1,721,228 research outputs found
Laundry, energy and time: insights from 20 years of time-use diary data in the United Kingdom
No full textThe uneven temporal distribution of domestic energy demand is a well-known phenomenon that is increasingly troublesome for energy infrastructures and sustainable or low carbon energy systems. People tend to demand energy, and especially electricity, at specific times of the day and they do not necessarily do so when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. The potential value of demand response as a solution rests on understanding the nature of temporal energy demand and the timing of the interconnected domestic activities that drive it. The paper uses current and historical time-use diary data to explore the temporal change in laundry practices in the United Kingdom over the last 20 years. 'Doing the laundry' is frequently cited as a potentially 'flexible demand' and yet very little is known about when people do the laundry, who does it at particular times, how this has changed and what implications this might have for the flexibility of demand. Through this analysis of laundry, the paper starts to unpack some of the ‘doings’ that contribute to current known energy demand and considers the extent to which they may or may not enable flexibility in the context of consumer demand response
University of Southampton sustainability strategy: goal 1-2 data gaps: using the GHG Protocol to assess the known unknowns
No full textOverall: the University should clearly and publicly manage (and report) its Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions according to the accepted GHG Protocol guidelines and use this as a basis for ongoing HESA reporting as required. This would enable the University to measure its profile and progress using current best practice and will prevent over- focus on the reporting categories required by HESA and will support the use of Science Based Targets in Goal 2 target setting.Goal 1:1. With the exception of emissions due to physical/chemical processes and fugitive emissions, the University currently has good data on its Scope 1 & 2 emissions.2. The University needs to decide if it will follow the GHG Protocol on contractedrenewable electricity or be bound by HEFCA’s current guidelines. This is core tothe Goal 1 roadmap.3. A review of more detailed data on Scope 1 & 2 emissions at the building level tounderpin potential solutions under the Goal 1 roadmap is recommended.4. The University should consider how it might practically estimate and/or measureemissions due to physical/chemical processes and fugitive emissions under Scope 1.Goal 2:1. Scope 3 emissions are largely not reported or not known. Meeting Goal 2 will resolve this issue but the difficulty of estimating Scope 3 supply chain and commuting emissions should not be underestimated.2. Adopting the GHG Protocol Scope 3 reporting categories for emissions management and public progress reporting purposes (as per Goal 1 for Scope 1 & 2) will ensure transparency, comparability and comprehensiveness.3. Conducting a GHG Protocol Scope 3 category by category data audit would help to understand how data gaps can be filled to support Goal 2;4. The University should decide whether:o Emissions due to students traveling to/from their original place ofresidence to the University should be included and reported;o Additional domestic emissions due to future home working/learningpolicies should be included and reported
Small area temporal household electricity demand models for New Zealand: Why, how and how far have we got?
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Using time use data to trace 'energy practices' through time
No full textDeveloping grounded strategic scenarios to support the long term transformation of energy systems requires an understanding of how the current 'status quo' came to be so that we can understand how it might need to change. Yet strategic policy analysis often conceptualises energy demand as deriving from 'fixed needs' that can be 'met' through material (infrastructural) transformations (E. Shove and Walker 2014). Such conceptions rarely engage with any sense of how things came to be as they are and in particular how what people actually do with energy continues to change over time (Elizabeth Shove 2003). Yet an emerging body of work suggests that such understandings are crucial to the development of interventions that can disrupt the current trajectories of energy demand evolution and shift them towards more sustainable solutions to the carbon, cost and security trilemma (Skea and Ekins 2014). Clearly the variance and flexibility of the temporal distribution of energy demand is of fundamental importance to the ability to shift the scale and timing of consumption in order to balance load on, for example, the electricity network and adapt to intermittent or temporally inflexible sources (Darby and McKenna 2012; Barton et al. 2013). This is particularly the case where the timing of (un)synchronised domestic activities have significant implications not only for peak electricity demand (Walker 2014) but also for matching demand to uncertain generation or avoiding demand in periods of reduced generation in a low-carbon energy system. It is therefore clear that understanding what different people do at particular times of day and how that places demand for electricity on the generation and distribution networks is a predicate for understanding the practical value of potential transformation scenarios. Not only this but there is a strong argument that understanding how such 'doings' have evolved over time will give a substantially more nuanced view of how particular forms of energy demand have come to be embedded in current ways of ‘doing’ everyday life (E. Shove and Walker 2014; Walker 2014), how resistant they may be to change (Powells et al. 2014) and how wider transitions in the temporality of practices could provide opportunities for strategic transformative intervention (Southerton 2013).This paper responds to this analytic need by using time use survey data from the United Kingdom to paint a broad picture of changes in the temporal patterns of 'energy demanding' practices over the last 30 years. By initially focusing on a set of ten 'Activity Classes' the paper highlights trends in classes of activities including personal care, cooking and eating, work, shopping, media use and travel which can be seen as proxies for a range of interlinked energy 'demanding' social practices. The paper will highlight clear evidence of change in the temporal patterns of the activities, some of which have been corroborated by other recent studies (Warde et al. 2007). Through finer grained analysis using dimensions of age and income, the paper then shows how heterogeneity in these trends is endemic and so demonstrates that the apparent evolution of the performances of practices proceeds at varying rates for different social groups.The paper then (re)disaggregates the Activity Classes to focus on trends in the temporal distribution of 'cleaning', 'cooking and eating' and 'doing the laundry' as exemplars of practices which are often seen as 'targets' for material energy efficiency innovation. By presenting analysis of the persistently gendered nature of these activities in the UK, together with evidence of substantial variation across employment, age and income dimensions, the analysis highlights the extent to which such activities may or may not be open to reconfiguration or reduction. Noting the changing material and cultural constitution of the activity classes and their constituent practices over time, the paper concludes by discussing a range of implications for potentially transformative interventions. These will make particular reference to notions of 'non-energy' energy policies enacted via the reconfiguration of societal temporalities (Southerton 2013), 'smart technologies' (Strengers 2013; Ford et al. 2014) and flexible electricity demand (Torriti, Hassan, and Leach 2010)
A response to: Ofgem (2019) Access and Forward-Looking Charges Significant Code Review – Winter 2019 working paper
No full textComments made on:1. How options could be applied to small users 2. Behavioural Insight Report on small users(taking into account but not commenting directly on Consumer Panel Report)<br/
University of Southampton Sustainability Strategy: Science Based Targets: A review and future scenarios
No full textThe report recommends that Science Based Targets (SBT) are used to: • Underpin Goal 2 target setting; • Provide the framework for the SIG Implementation Plan and detailed financiallyscoped roadmaps for Goal 1, Goal2 and Goal 3.• Where no additional costs are envisaged, this route should be followed;• Where additional costs are foreseen, this should be explicitly documented andagreed by UEB and Council.• Encourage the University to critically consider its potential use of offsetting and/orown-activity GHG sequestration given the SBT approach and the ‘prioritise reduction, scale up own removals’ principle.Further, in order to take a strong leadership position:• noting that the current Goal 1 target is more aggressive than the 1.5C Science Based Target for Scope 1 and 2, the University could consider extending its Scope 1 and 2 goal (Goal 1) from “net zero by 2030” to “absolute zero by 2040”
Response to: Call for evidence: Decarbonising heat in homes (BEIS Committee Decarbonising heat in homes inquiry)
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