Which attributes are the most important when buying a property? How much do individuals value energy efficiency? What discount rates do individuals employ when investing in energy efficiency and which factors influence them? This paper examines the results of a stated preference consumer survey undertaken in Slovenia in late 2017 to investigate these questions, also trying to answer how much the consumers are willing to consider future energy savings associated with the purchase of advanced home heating controls. The results show that energy efficiency as a decision-making attribute is very important for Slovenians, being the second most important after the property price. Females, environmentally aware and married individuals are more likely to value energy efficiency highly when buying a property. Interest in energy-efficient heating controls' investment confirms the notion that people tend to discount the future benefits at 40%, on average, and give more importance to future energy savings when the investment cost is higher. Females favour higher implicit discount rates and shorter payback periods and therefore expect a higher return (energy savings) on the investment while people with higher education levels value future costs more and are willing to invest more due to the increased benefits of energy efficiency.
The increasing rate of the smart technology implementations in the energy sector brings new control solutions for distributed renewable energy sources (DRES) to tackle the additional challenges on the distribution network that arise from increased integration of renewable energy sources (RES). With these new control solutions, a possibility of new services that could be offered on electricity and ancillary markets emerged, providing a possibility of new source of income for DRES, Demand Response (DR) and Aggregators. This paper presents the main results of the EU FP7 project INCREASE, where innovative controls for DRES and DR units were developed and investigated. The main novelty of the paper is a sensitivity analysis of INCREASE ancillary services and business model applied to representative European grid for overall policy conclusions. The knowledge gained in INCREASE provides the basis for the work in H2020 project STORY, where the demand response strategies will be augmented to encompass small-scale storage solutions.
The increased integration of PV systems in the low voltage network causes many problems in network operations. The EU project STORY is tackling these problems with adding energy storage to the grid. In this paper we present new control concept with peak demand control algorithm which is used on storage unit in LV distribution network. The algorithm development is based on real measurements from transformer station and inclusion of solar irradiation forecast. On the basis of forecasts algorithm defines new threshold levels of power flows through transformer which is responsible for decision of battery charge/discharge related to power surplus in real-time operation. Results of the simulations show an improvement in the operation of peak shaving control.
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