to the security factor to be on par with the price factor. The Environmental factor also produced a strong response; nearly two-thirds of that of price or security.
A generic modelling methodology was developed to estimate the impact of households’ activity demand response on the load curve of the utility using a combination of published literature reviews and resources, and own research work. This modelling methodology was applied in a case study in Halswell, a small neighbourhood in Christchurch, New Zealand, with approximately 400 households. The results show that a program to develop the necessary technology and provide credible information and understandable signals about risks and consequences of peak demand could provide up to about 13% voluntary demand reduction during the morning peak hours and 8% during the evening peak hours.
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Frazer, Patricia. "Using behavioural analysis to reduce domestic fuel consumption in Northern Ireland : feedback and goal-setting interventions to conserve electricity." Thesis, University of Ulster, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.551656.
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Feedback and goal-setting interventions were used in two separate studies to reduce residential electricity use in households in Northern Ireland. In Study 1 feedback was provided via a pre-payment keypad electricity meter, and the goal commitment was to reduce electricity use by 20%. Electricity use during a one-month intervention was compared to that during the same period in the previous year. The ten households who received feedback reduced their use by a mean 17.13% (p< .0 I, r = 0.69), and the nine households who signed a goal-setting commitment reduced their use by a mean 7.12% (p < .05, r = .067). Study 2 used wireless energy monitors to provide feedback, in combination with a 20% goal-setting commitment for all participants, but also used alternating orders of presentation of intervention and baseline to explore the longer-term effect of feedback on conservation performance. Group 1 received five months of feedback followed by five months of baseline, Group 2 underwent five months of baseline followed by five months of intervention, and Group 3 experienced alternating two-month periods of intervention and baseline over ten months, using a reversal design. Group 1 saved a mean 9.54% of electricity during the intervention, but Group 2 increased their use by a mean 14.24%. Group 2's increase in electricity use is explained in terms of a potential 'compensation effect', whereby lower level users increase use when given feedback. Group 3 showed a pattern of cumulative reductions over successive interventions, with a mean reduction in electricity use of 33% from the first to the third intervention period. Participants in Group 3 did not show a return to baseline levels of electricity use when the intervention was removed; this was interpreted as supportive of conceptions of feedback as a learning tool, with potential to provide long lasting conservation effects.
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Forrest, David Simon. "An assessment of the impact of high levels of domestic Combined Heat and Power on the UK electricity industry." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/12029.
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The thesis of this study was that high levels of small scale embedded generation (SSEG), specifically dCHP, can contribute positively to the UK’s liberalised electricity industry whilst delivering benefits to all stakeholders including the consumer, the supplier, the Distribution Network Operator (DNO) and the UK Government’s 2010 energy targets. The research reports the benefits and detriments of dCHP and examines the technical, economic, environmental and regulatory challenges that dCHP faces. Software simulation techniques are used to model network interaction for increasing amounts of connected dCHP over a range of conditions and operational criteria. The existing Distribution Network (DN) was not designed to accommodate large deployments of SSEG. Levels of dCHP that the existing DN can accommodate are derived and possible strategies to overcome these barriers are then proposed to optimise dCHP integration. Economic modelling is used to assess the financial argument for dCHP and the impact on the main stakeholders. The sensitivity of the economic case is examined for changes in market conditions. dCHP is then compared economically to other domestic energy efficiency measures. Regulatory obstacles are examined and possible strategies to overcome these barriers are proposed. The environmental credentials of dCHP are scrutinised and contrasted with alternative energy efficiency measures. Ultimately, it was found that dCHP is unlikely to contribute significantly to the UK Government’s 2010 targets. Despite having many inherent attributes that would contribute positively to the UK electricity industry, dCHP still has to overcome significant political, regulatory and economic barriers before its full potential can be realised.
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Jones, Rory V. "An investigation of the socio-economic, technical and appliance related factors affecting high electrical energy demand in UK homes." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2013. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/14477.
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The amount of electricity used in individual UK homes varies considerably. Previous UK energy research has identified that high electricity consuming homes not only use more electricity, compared with others, but appear to be consuming even more electricity over time. Furthermore, there is additional evidence which shows that high consuming dwellings also have a greater potential to make energy savings than those who consume less. It has been suggested that future UK energy policy might focus on reducing the demand of high electricity consumers in order to reduce overall CO2 emissions. Therefore, understanding what drives high usage in domestic buildings is essential to support informed decisions. This thesis asserts that to improve knowledge and understanding of the factors affecting high electrical energy consumption in UK domestic buildings, it is necessary to combine an analysis of the occupants socio-economic characteristics, dwelling technical characteristics and appliance related aspects, with detailed monitoring of the ownership, power demand and occupants use of electrical appliances. Using a sample of 315 UK homes, the influence of socio-economic, technical and appliance related characteristics on the probability of a household being a high electrical energy consumer was investigated (Odds ratio analysis). Detailed appliance monitoring data was collected from 27 UK homes to establish the contributions of appliance ownership, power demand and use to high electrical energy demand (Appliance Electricity Use Survey). The current research found similar skewed electricity distributions towards high electricity consumers for both the 315 and 27 home cohorts. Conflicting results were however obtained from the two household samples with regard to whether high electricity consumers are increasing electrical energy demand over time. The results of the odds ratio analysis and Appliance Electricity Use Survey suggest that high electricity consumption in domestic buildings is related to a combination of the socio-economic characteristics of the building occupants, technical characteristics of the dwelling and the ownership, power demand and use of electrical appliances.
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Ferreira, Vasco Guedes. "The analysis of primary metered half-hourly electricity and gas consumption in municipal buildings." Thesis, De Montfort University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/3268.
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This thesis addressed the need for improved analysis and interpretation of primary meter half-hourly energy consumption data. The current work offers a novel benchmarking technique that was tested for 6 types of municipal buildings. This approach is different from conventional annual benchmarking mainly because it uses electricity and gas data in half-hourly periods, together with outside temperature data. A survey to European local authorities’ metering and monitoring practices was conducted in order to assess municipal energy managers' current procedures and needs in terms of data analysis to assess building energy performance and to identify potential energy saving opportunities. The benchmarking approach was developed considering the energy managers’ needs, but also the state-of the art in terms of building energy monitoring techniques, particularly building energy signatures, and the analysis techniques used on electricity grid demand forecasting. The benchmarking approach is based on the use of a metric composed of several indicators that are related to the load demand shape profile and the building energy signature. The comparison of indicators for buildings of the same type using standard scores identifies uncommon load demand profile characteristics and/or gas dependency on outside temperature in specific buildings. The metric is able to support the identification of potential energy wastage, which is linked to the detection of opportunities to save energy. The benchmarking technique was tested in 81 municipal building owned by Leicester City Council. This methodology can be applied to any non-domestic building equipped with primary meters for registering half-hourly electricity and gas consumption. In theory, this approach can also be applied to residential buildings, and to other short time series data types, for example quarter-hourly or 10 minutes interval data. The main contribution of this thesis is to improve the objectivity of building primary meter half-hourly electricity and gas consumption data analysis and interpretation by using quantitative parameters, instead of subjective visualisation techniques. The interpretation of building consumption data in short time series periods can now be streamlined, automated and perhaps incorporated in existing energy analysis software. This thesis raises questions that can lead to future research projects aiming to improve the metric and also to enlarge the scope of its application to national and European scale, to other building types and to other utilities.
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Steward, Thomas William. "Governance for affordable energy : what is the impact of demand-side governance on affordability of energy for domestic consumers in Great Britain?" Thesis, University of Exeter, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/29915.
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Affordability of energy in the domestic sector is the product of three interrelated factors - level of household income, level of energy bills (which are a product of prices and levels of energy demand, mediated by tariffs and the retail market), and the amount of energy that a household needs to maintain a healthy living environment. This thesis focusses on the factors of affordability which are most relevant to the energy policy which are energy bills and energy efficiency, both of which are considered in the context of household income. Affordability of energy in Great Britain is important for separate, but over-lapping reasons. Firstly, it has important political impacts - as energy prices continue to rise, energy is repeatedly highlighted as one of the biggest financial concerns for households (uSwitch, 2013; YouGov, 2015; DECC, 2014f), leading affordability of energy to become an increasingly political issue (Lockwood, 2016). Secondly, affordability of energy has social implications which stem from the fact that the impact of rising energy bills is felt particularly strongly by those on low incomes and in inefficient homes – the fuel poor. In spite of it being twenty-five years since Brenda Boardman published her first book defining the issue of fuel poverty (Boardman, 1991), millions of households in Great Britain today still cannot afford adequate amounts of energy. This is significant because being able to afford access to basic levels of energy services such as warmth and light is essential for maintaining physical and mental health (Harrington et al., 2005; Stockton and Campbell, 2011). Thirdly, affordability has important implications for design of the energy system –a system focussed on minimising long-term costs, both through micro-scale features such as efficient network revenue regulation which keep costs down on a year-by-year basis, and macro-scale aspects such as through the development of a low-demand, highly flexible energy system which has the potential to bring costs down in the long term (Sanders et al., 2016), is likely to differ from one which in which affordability is less of a focus, or only a focus over the short term. This thesis responds to a gap in the literature in relation to the role that governance plays in affecting levels of affordability of energy for domestic consumers in Great Britain. It examines the impact of governance on energy prices and tariffs, and the impact of governance on energy efficiency of the housing stock in Great Britain. Both of these are examined in the context of levels of household income. Greater insight is gained by examining the impact of the energy governance structure in Denmark on Danish domestic energy efficiency standards, which are widely accepted to be very good (IEA, 2011). 7 This thesis makes use of existing academic and policy literature in tandem with data from fifty-six interviews with individuals from across the energy sectors in Great Britain and Denmark. The governance structure of energy in Great Britain is shown to be, on balance, not supportive of delivering affordable energy to domestic consumers. A number of specific issues within the current governance structure in Great Britain are identified. These include the presence of a limiting narrative, whereby policymakers consider affordability to be achieved principally through delivery of low prices; insufficient institutional capacity within OFGEM to keep network prices low, and monitor suppliers’ costs and profits; lack of wholesale market transparency; an anti-interventionist ideology leading to weak energy efficiency requirements for new-build and private rental properties; suppliers as poor executors of energy efficiency policy; weak demand-side interests; tariffs designed around the needs of suppliers, not consumers; an over-reliance on an uncompetitive retail market; a lack of institutional capacity amongst policy makers regarding energy efficiency, and network regulation; and weak consumer representation. A number of recommendations are put forward, including the fostering of a new narrative centred on energy efficiency; the redesign of tariffs to better protect the interests of consumers; the reallocation of responsibility for energy efficiency to local authorities; the development of greater institutional capacity among policymakers; the support for a more interventionist ideology supporting use of regulation; financial support for energy efficiency retrofit; the fostering of greater policy stability; development of new tariff structures; and the formation of a new consumer representative. Overall this thesis demonstrates that affordability of energy in unlikely to be delivered to domestic consumers in Great Britain unless significant changes are made to the governance structure of the energy sector.
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Raimo, Patrícia Abdala. "Aquecimento de água no setor residencial." Universidade de São Paulo, 2007. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/86/86131/tde-02052008-201058/.
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O setor residencial reflete a cultura do uso excessivo da eletricidade para aquecimento de água. Para este uso final, a inclusão de gás e complementação com energia termo-solar pode apresentar vantagem por se tratar de energia final mais compatível com os processos de transformação em energia útil na forma de calor. A inclusão destas fontes pode propiciar uma diminuição de sobrecarga no sistema elétrico e da eletrotermia no setor residencial. Este trabalho faz uma avaliação econômica dos sistemas de aquecimento de água elétrico, a gás e solar. Os sistemas são analisados considerando custos de infra-estrutura, com diferentes disponibilidades de uso, custos de equipamentos e de operação para vários níveis de consumo. A avaliação é aplicada a 3 tipologias de edificações verticais representativas no mercado da construção civil da Região Metropolitana de São Paulo. Os custos de serviço de aquecimento de água quente estão apresentados em função do volume de água consumido.The residential sector reflects the culture of the indiscriminate use of electricity water heating. Inclusion of gas and thermosolar energy to the electrical supply system may present advantages as they are more compatible to consumer\"s heat transformation processes. In addition these new sources of energy may decrease the electrical and electrothermal system overload in the residential sector. This study is an economic evaluation of the electric, gas and solar water heating systems. The heating systems are analyzed taking in consideration infrastructure costs, and equipment and operation costs for different levels of consumption. The evaluation is applied to three typologies of vertical residential edifications that represent the civil construction market of the São Paulo metropolitan area. The costs of water heating service are presented in function of the consumed volume of water.
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Sanoussi, Hamadou. "Énergie et économie : analyse de la relation consommation d'électricité et production de richesse dans une perspective d'intelligence économique." Thesis, Lyon 3, 2014. http://www.theses.fr/2014LYO30004.
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L’objet de la thèse consiste à analyser la relation entre la consommation d’électricité et le produit intérieur brut dans une démarche d’intelligence économique. Plus précisément il s’agit d’analyser l’évolution de l’intensité électrique de l’activité économique sur la période de 2003 à 2012 dans les pays développés du G7 et estimer leurs demandes électriques entre 2013 et 2022.Une première partie cherche à explorer les aspects théoriques et pratiques de l’intelligence économique afin de la comprendre et l’appliquer. Une deuxième partie est consacrée à l’analyse empirique. Nous sommes parvenus aux résultats suivants :Premièrement, les courbes d’intensité électrique de deux pays : le Canada et le Etats – Unis dominent celles des autres pays développés, ainsi, les économies de ces deux pays de l’Amérique du nord sont plus énergivores que celles du Japon et des pays de l’Union européenne. Ensuite, l’évolution temporelle de la consommation d’électricité par unité de PIB sur dix années (2003 – 2012) a globalement diminué dans cinq pays: le Canada (-12%) ; le Royaume – Uni (-5, 3%) ; les Etats – Unis (-5%) ; la France (- 4%) ; l’Allemagne (-3%). Par contre, elle s’est détériorée au Japon (+5%) et en Italie (+6%). L’effet de « structure » est négatif dans tout l’échantillon, il traduit donc t une tertiarisation généralisée. Par contre l’effet « d’efficacité électrique » est contrasté. Il est négatif au Canada et aux Etats – Unis et positif dans le reste du groupe.Deuxièmement, les estimations indiquent une croissance généralisée de la demande électrique de 2013 - 2022 dans l’ensemble des pays du G7. Par ailleurs, les coefficients élasticité électricité /PIB sont inférieurs à l’unité dans tous les pays, excepté l’Italie. Cela signifie que la demande d’électricité moyen annuel de ces pays devrait croître moins vite que leurs PIB. Enfin, les principales perspectives de recherche qui apparaissent à l'issue de cette thèse concernent la transposition de notre modèle d’analyse (l’intelligence énergétique) aux autres formes d’énergie à savoir : le pétrole, le gaz, le charbon et les renouvelables .Finalement, ce modèle peut servir d’instrument de politique économique, énergétique et environnementale aux acteurs économiques et politiques (Etats, entreprises, ONG, OIG.)The subject of this thesis consists of an analysis of the relationship between electricity consumption and Gross Domestic Product from the perspective of Competitive Intelligence. More specifically, it analyzes the evolution of the electrical intensity of economic activity from 2003 to 2012 in the developed countries of the G7, and then estimates their electricity needs from 2013 to 2022. Part one attempt to explore theoretical and practical aspects of Competitive Intelligence to understand and apply them, while part two is devoted to the empirical analysis itself.Concerning the latter, our results are as follows:First, the electrical intensity curves of two countries—Canada and the United States—dominate those of other developed countries; thus, the economies of these two North American countries are more energy-hungry than those of Japan and the countries of the European Union. The overall temporal evolution of electricity consumption per GDP unit over a ten-year period (2003-1012) has gone down in five countries: Canada (-12%), the United Kingdom (-5.3%), the United States (-5%), France (-4%), and Germany (-3%). On the other hand, this evolution has gone the other direction in Japan (+5%) and Italy (+6%). The effect of “structure” is negative across all analyzed data, suggesting general “tertiarisation”. However, the effect of “electricity efficiency” is mixed: it is negative in the United States and Canada, but positive for the rest of group.Second, estimations indicate an overall growth in electricity demand across all G7 countries from 2013 to 2022. Additionally, electrical elasticity coefficients/GDP units are down in all countries except Italy. This tells us that the average annual demand for electricity in these countries should increase at a slower rate than their respective GDPs.Lastly, the primary research perspectives that appear at the beginning of this thesis concern the transposition of our model of analysis (energetic intelligence) onto other forms of energy such as oil, natural gas, coal, and renewable energy sources. In the end, this model could be useful to economic and political authorities (governments, private companies, NGOs, IGOs, etc.) as an instrument of economic, energy, and environmental policy
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Russo, Patrícia Isabel Tavares. "Domestic consumer's perceptions on the regulated electricity market : EDP case." Master's thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/18416.
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With the liberalization of the electricity market some questions arise about the future of
the regulated supplier and regarding the current inertia of the consumers still in this
market.
In this consulting project, the goal set by our client was to try to understand the reasons
to this inertia and try to understand what the consumers and the rest of the market
players felt as the future of the regulated supplier, making recommendations to the
regulator of the Portuguese electricity market. This analysis is not only restricted to the
consumers on the regulated market or in the liberalized market, nor it is restricted to the
consumers of EDP. This project tries to identify the reasons that lead consumers do
change or not change market, as well as possible outcomes for the regulated supplier.
This project is the result of a semester-long research about these topics as well as the
reporting of the presentations and debates with the company – EDP Serviço Universal.
In this document, I will describe all the stages of managing this consulting project, as
well as the different hypothesis, planning, scheduling, scope management as well as the
final presentation to the client.
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Ihbal, Abdel-Baset M. I., Haile S. Rajamani, Raed A. Abd-Alhameed, and Mohamed K. Jalboub. "The influence of different tariffs schemes on electricity consumption for the UK domestic buildings." 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/5459.
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yesElectricity Suppliers in competitive electricity markets commonly respond to prices changes which are fluctuating over time, but most consumers respond to the price changes as reflected on their electricity bills. Almost all consumers pay fixed tariffs for their consumption without distinctions based on usage time, so these consumers have had no incentives to reduce their use during the peak times. This paper aims to analyze the influence of different tariff schemes on consumer behaviours in UK domestic buildings. A realistic half hourly electricity load profile for different types of UK households that based mainly on public reports and statistics has been generated. This load profile data were used to help calculate the expected change in consumers' bills under standard tariffs offered from different suppliers to what the cost of electricity would be under time varying tariff (economy7 tariff) and to estimate of how much consumers would shift their load in response to price changes without changing total consumption, for which the results are presented and discussed
MSCRC
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Ihbal, Abdel-Baset M. I., Haile S. Rajamani, Raed A. Abd-Alhameed, and Mohamed K. Jalboub. "Statistical Predictions of Electric Load Profiles in the UK Domestic Buildings." 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/4800.
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yesThis paper presents a method of generating realistic electricity load profile data for the UK domestic buildings. The domestic space heating and domestic hot water have been excluded in this study. The information and results of previous investigations and works that is available in public reports and statistics have been used as input data when modeling of domestic energy consumption. A questionnaire survey was conducted to find out what occupants do in different times of the day in order to get probabilistic estimates of usage of electrical household. The daily energy demand load profile of each appliance can be predicted using this method. A measured data set is also applied for comparison, and verification. Our analysis shows that the generated load profiles have a good agreement with real data. The daily load profile from individual dwelling to community can be predicted using this method.
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Bukula, Thembani. "A pilot study on the influence of educational interventions on domestic electricity consumers." Diss., 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/13825.
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This pilot study consists of two parts. The first part investigates the extent to which the domestic electricity consumers intend to use and use energy efficiently using the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The second part investigates the extent to which the Energy @ Home educational intervention changed the domestic electricity consumers’ behaviour. For the first part of the study an advertisement was published and a convenience stratified sample of 61 domestic electricity consumers were selected from the 290 respondents. Data was collected from the domestic electricity consumers via a questionnaire and a telephone response log. The co-relational research design was used to investigate the relationship between the predictor variables the independent variables in the constructs of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Simple linear regression analysis resulted in F statistic for the predicted behavioural intention was 29.74 with a p value less than 0.0001 which indicates significant statistical evidence of a linear relation between the predictor variables and the independent variables. The r2 of 0.87 implies that data points that fall closely along the best fit line. Therefore the predictor variables were good predictors of the response variable. All the participants that intended to use electricity efficiently confirmed via the telephone that they were using electricity efficiently. In the second part of the study 11 out of the 61 participants were chosen to participate in the Energy @ Home educational intervention and television program. Data was collected via the Energy audit log and the electricity consumption log. The participants intended to save between 2% and 35% of their electricity consumption and the actual electricity consumption savings were between 2% and 30%.Science and Technology Education
M. Sc. (Mathematics, Physics & Technology Education (Physics Education))
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Ihbal, Abdel-Baset M. I., Haile S. Rajamani, Raed A. Abd-Alhameed, and Mohamed K. Jalboub. "Identifying the nature of domestic load profile from a single household electricity consumption measurements." 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/5458.
Full textAbstract:
yesDetailed electricity load profile for domestic building is an important requirement for the accurate analysis of demand side management. The use of electrical appliances within domestic buildings varies significantly with respect to time, mainly in accordance with the activity and behaviour of the occupants. This paper presents results from a monitoring study of electrical energy consumption profiles for One UK household (two adults with children). Measurements for whole household electricity consumption have been obtained over a period of ten months. They were all obtained at one minute interval. Monthly energy consumptions, daily and overall profiles were derived for this household type from the monitored data. It is intended that the results presented in this paper can be used in the quest for a precise forecast method for electricity consumption for occupants living in the same type of household in the UK. This will allow greater confidence in the sizing of, e.g., adopting renewable energy sources in this type of household. Further investigation is needed for a large sample of households to improve the understanding of monitoring high resolution domestic energy consumption.
MSCRC
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Crompton, David William. "An investigation into alternative domestic water, sewer and electricity supply systems in the eThekwini municipal area." Thesis, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/4329.
Full textAbstract:
Millions of Black South Africans still lack access to adequate housing, mainly as a result of apartheid era development policies. The delivery of low income, state subsidised, housing includes the provision of water, sewer drainage and electricity supply services. These services are provided via individual connections to the bulk infrastructure, or grid, supply network. Whilst this delivery mechanism meets community aspirations, it masks the environmental impact of this access to natural resources. This research investigates the low income housing delivery mechanism in South Africa, both past and present, and considers the associated infrastructural service delivery in the context of what is understood as sustainable development. In order to identify a more environmentally sustainable format of service delivery, the notion of autonomous housing is investigated. This investigative research establishes the body of knowledge in respect of rainwater harvesting and renewable energy sources capable of being harvested at a domestic level and uses this knowledge to inductively derive theoretical models for the provision of water and electricity supply as well as sewer drainage to low income housing in the Ethekwini Municipal area. The objective of the research is therefore to propose a more autonomous, or self reliant, system of service delivery that constitutes sustainable development.Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu- Natal, Durban, 2004.
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Intamba, Sheila. "Causality effect between electricity consumption and gross domestic product in SA and the effectiveness of the predictive techniques." Thesis, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10539/23504.
Full textAbstract:
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the
Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree
of Master of Science
May 23, 2017The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship and direction between electricity consumption and gross domestic product including energy infrastructure as a third variable in South Africa using the time series data from 1993 to 2015. The relationship was modelled in South Africa focusing on the industry sectors that influence economic growth and using techniques such as ARIMA model, Multivariate Regression Analysis, Vector Autoregressive and Granger Causal Test. The Vector Autoregressive model performed better than Multivariate Regression analysis in modelling the relationship between consumption and economic growth in South Africa. The Granger causal effect illustrated a direction from consumption to economic growth and again Granger cause effect from infrastructure to economic growth. The results from these models revealed that there was a relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth, as well as electricity infrastructure. South Africa supports a growth hypothesis meaning that South Africa is energy dependent. The results of the study signals that the electricity consumption of South Africa have an effect on the economic growth.
MT 2017
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Sá, António Pedro Amorim de. "An agent-based simulator to estimate domestic energy use." Master's thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10362/15799.
Full textAbstract:
Throughout recent years, there has been an increase in the population size, as well as
a fast economic growth, which has led to an increase of the energy demand that comes
mainly from fossil fuels. In order to reduce the ecological footprint, governments have
implemented sustainable measures and it is expected that by 2035 the energy produced
from renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar would be responsible for one-third
of the energy produced globally. However, since the energy produced from renewable
sources is governed by the availability of the respective primary energy source there is
often a mismatch between production and demand, which could be solved by adding
flexibility on the demand side through demand response (DR). DR programs influence
the end-user electricity usage by changing its cost along the time. Under this scenario the
user needs to estimate the energy demand and on-site production in advance to plan its
energy demand according to the energy price. This work focuses on the development of
an agent-based electrical simulator, capable of:
(a) estimating the energy demand and on-site generation with a 1-min time resolution for
a 24-h period,
(b) calculating the energy price for a given scenario,
(c) making suggestions on how to maximize the usage of renewable energy produced
on-site and to lower the electricity costs by rescheduling the use of certain appliances.
The results show that this simulator allows reducing the energy bill by 11% and almost
doubling the use of renewable energy produced on-site.
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Neofitov, Alexander. "Selective adjustment to EU regulatory provisions in new member states : the case of electricity market liberalization in Bulgaria and Czech Republic." Master's thesis, 2013. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-321951.
Full textAbstract:
The present work aspires to provide a comprehensive analysis of the policy developments through which European-level prescriptions regarding the liberalization of national electricity markets have been accommodated within the domestic policy contexts of two new member states of the European Union: Bulgaria and Czech Republic. Despite being subjected to uniform demands, adaptation to community regulatory provisions in the two countries has prompted divergent patterns of policy change, resulting in full compliance in the Czech Republic and a failure to meet EU objectives in Bulgaria. In order to address the observed inconsistency the envisaged research identifies a causal link between the outcomes of regulatory compliance and the influence of utility regulation as a sector-specific EU governance pattern on the dynamics of resource re-distribution at the domestic level. A major concern of the research is how contextual factors, such as incumbent power balances across actor populations in the target policy area condition the impacts of EU inputs on domestic policy decisions. In this respect the work hypothesizes that due to transition "sediments" in the new EU member states external rules may be selectively applied in order to match the existing realities and lead to outcomes that diverge from the...
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Sherk, Theodore. "Residential Solar Energy Adoption in a Community Context: Perceptions and Characteristics of Potential Adopters in a West Toronto Neighbourhood." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10012/6528.
Full textAbstract:
In the summer of 2007, a single neighbourhood in downtown Toronto contributed at
least 13 percent of all residential grid???tie solar photovoltaic (PV) systems sold in the
Canadian province of Ontario. On average, PV purchaser households produced 37
percent as much electricity as they consumed.
This research investigates solar energy adoption in a community case study. Specifically,
it investigates why some residents who sign up for a solar resource assessment through
a community solar energy initiative (CSEI) decide to purchase, and others decide not to
purchase in the short???term. Characteristics and perceptions of potential adopters are
analyzed to better understand their motivations and barriers to adoption.
Community energy projects became an official public policy goal in Ontario, with the
passing of the Green Energy and Green Economy Act in 2009. Approximately 80 percent
of Ontario???s anticipated generation capacity will need to be built, replaced or
refurbished within 15 years. In this context, the Ontario Ministry of Energy, Ontario
Power Authority, and Deloitte (one of Canada???s leading professional services firms),
have partnered with a ???green benefit??? fund, the Community Power Fund, to help local
community groups access resources to develop and establish renewable energy
projects. Understanding solar energy adoption in a community context is therefore
important to improve the effectiveness of such policies, including the disbursement of
multi???million dollar grant funds.
Differences between purchasers and non???purchasers in respect of adoption behaviour
were found in this study to cluster around two general themes. The first theme
concerns differences in compatibility of both the concept of solar energy systems, and
their physical attributes, with characteristics of potential adopter households. Some
compatibility issues are straightforward, e.g. availability of roof space with a southern
orientation. Others are more complex, involving several interrelated perceptual and
socio???demographic factors. For instance, while both purchasers and non???purchasers
rated cost as a very important barrier, purchasers rated the motivation of solar energy
systems to reduce climate change higher relative to the barrier of high financial costs
than did non???purchasers. Purchasers were also more likely to possess a graduate
degree, while non???purchasers were more likely to hold a professional degree.
The second general theme relates to potential adopters??? trust and stake in the ability of
the community???based initiative to reduce barriers in the adoption process. Since two
types of solar energy systems are considered in the case study???PV and thermal (hot
water)???differences are explored between each of three respondent groups: solar PV
purchasers, solar hot water (SHW) purchasers, and non???purchasers.
iv
Surveys were used to gather data on adopter perceptions and characteristics. A
participatory research design helped identify the research topic. Two main bodies of
literature???community???based social marketing (CBSM) and diffusion of innovations
theory???were drawn upon to conceptualize the adoption process and interpret the
survey findings. These include five models of human behaviour that can be used to
guide the design of CBSM campaigns. Diffusion theory was used as a basis for discussing
???perceived innovation attributes???. The study takes an integrated approach by
considering both social and technical aspects of solar energy adoption, together with
the issues of fuel substitution and household electricity demand.