scholarly journals Narratives

2021 ◽  
pp. 53-71
Author(s):  
Heather Lovell
Keyword(s):  
Smart Grid ◽  
Smart Grids ◽  
The State ◽  
Willingness To Participate ◽  
Hydrogen Economy ◽  
Energy Futures ◽  
Global Industry ◽  
Policy Failure

AbstractStories pervade society and play a role in helping us to simplify and make sense of new innovations such as smart grids. Narratives are useful to study not only because of the things, people and organisations that they speak to but also because of the things that are not said—the silences. There are many narratives about smart grids and in this chapter I explore three examples: a global industry narrative about households and their willingness to participate in smart grids; a narrative of policy failure about a smart grid project in the State of Victoria, Australia; and narratives that compete with smart grids, including the hydrogen economy and off-grid energy futures.

scholarly journals Imagining the smart city through smart grids? Urban energy futures between technological experimentation and the imagined low-carbon city

Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802110059
Author(s):  
Leslie Quitzow ◽  
Friederike Rohde
Keyword(s):  
Smart Grid ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Smart Grids ◽  
Urban Policy ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Energy Futures ◽  
Urban Energy ◽  
The City

Current imaginaries of urban smart grid technologies are painting attractive pictures of the kinds of energy futures that are desirable and attainable in cities. Making claims about the future city, the socio-technical imaginaries related to smart grid developments unfold the power to guide urban energy policymaking and implementation practices. This paper analyses how urban smart grid futures are being imagined and co-produced in the city of Berlin, Germany. It explores these imaginaries to show how the politics of Berlin’s urban energy transition are being driven by techno-optimistic visions of the city’s digital modernisation and its ambitions to become a ‘smart city’. The analysis is based on a discourse analysis of relevant urban policy and other documents, as well as interviews with key stakeholders from Berlin’s energy, ICT and urban development sectors, including key experts from three urban laboratories for smart grid development and implementation in the city. It identifies three dominant imaginaries that depict urban smart grid technologies as (a) environmental solution, (b) economic imperative and (c) exciting experimental challenge. The paper concludes that dominant imaginaries of smart grid technologies in the city are grounded in a techno-optimistic approach to urban development that are foreclosing more subtle alternatives or perhaps more radical change towards low-carbon energy systems.

scholarly journals Networks

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-36
Author(s):  
Heather Lovell
Keyword(s):  
Smart Grid ◽  
Smart Grids ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Policy Networks ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Community Network ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sociotechnical Networks

AbstractSocial scientists study many different types of networks, from policy networks to sociotechnical networks, in order to better understand processes of change. These diverse networks have a number of characteristics in common, including interconnectedness, flows, and fragility. Exploring these characteristics in relation to smart grids helps us to better understand the social nature of energy sector innovation. In this chapter, I use these themes and concepts to assess three examples: international smart grid policy networks; a local community network on Bruny Island, Australia; and a fragile network, the digital metering programme in the State of Victoria, Australia.

scholarly journals Nodes

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-52
Author(s):  
Heather Lovell
Keyword(s):  
Smart Grid ◽  
Smart Grids ◽  
Energy Sector ◽  
Energy Market ◽  
Anchor Points ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Stable Points

AbstractNodes within smart grids play an important role in providing stability—keeping things the same—as well as innovating. The theme of nodes is closely related to that of networks, as nodes are fixed, stable points on networks. But whereas the network metaphor encourages us to think about connections and flows, the concept of nodes focuses our attention on the key organisations, people, and technologies that provide stable anchor points and typically act as brokers at crucial intersections within the energy sector. In this chapter, I examine social and technical nodes using three examples: the digital electricity meter, with a focus on household transitions in the UK and Australia, an energy authority (the Australian Energy Market Operator), and islands, specifically looking at the smart grid on King Island, Australia.

Sistemas de Comunicaciones y Redes de Datos en Smart Grids, una Revisión al Estado del Arte

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Herrera ◽  
L. Herrera
Keyword(s):  
Smart Grid ◽  
Smart Grids ◽  
La Red

Las smart grids han sido concebidas como la combinación de la red eléctrica tradicional (generación, transmisión, distribución, y comercialización, incluyendo las energías alternativas) con las redes de comunicaciones electrónicas. Este concepto revoluciona la administración, supervisión, y mantenimiento de la red eléctrica, volviéndola inteligente ante sobrecargas, caídas, apagones, caídas de tensión disminuyendo los tiempos de respuesta ante estos problemas. En este trabajo se analizan las tecnologías de redes de datos y comunicaciones electrónicas implicadas en este nuevo concepto de gestión eficiente de la electricidad. En la primera sección se abordan conceptos introductorios para entender las diferencias entre las redes eléctricas tradicionales y las smart grids, luego se realiza un análisis de las arquitecturas y requerimientos de diseño de una smart grid, para en la siguiente sección elaborar una revisión de las tecnologías de comunicaciones actualmente usadas en smart grids, para finalmente analizar los retos de diseño, líneas de investigación y estandarización actuales en las tecnologías de smart grids. En la última sección se anexan las conclusiones de la realización de este trabajo.

Economic and environmental aspects of Smart Grid technologies implementation in Ukraine

2020 ◽  
pp. 28-37
Author(s):  
Oleksandra V. Kubatko ◽  
Diana O. Yaryomenko ◽  
Mykola O. Kharchenko ◽  
Ismail Y. A. Almashaqbeh
Keyword(s):  
Smart Grid ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Distribution System ◽  
Energy Security ◽  
Smart Grids ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Average Energy ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Electricity Supply ◽  
Auxiliary Equipment

Interruptions in electricity supply may have a series of failures that can affect banking, telecommunications, traffic, and safety sectors. Due to the two-way interactive abilities, Smart Grid allows consumers to automatically redirect on failure, or shut down of the equipment. Smart Grid technologies are the costly ones; however, due to the mitigation of possible problems, they are economically sound. Smart grids can't operate without smart meters, which may easily transmit real-time power consumption data to energy data centers, helping the consumer to make effective decisions about how much energy to use and at what time of day. Smart Grid meters do allow the consumer to track and reduce energy consumption bills during peak hours and increase the corresponding consumption during minimum hours. At a higher level of management (e.g., on the level of separate region or country), the Smart Grid distribution system operators have the opportunity to increase the reliability of power supply primarily by detecting or preventing emergencies. Ukraine's energy system is currently outdated and cannot withstand current loads. High levels of wear of the main and auxiliary equipment of the power system and uneven load distribution in the network often lead to emergencies and power outages. The Smart Grid achievements and energy sustainability are also related to the energy trilemma, which consists of key core dimensions– Energy Security, Energy Equity, and Environmental Sustainability. To be competitive in the world energy market, the country has to organize efficiently the cooperation of public/private actors, governments, economic and social agents, environmental issues, and individual consumer behaviors. Ukraine gained 61 positions out of 128 countries in a list in 2019 on the energy trilemma index. In general, Ukraine has a higher than average energy security position and lower than average energy equity, and environmental sustainability positions. Given the fact that the number of renewable energy sources is measured in hundreds and thousands, network management is complicated and requires a Smart Grid rapid response. Keywords: economic development, Smart Grid, electricity supply, economic and environmental efficiency.

Global Trends in the Political Economy of Smart Grids

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cherrelle Eid ◽  
Rudi Hakvoort ◽  
Martin de Jong
Keyword(s):  
Smart Grid ◽  
Smart Grids ◽  
The United States ◽  
Industry Structure ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
Distributed Energy ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Regulatory Models ◽  
Global Transition

The global transition towards sustainable, secure, and affordable electricity supply is driving changes in the consumption, production, and transportation of electricity. This chapter provides an overview of three main causes of political–economic tensions with smart grids in the United States, Europe, and China, namely industry structure, regulatory models, and the impact of energy policy. In all cases, the developments are motivated by the possible improvements in reliability and affordability yielded by smart grids, while sustainability of the electricity sector is not a central motivation. A holistic smart grid vision would open up possibilities for better integration of distributed energy resources. The authors recommend that smart grid investments should remain outside of the regulatory framework for utilities and distribution service operators in order to allow for such developments.

Legitimacy

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
The State ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
International Courts ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
State Legitimacy ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Supranational Institutions

This collection brings together scholars of jurisprudence and political theory to probe the question of ‘legitimacy’. It offers discussions that interrogate the nature of legitimacy, how legitimacy is intertwined with notions of statehood, and how legitimacy reaches beyond the state into supranational institutions and international law. Chapter I considers benefit-based, merit-based, and will-based theories of state legitimacy. Chapter II examines the relationship between expertise and legitimate political authority. Chapter III attempts to make sense of John Rawls’s account of legitimacy in his later work. Chapter IV observes that state sovereignty persists, since no alternative is available, and that the success of the assortment of international organizations that challenge state sovereignty depends on their ability to attract loyalty. Chapter V argues that, to be complete, an account of a state’s legitimacy must evaluate not only its powers and its institutions, but also its officials. Chapter VI covers the rule of law and state legitimacy. Chapter VII considers the legitimation of the nation state in a post-national world. Chapter VIII contends that legitimacy beyond the state should be understood as a subject-conferred attribute of specific norms that generates no more than a duty to respect those norms. Chapter IX is a reply to critics of attempts to ground the legitimacy of suprastate institutions in constitutionalism. Chapter X examines Joseph Raz’s perfectionist liberalism. Chapter XI attempts to bring some order to debates about the legitimacy of international courts.

Closing the Circle

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meenaxi Barkataki-Ruscheweyh
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
The State ◽  
Ethnic Minority Group ◽  
Role Of The State

In the concluding chapter, I discuss the various strategies that the Tangsa use in Assam to survive as a small ethnic minority group and how performing identity and ethnicity at festivals can be considered to be yet one more such strategy. This leads to a discussion of Tangsa identity, ethnicity, and culture as well as the role of the state and the Assamese ‘other’ in defining what it means to be Tangsa. In a ‘Taking Stock’ section, I list all my shortcomings, and also all that that still needs to be done before some amount of clarity can be achieved in understanding the complex Tangsa picture. The concluding section summarizes my findings to make clear the underlying and undeniable connection between performing ethnicity and negotiating marginalization.

scholarly journals The smart grid as a security device: Electricity infrastructure and urban governance in Kingston and Rio de Janeiro

Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802098571
Author(s):  
Francesca Pilo’
Keyword(s):  
Smart Grid ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Smart Grids ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Spatial Inequality ◽  
Technical Failure ◽  
Spatial Inequalities ◽  
Urban Security ◽  
Security Device

This article aims to contribute to recent debates on the politics of smart grids by exploring their installation in low-income areas in Kingston (Jamaica) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). To date, much of this debate has focused on forms of smart city experiments, mostly in the Global North, while less attention has been given to the implementation of smart grids in cities characterised by high levels of urban insecurity and socio-spatial inequality. This article illustrates how, in both contexts, the installation of smart metering is used as a security device that embeds the promise of protecting infrastructure and revenue and navigating complex relations framed along lines of socio-economic inequalities and urban sovereignty – here linked to configurations of state and non-state (criminal) territorial control and power. By unpacking the political workings of the smart grid within changing urban security contexts, including not only the rationalities that support its use but also the forms of resistance, contestation and socio-technical failure that emerge, the article argues for the importance of examining the conjunction between urban and infrastructural governance, including the reshaping of local power relations and spatial inequalities, through globally circulating devices.

scholarly journals Integration and control of lithium-ion BESSs for active network management in smart grids: Sundom smart grid backup feeding case

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chethan Parthasarathy ◽  
Hossein Hafezi ◽  
Hannu Laaksonen
Keyword(s):  
Smart Grid ◽  
Network Management ◽  
Smart Grids ◽  
Reactive Power ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Lithium Ion ◽  
Active Network ◽  
Li Ion ◽  
Grid Side ◽  
And Control

AbstractLithium-ion battery energy storage systems (Li-ion BESS), due to their capability in providing both active and reactive power services, act as a bridging technology for efficient implementation of active network management (ANM) schemes for land-based grid applications. Due to higher integration of intermittent renewable energy sources in the distribution system, transient instability may induce power quality issues, mainly in terms of voltage fluctuations. In such situations, ANM schemes in the power network are a possible solution to maintain operation limits defined by grid codes. However, to implement ANM schemes effectively, integration and control of highly flexible Li-ion BESS play an important role, considering their performance characteristics and economics. Hence, in this paper, an energy management system (EMS) has been developed for implementing the ANM scheme, particularly focusing on the integration design of Li-ion BESS and the controllers managing them. Developed ANM scheme has been utilized to mitigate MV network issues (i.e. voltage stability and adherence to reactive power window). The efficiency of Li-ion BESS integration methodology, performance of the EMS controllers to implement ANM scheme and the effect of such ANM schemes on integration of Li-ion BESS, i.e. control of its grid-side converter (considering operation states and characteristics of the Li-ion BESS) and their coordination with the grid side controllers have been validated by means of simulation studies in the Sundom smart grid network, Vaasa, Finland.

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