Common Ground. Kommentar zu Lisa Vollmer und Boris Michel „Wohnen in der Klimakrise. Die Wohnungsfrage als ökologische Frage“

Die im Jahr 2020 in Deutschland praktizierte Siedlungs- und Wohnungspolitik erhält in Anbetracht ihrer Auswirkungen auf die soziale und ökologische Lage einen bitteren Beigeschmack. Arm und Reich triften weiter auseinander und einer zielgerichteten ökologischen Transformation der Art und Weise, wie Stadtentwicklung und Wohnungspolitik gestaltet werden,stehen noch immer historisch und systemisch bedingte Pfadabhängigkeiten im Weg. Diese werden nur durch eine integrierte Betrachtung sozialer und ökonomischer Aspekte sichtbar und deuten auf eine der ursprünglichen Fragen linker Gesellschaftsforschung hin: Die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Verhältnis von Eigentum und Gerechtigkeit. Im Ergebnis stehen drei wesentliche Befunde: Der Diskurs zum Schutz des Klimas und der Biodiversität berührt direkt die Parameter Dichte, Nutzungsmischung und Flächeninanspruchnahme; zweitens steigt letztere relativ mit erhöhtem, individuell verfügbaren Kapital und insbesondere im selbstgenutztem Eigentum gegenüber Mietwohnungen; und drittens wächst der Eigentumsanteil mit fortschreitender Finanzialisierung des Wohnungsmarktes, sodass das Risiko sozialer und ökologischer Krisen sich verschärft.The settlement and housing policy practised in Germany in 2020 is given a bitter taste in view of its impact on the social and ecological situation. Poor and rich are drifting further apart and a targeted ecological transformation of the way in which urban development and housing policy is designed is still hindered by historical and systemic path dependencies. These only become visible through an integrated consideration of social and economic aspects and point to one of the original questions of left-wing social research: The examination of the relationship between property and justice. As a result, there are three main findings: The discourse on climate protection and biodiversity directly touches on the parameters of density, mix of uses and land consumption; secondly, the latter increases relatively with heightened, individually available capital and especially in owner-occupied property as compared to rented housing; and thirdly, the share of ownership increases with the progressive financialisation of the housing market, so that the risk of social and ecological crises becomes more acute

Demand response through automated air conditioning in commercial buildings - a data-driven approach

Building operation faces great challenges in electricity cost control as prices on electricity markets become increasingly volatile. Simultaneously, building operators could nowadays be empowered with information and communication technology that dynamically integrates relevant information sources, predicts future electricity prices and demand, and uses smart control to enable electricity cost savings. In particular, data-driven decision support systems would allow the utilization of temporal flexibilities in electricity consumption by shifting load to times of lower electricity prices. To contribute to this development, we propose a simple, general, and forward-looking demand response (DR) approach that can be part of future data-driven decision support systems in the domain of building electricity management. For the special use case of building air conditioning systems, our DR approach decides in periodic increments whether to exercise air conditioning in regard to future electricity prices and demand. The decision is made based on an ex-ante estimation by comparing the total expected electricity costs for all possible activation periods. For the prediction of future electricity prices, we draw on existing work and refine a prediction method for our purpose. To determine future electricity demand, we analyze historical data and derive data-driven dependencies. We embed the DR approach into a four-step framework and demonstrate its validity, utility and quality within an evaluation using real-world data from two public buildings in the US. Thereby, we address a real-world business case and find significant cost savings potential when using our DR approach

The Value of IS-Enabled Flexibility in Electricity Demand - a Real Options Approach

As the transition to renewable energy sources progresses, their integration makes electricity production increasingly fluctuating, also causing amplified volatility in electricity prices on energy markets. To contribute to power grid stability, utilities need to balance volatile supply through shifting demand. This measure of demand side management creates flexibility, being enabled as the integration of IS in the power grid grows. The flexibility of deferring consumption to times of lower demand or higher supply bears an economic value. We show how to quantify this value in order to support decisions on short-term consumer compensation. We adapt real options theory, which has been widely used in IS research for valuation under uncertainty. Addressing a prerequisite, we develop a stochastic process, which realistically replicates intraday electricity spot price development. We employ it in a binomial tree model to assess the value of IS-enabled flexibility in electricity demand

Providing Utility to Utilities: The Value of Information Systems Enabled Flexibility in Electricity Consumption

As the transition to renewable energy sources progresses, the integration of such sources makes electricity production increasingly fluctuate. To contribute to power grid stability, electric utilities must balance volatile supply by shifting demand. This measure of demand response depends on flexibility, which arises as the integration of information systems in the power grid grows. The option to shift electric loads to times of lower demand or higher supply bears an economic value. Following a design science research approach, we illustrate how to quantify this value to support decisions on short-term consumer compensation. We adapt real options theory to the design—a strategy that IS researchers have used widely to determine value under uncertainty. As a prerequisite, we develop a stochastic process, which realistically replicates intraday electricity spot price development. With this process, we design an artifact suitable for valuation, which we illustrate in a plug-in electric vehicle scenario. Following the artifact’s evaluation based on historical spot price data from the electricity exchange EPEX SPOT, we found that real options analysis works well for quantifying the value of information systems enabled flexibility in electricity consumption

Rotational UV-lithography using flexible chromium coated polymer masks for the fabrication of microstructured dental implant surfaces: a proof of concept

The purpose of this work was to demonstrate the technical feasibility for the fabrication of microgrooves or micropits on dental implants or dental implant abutment surfaces using a novel fabrication method derived from common UV-lithographic microfabrication. Instead of using a flat and rigid chromium/glass mask to structure a photoresist layer on a small cylindrical part, a flexible chromium-coated polymer mask was introduced into the lithographic setup. Through an elastic deformation of the polymer mask, it was possible to achieve lateral resolutions as small as 1.5 μm on small cylinders and to structure conical parts. By subsequent controlled under-etching of the structured photoresist layer, microgrooves of different cross-sectional geometries can be generated and applied to the implant or implant abutment surface. Such structures can be used for contact guidance of human gingival fibroblasts or endothelia cells to enhance the wound healing process and the overall soft-tissue integration

Advances in Decision Support Systems for Risk and Return Management in Complex Networks

Die Digitalisierung und Energiewende in Deutschland stellen bedeutende Herausforderungen unserer Zeit dar, welche maßgeblich Einfluss auf die Entwicklung und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit unserer heimischen Wirtschaft nehmen und Unternehmen dabei zu hohen Investitionen zwingen. Einerseits führt die digitale Transformation zu immer mehr Komplexität und Abhängigkeiten in Produktions-, Logistik- und Verwaltungsprozessen, andererseits wird das unternehmerische Energiemanagement durch die unkontrollierbare Erzeugung erneuerbarer Energie erschwert, wodurch bedeutende Investitionsentscheidungen anfälliger für Fehler werden. Die Dissertation motiviert und unterstützt die Schaffung von neuartigen Entscheidungsunterstützungssystemen, welche Komplexität und Abhängigkeiten in den beschriebenen Systemen für Unternehmen verständlicher machen. Damit können Investitionsentscheidungen im Sinne einer wertorientierten Unternehmensführung unter integrierten Ertrags- und Risikogesichtspunkten erfolgen

Demand Side Management: Entscheidungsunterstützungssysteme für die flexible Beschaffung von Energie unter integrierten Chancen- und Risikoaspekten

The German “energy transition” toward renewable energies exhibits an increase of volatility in energy supply and therefore threatens both grid stability and electricity price stability. Especially industrial companies meet the challenge to provide sufficient and affordable energy according to their individual production requirements. To this effect, the utilization of flexibility in these companies’ energy demand and decentral energy generation (“demand side management”) is a promising approach to realize cost savings and new profit opportunities on power exchanges, balancing power markets and specific forthcoming flexibility markets. However, the computation of available and economic energy flexibility potential is a highly complex task for industrial companies and literature has not yet delivered approaches on how to deal with that challenge. In this context, this paper motivates the development and application of new decision support systems that can be developed by industrial companies themselves or in cooperation with IT service providers and energy consultants with the objective to optimize the utilization of energy flexibility using an integrated risk and return management. Besides basics on energy flexibility and flexibility deployment, this paper presents important functional requirements for decision support systems in energy flexibility management. Subsequently, this paper presents a system architecture for such a decision support system and concludes with recommendations for practitioners. Thereby, practicability is ensured by presenting results from interviews with industry experts

Common Ground: Kommentar zu Lisa Vollmer und Boris Michel „Wohnen in der Klimakrise. Die Wohnungsfrage als ökologische Frage“

Die im Jahr 2020 in Deutschland praktizierte Siedlungs- und Wohnungspolitik erhält in Anbetracht ihrer Auswirkungen auf die soziale und ökologische Lage einen bitteren Beigeschmack. Arm und Reich driften weiter auseinander und einer zielgerichteten ökologischen Transformation der Art und Weise, wie Stadtentwicklung und Wohnungspolitik gestaltet werden, stehen noch immer historisch und systemisch bedingte Pfadabhängigkeiten im Weg. Diese werden nur durch eine integrierte Betrachtung sozialer und ökonomischer Aspekte sichtbar und deuten auf eine der ursprünglichen Fragen linker Gesellschaftsforschung hin: Die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Verhältnis von Eigentum und Gerechtigkeit. Im Ergebnis stehen drei wesentliche Befunde: Der Diskurs zum Schutz des Klimas und der Biodiversität berührt direkt die Parameter Dichte, Nutzungsmischung und Flächeninanspruchnahme; zweitens steigt letztere relativ zu erhöhtem, individuell verfügbarem Kapital und insbesondere im selbstgenutzten Eigentum gegenüber Mietwohnungen; und drittens wächst der Eigentumsanteil mit fortschreitender Finanzialisierung des Wohnungsmarktes, sodass das Risiko sozialer und ökologischer Krisen sich verschärft.The settlement and housing policy practised in Germany in 2020 is given a bitter taste in view of its impact on the social and ecological situation. Poor and rich are drifting further apart and a targeted ecological transformation of the way in which urban development and housing policy is designed is still hindered by historical and systemic path dependencies. These only become visible through an integrated consideration of social and economic aspects and point to one of the original questions of left-wing social research: The examination of the relationship between property and justice. As a result, there are three main findings: The discourse on climate protection and biodiversity directly touches on the parameters of density, mix of uses and land consumption; secondly, the latter increases relatively with heightened, individually available capital and especially in owner-occupied property as compared to rented housing; and thirdly, the share of ownership increases with the progressive financialisation of the housing market, so that the risk of social and ecological crises becomes more acute