УПРАВЛІННЯ ЕНЕРГОЕФЕКТИВНІСТЮ ТА ЕНЕРГОЗБЕРЕЖЕННЯМ НА БАЗІ УНІВЕРСИТЕТСЬКОГО ЕНЕРГО-ІННОВАЦІЙНОГО ХАБА ЗНАНЬ

This paper offers an argument for the need to providing further research on improving energy efficiency and searching for modern management methods based on the university energy innovation knowledge hub. The findings have revealed that the specific energy consumption in the Ukrainian economy is unjustifiably higher than that of other European countries and countries with transitive economies. It is noted that economic losses are becoming increasingly apparent in the context of high cost of imported energy resources, low level of energy security, incompetitiveness of industries and significant environmental wastes. The research methodology entails the principle of studying and summarizing factual data on enhancing energy management and quality management systems, as well as the university documentation. To attain the research agenda, the following methods have been employed: the system and structural analysis techniques, management theory, methods of diagnostics and identification, graph theory as well as energy balance methods. The study presents a mechanism of energy efficiency and energy saving management based on the university energy innovation knowledge hub. The findings demonstrate that such a mechanism is able to overcome the rejection by economic actors of innovation technologies in general and energy efficient technologies in particular. The proposed mechanism of energy efficiency and energy saving management based on the university energy innovation hub challenges the implementation of specific economic measures that should include such elements as incentives (motivators) for energy saving, energy market infrastructure and energy efficient technology, energy projects funding sources and tools. The conclusions resume that in modern realia, higher education institutions should promote a shift from a formally declared energy saving policy towards a University energy efficiency economy pattern as an energy autonomy driver, building a strategy for combining indicative and market functions in ensuring energy efficiency.

SMART GRID ENERGY CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT BASED ON THE UNIVERSITY'S ENERGY INNOVATION HUB OF KNOWLEDGE

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES. Due to increasing energy costs, as well as strict environmental regulations, there is a growing need for greater resource efficiency, which makes energy-efficient solutions necessary. Thus, the importance of innovations based on technologies designed to save energy, such as the Smart Grid, is increasing. Smart Grid is not just a compilation of smart meters or other electrical devices, it is a series of technologies, a concept of a fully integrated, self-regulating and self-healing power grid, which has a network topology and includes all sources of generation, transmission and distribution, managed by a single network of information and control devices and systems.METHODS. As the main method used was the calculation of the synthetic balance of savings from the use of different types of energy resources by the university after the implementation of the application Smart Grid-energy conservation management on the basis of the university energy-innovation Hub of knowledge.FINDINGS. A mechanism for the implementation of the Smart Grid energy-saving management application on the basis of the university energy-innovation Knowledge Hub is proposed. Smart Grid is designed to provide real-time data on the almost instantaneous balance of energy supply and demand. To ensure grid reliability by reducing peak demands and improving energy efficiency, Smart Grid data management is an affordable and effective tool for data analysis and decision making.CONCLUSION. The results of calculation of the predicted effect of the Smart Grid application implementation for the 4th building of Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design proved that the reduction of installed capacity as a result of the project was 80.5%, i.e. a 1% reduction in capacity creates an economic effect of 0.58% of the costs associated with modernization. Given the current level of electricity consumption, we can predict a potential reduction of 951 thousand UAH per year or almost 50% of the cost of electricity consumed in 2020.

A Symmetry and Asymmetry Investigation of the Nexus Between Environmental Sustainability, Renewable Energy, Energy Innovation, and Trade: Evidence From Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis in Selected MENA Countries

The motivation of the study is to gauge the role of renewable energy consumption (REC), energy innovation (EI), and total trade (TR) on environmental sustainability (ES) in selected MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries for the period 1980–2018 under the assumption of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). The study implemented several econometrical tools, including structural break unit root test, Bayer–Hanck combined cointegration test, autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), nonlinear ARDL, and Granger causality test under error correction term. Variables properties test detected that all the variables are stationary after the first difference but neither exposed to stationary after the second difference. The test statistics of the combined cointegration test documented a long-run association between ES, RE, EI, and TR, which is valid for both countries concerned. Regarding EKC concern, study findings with ARDL and nonlinear ARDL validated the EKC hypothesis for Tunisia and Morocco. Finally, the direction causality test documented unidirectional causality between renewable energy and ES, trade and ES, but the feedback hypothesis holds between EI and ES. We can advocate for specific sectoral environmental reforms in Tunisia and Morocco and suggest continuous environmentally friendly technologies by combining study findings. At the same time, subsidies on nonrenewable energy should be reduced, and green trade policies to help advance sustainable development should be implemented.

Weaving an Innovation Network from the Middle Out: the Case of the Renewable Energy Ecosystem

BackgroundRenewable energy (RE) systems are becoming a central component of the clean energy transition and often seen as the way to combat climate change. Their establishment requires innovation, investments, and deployment policies for emerging technologies. Governments around the world are increasingly trying to create and support the energy-tech and climate-tech innovation ecosystems in their attempt to promote an innovation-supporting environment. However, energy innovation policies are often aligned with the dichotomous notion of technology-push and market-pull, and overlook the social, political, and cultural contexts in which RE innovative technologies are embedded, and the multiple actors and interactions that are associated with their development. By combining the Middle-Out Perspective (MOP) and innovation literature, this paper argues that an innovation ecosystem could be weaved from the middle-out.MethodsThis paper analyses the case of Israel’s RE innovation ecosystem creation through the lens of the MOP and applies a socio-technical interpretation to the push and pull terminology. Process tracing methodology was applied to trace a sequence of events to determines whether an actor was pushed or pulled, the formation of a network of actors, and its evolvement to an energy innovation ecosystem from the middle-out. Data for the analysis was collected from interviews, policy papers, media articles and Governmental decisions.ResultsThe analysis demonstrates how middle actors push the implementation of RE technologies in Israel, and at the same time pull decision-makers and other middle actors to promote the low carbon transition. The push and pull forces and the interactions between actors lead to the engagement of new stakeholders in the innovation network, the adoption of more ambitious RE targets and supporting policies, and to the creation of an effective RE innovation ecosystem.ConclusionsThis paper uses the MOP as an analytical framework and the push and pull terminology to demonstrate how a middle actor initiates and develops an actor-network by interacting with other actors. As this network broadens, it forms an effective innovation ecosystem. Network of actors have the potential to lead change, provide innovative ideas, initiate research, encourage investments, create employment possibilities, and promote regional sustainable development.

Introduction

This chapter introduces Understanding Energy Innovation, a book that is about the process of digital innovation within the electricity sector, with a focus on the social and political. This chapter covers who the book is for, its aims and themes, summarises key theories of energy innovation, and defines smart grids. Smart grids involve the incorporation of new digital and information and communication technologies into utility infrastructures, and they are used as a case study throughout the book to explore energy innovation. The chapter concludes with a brief history of smart grids.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia is a longing for the past and the way we remember how things used to be done, including a wish for things to stay the same. Nostalgia is a central part of understanding societal responses to change because every new technology and way of doing something is, in effect, competing with nostalgia. In this chapter, I examine how nostalgia can hamper efforts at energy innovation, particularly in terms of how it blinds us to change already under way, and how memories of certain innovations can in subtle ways encourage or hinder innovation. I explore three diverse case studies about nostalgia: memories of pioneering international smart grid experiments, scarce data about off-grid households, and big infrastructure energy solutions.