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Integrating Smart Grid Solutions within Everyday Life: a Study of Household Practices in Relation to Electric Vehicles and Time-of-use Pricing
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Friis, Freja |
| Copyright Year | 2016 |
| Abstract | is article considers the interplay between new smart grid technologies and households’ everyday practices. !e research focuses on how Electric Vehicles and Dynamic Pricing in#uence Danish households’ everyday life and how these technologies constitute and change routines and practices of consumption. !e basic assumption is that new technologies in#uence social practices in households’ everyday life. !e empirical material, mainly consist of qualitative interviews with Danish households who had test-driven Electric Vehicles and participated in Project Dynamic Pricing, is analysed with the analytical concept o$ered by the Social Practice !eory. Overall, the case-study demonstrates that the smart grid technologies in#uence the ‘way of driving’ and changed the temporal patterns of consumption in the families during the test period. !e investigation contribute to a more complex and multi-facetted consideration of the interplay between households’ social practices and new smart-grid technologies and thereby helping to %ll out the lack of research on the integration of peak-shaving technologies in the end-user design. Introduction Current energy systems face the challenge of including more renewable energy sources (RESs) in their supply. To manage the transition to a more sustainable energy system based on #uctuating energy production, a new highly complex, selfbalancing energy system called ‘Smart Grid’ has been initiated. Smart grid is a process of de%ning and developing intelligent control technologies to control and coordinate #exible consumption in order to maintain a balance between production and consumption in the overall electricity system. RESs increase the demand for new consumption patterns by the fact that photovoltaics (PVs) and wind power are #uctuating, dependent on the availability of sunshine and wind. In Denmark, wind power is put forward as a main RES and is expected to increase substantially by 2020. !e typical highlighted future scenario of a critical grid load in Denmark is the particular (consumption) peak between 5–7 pm in the a*ernoon. To solve this challenge, the intelligent control technologies are envisioned as a possible solution to ‘peak-shave’ through #exible electricity management in the households. In general, the establishment of smart grid has focused on technical and economic challenges and advantages (Christensen et al. 2013), but also user involvement and user-oriented innovation have emerged within the concept of smart grid. !is perspective is pursued among consumption researchers, emphasising that social and cultural perspectives on consumption are inevitable for developing a sustainable energy system (Darby 2010, Gram-Hanssen 2011a, Gram-Hanssen 2011b, Nyborg and Røpke 2011). Hence, recent research %ndings show that constituted social practices are as least as important as the e+ciency of technology (Darby 2010, Gram-Hanssen 2013, Gram-Hanssen 2011b, Nyborg and Røpke 2011, Axsen and Kurani 2010). From this point of view, households and consumers are, as prominent ‘actors’, expected to play a more active role in order 4-153-13 FRIIS, GRAM-HANSSEN 1020 ECEEE 2013 SUMMER STUDY – RETHINK, RENEW, RESTART 4. TRANSPORT AND MOBILITY: HOW TO DELIVER ENERGY EFFICIENCY to maintain the balance between consumption and production in the grid. Concrete examples of #exible energy production and consumption are: household-based production, their ability to store energy in batteries or by heating houses and by load management facilitated by moving energy consumption like electric heating, charging of electric vehicles (EVs) or moving laundry activities (Christensen et al. 2013, Nyborg and Røpke 2011). !is investigation focuses speci%cally on EVs and their expected potential for maintaining a balance in the grid through load management that can either delay or forward consumption in relation to the generation of wind power in the energy system. !rough an in-depth case study, our purpose is to explore how social practices, in a particular context, are changed and constituted in households a*er obtaining and integrating EVs and Dynamic Pricing in their everyday. !e aim is to provide some new insights into how consumption is organised and how new consumption patterns in#uence the social worlds of households that manage to integrate those two projects into their everyday life. Based on the conviction that cultural and social structures of everyday life are decisive elements in the transition to a low-carbon energy system, this article aims to explore: How do smart grid technologies as EVs and Dynamic Pricing change and constitute social practices in households’ everyday life? Methods and empirical material |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.5278/vbn.phd.engsci.00115 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/245129520/PHD_Freja_Friis_E_pdf.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.5278/vbn.phd.engsci.00115 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
