A brief history and the possible future of urban energy systems

Abstract

Modern cities depend on energy systems to deliver a range of services such as heating, cooling, lighting, mobility, communications, and so on. This article examines how these urban energy systems came to be, tracing the major transitions from the earliest settlements through to today's fossil-fuelled cities. The underlying theme is "increasing efficiency under constraints" with each transition marked by increasing energy efficiency in service provision, increasing per capita energy use, increasing complexity in the energy system's structure, with innovations driven by a strategic view of the overall system, and accompanied by wider changes in technology and society. In developed countries, the future of urban energy systems is likely to continue many of these trends, with increased efficiency being driven by the constraints of climate change and rising fuel prices. Both supply and demand side technologies are discussed as potential solutions to these issues, with different impacts on the urban environment and its citizens. However in developing

Urban Energy Transitions: Places, Processes and Politics of Socio-technical Change

“…They advance our knowledge of how current urban energy policies, trajectories and, in some cases, crises are historically founded or configured, and how past configurations can provide insights on contemporary processes (see also Hughes, 1983;Tarr and Dupuy, 1988;Nye, 1990;Melosi and Pratt, 2007;Fouquet and Pearson, 2012;Kim and Barles, 2012). They also help to distinguish the perspective developed here on urban energy transitions (based on co-evolutionary interactions between energy systems and the urban and a view of energy transitions as inherently urban processes) from the study of past transitions in urban energy systems (based largely on technological innovation and viewing cities as mere contexts of change) (see Rutter and Keirstead, 2012).…”

Energy and Resilient Cities

“…This change occurred in response to the lack of connectivity of remote areas and the need of a more efficient and more dynamic energy supply to meet growing cities' needs. Large generation plants were built and connected to new national grids (Ruttera and Keirsteadb, 2012). From a governance perspective, the energy sector was dominated by monopolies, with a few large electricity or gas companies basically owning both the generation and the transmission and distribution utilities that were integrated together (Pollitt, 2012).…”

“…From a governance perspective, the energy sector was dominated by monopolies, with a few large electricity or gas companies basically owning both the generation and the transmission and distribution utilities that were integrated together (Pollitt, 2012). Energy supply systems across the OECD countries mainly rely on large scale and national infrastructure notably because they operate at high loads (Kosmadakis, 2013), enable lower costs of production, and free urban centres from various externalities induced by the operating of energy supply systems (Ruttera and Keirsteadb, 2012).…”

Study on the Theory of the Smart City

“…The difference is that domestic and foreign scholars, mainly from the perspective of industrial economics to study the role of green ICT of city intelligent, low-carbon development. Rutter pointed out that the development of ICT industry for the supply of goods and services, and provides a new model, which can reduce the energy intensity and change of the city residents living [8]. Popke and Christensen through empirical research examines the ICT technology to enhance the efficiency and that ICT industry in terms of reducing energy consumption has great potential, but the degree of the effect depends on the economic and political environment [9].…”