Rural laboratories and experiment at the fringes: A case study of a smart grid on Bruny Island, Australia

Lovell, Heather; Hann, Veryan; Watson, Phillipa

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2017.09.031

Cited by 21 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Urban areas are often portrayed as a natural centre of energy innovation due to the concentration of finance, people, and resources, plus multiple utility infrastructures. However, social science research shows us that rural communities are also important in innovation and learning about new energy futures (Lovell et al, 2018;Naumann & Rudolph, 2020). This is perhaps particularly true for islands because island communities are edgeof-grid: energy services are typically expensive to maintain here, so there are technical reasons why island communities tend to be at the forefront of energy innovation.…”

Section: Case Study 33 Islands As Energy Innovation Nodes: King Island Australiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Nodes

Lovell

2021

Understanding Energy Innovation

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Nodes 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.

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Section: Case Study 33 Islands As Energy Innovation Nodes: King Island Australiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Nodes

Lovell

2021

Understanding Energy Innovation

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“…In Australia, as elsewhere, changes are underway in energy generation and consumption, with a transition away from centralised fossil fuel generators towards decentralised renewable generators and greater reliance on markets. This change is evident in the large-scale adoption of rooftop solar (MacGill & Smith 2017), the growing adoption of home batteries, community-scale experimentation (Lovell et al 2018;Ransan-Cooper et al 2020), and market rules increasingly accommodating models such as demand response and virtual power plants (VPPs). It is estimated that by 2040 between 13% and 22% of total annual energy consumption in Australia's national electricity market will be provided by decentralised resources (AEMO 2020), much of which will be owned and/or operated by households, businesses and not-for-profits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who cares? How care practices uphold the decentralised energy order

Lucas-Healey

Ransan-Cooper

Temby

et al. 2022

Buildings and Cities

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This paper represents the decentralised energy order as a matter of care: so as to make visible the unequal burden of care and to encourage active caring. It extends an emerging overlap that exists in studies of repair and maintenance of material objects from science and technology studies (STS) and an increasing interest in the creation and maintenance of relationships of care in energy systems. Inspiration is drawn from feminist STS work that calls attention to the continuous labour of repair and maintenance necessary to enact and sustain a socio-technical order. Fieldwork involved virtual interviews and small focus groups with 55 Australian householders who purchased decentralised energy technologies (solar, batteries and electric vehicles) and 18 intermediaries from industry and civil society. The analysis exposes how invisible care practices not only underpin householders' material engagement with the energy system, but also how they are inextricably entangled with making a decentralised energy 'order' work in practice. Relying on 'good hearted' intermediaries is unlikely to be a workable basis for a functioning and fair energy system. An alternative approach is called for: an exploration of what a caring decentralised energy system might look like. POLICY RELEVANCECare is significant for making energy systems work, and care has a role in building new energy orders and liveable futures. This research reveals that decentralised energy is enabled and made workable by the care people have for the future and their ability to take responsibility and action. It highlights those excluded from care-giving and -receiving, gaps that hamper the flow of care, and ways in which existing gender relations are reinforced by and reinforce these gaps and exclusions. Policymakers can recognise the importance, but also the limitations, of bureaucratic and market care in the energy system, and the need for policies and projects to recognise, support, and empower diverse abilities and care practices. This could be achieved through meaningful co-creation of policies, rules and processes. Energy businesses and intermediaries are encouraged to go beyond a transactional approach to installing technologies.

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“…One of the assumptions underpinning this notion is that people living in island communities are more ready to engage with SGs and DR than people on the mainland, mainly due to the higher costs of energy on islands [10,11]. In this regard, the SG can have financial benefits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The geographic characteristics of islands and the challenges related to the provision of electricity services from the mainland [12] make them ideal candidates for deployment from a technical point of view. Another reason is the perceived stronger sense of community among smaller populations on islands compared to mainland communities and neighbourhoods [11,13], suggesting that the typical social barriers attributed to reluctance of DR uptake will be weaker in the case of islands. This posits the question of whether island communities are more likely to adopt these technologies and adapt their lifestyles to provide flexibility through DR and SG technologies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Transition to Clean Energy: Are People Living in Island Communities Ready for Smart Grids and Demand Response?

Ghanem

Crosbie

2021

Energies

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Islands are widely recognised as ideal pilot sites that can spearhead the transition to clean energy and development towards a sustainable and healthy society. One of the assumptions underpinning this notion is that island communities are more ready to engage with smart grids (SGs) than people on the mainland. This is believed to be due to the high costs of energy on islands and the idea that the sense of community and collective action is stronger on islands than on the mainland. This paper presents findings from a survey conducted to assess people’s perception of, and readiness to engage with, SG and demand response (DR) in the communities of three islands taking part in a H2020 project called REACT. The main objective of the survey, conducted in 2020, was to inform the recruitment of participants in the project, which is piloting different technologies required for SGs and DR with communities on the three islands. The results show that many island residents are motivated to take part in SG, to engage with energy saving, and are willing to change some energy-related behaviours in their homes. However, the results also indicate that levels of ownership of, and knowledge and familiarity with, the SG and DR related technologies are extremely low, suggesting that the expected uptake of DR in islands might not be as high as anticipated. This brings into question the readiness of island dwellers for the SG, their role in the deployment of such schemes more widely and the validity of the assumptions often made about island communities. This has significant implications for the design of SGs and DR solutions for islands, including devoting sufficient efforts to build knowledge and awareness of the SG, investing in demonstration projects for that purpose and tailoring interventions based on island communities’ motivations.

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Rural laboratories and experiment at the fringes: A case study of a smart grid on Bruny Island, Australia

Cited by 21 publications

References 35 publications

Nodes

Nodes

Who cares? How care practices uphold the decentralised energy order

The Transition to Clean Energy: Are People Living in Island Communities Ready for Smart Grids and Demand Response?

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