Electric vehicle charging in China's power system:Energy, economic and environmental trade-offs and policy implications

AbstractThis work investigates different scenarios for electric vehicle (EV) deployment in China and explores the implications thereof with regard to energy portfolio, economics and the environment. Specifically, we investigate how to better deliver the value of EVs by improving designs in the power system and charging strategies, given expected developments by 2030 in both the power system and EV penetration levels.The impact of EV charging is quantified by applying an integrated transportation-power system model on a set of scenarios which represent uncertainties in charging strategies. We find that deploying EVs essentially shifts the use of gasoline to coal-fired power generation in China, thus leading to more coal consumption and CO2 emissions of the power system. Economically, EVs outperform gasoline-powered vehicles in terms of average fueling costs. However, the impact of EVs in terms of CO2 emissions at the national level largely depends on the charging strategy. Specifically, controlled charging results in more CO2 emissions associated with EVs than uncontrolled charging, as it tends to feed EVs with electricity produced by cheap yet low-efficiency coal power plants located in regions where coal prices are low. Still, compared with uncontrolled charging, controlled charging shows absolute advantages in: (1) mitigating the peak load arising from EV charging; (2) facilitating RES generation; and (3) reducing generation costs and EV charging costs. Hence, in light of this trade-off of controlled charging with the goals of energy security, economic efficiency and reducing environmental impacts, policy interventions in the Chinese power system should opt for controlled charging strategies in order to best realize the benefits of EVs. Accordingly, this paper proposes that increasing the use of cleaner forms of electricity generation, such as RES power and gas power, and establishing energy efficiency and CO2 emission regulations in power dispatch are critical for China. Lastly, this work illustrates what the optimized charging profiles from the power system perspective look like for different regions. These results can inform Chinese policy makers in creating a better integration of the transportation and the power system

Sustainable–Smart–Resilient–Low Carbon–Eco–Knowledge Cities; Making sense of a multitude of concepts promoting sustainable urbanization

Over the last couple of decades, metropolitan areas around the world have been engaged in a multitude of initiatives aimed at upgrading urban infrastructure and services, with a view to creating better environmental, social and economic conditions and enhancing cities' attractiveness and competitiveness. Reflecting these developments, many new categories of 'cities' have entered the policy discourse: 'sustainable cities'; 'green cities'; 'digital cities'; 'smart cities'; intelligent cities'; 'information cities'; 'knowledge cities'; 'resilient cities'; 'eco-cities'; 'low carbon cities'; 'liveable cities'; and even combinations, such as 'low carbon eco-cities' and 'ubiquitous eco-cities’. In practice, these terms often appear to be used interchangeably by policy makers, planners and developers. However, the question arises whether these categories nevertheless each embody distinct conceptual perspectives, which would have implications for how they are understood theoretically and applied in policy. In response, this article investigates, through a comprehensive bibliometric analysis, how the twelve most frequent city categories are conceptualised individually and in relation to one another in the academic literature. We hypothesize that, notwithstanding some degree of overlap and cross-fertilization, in their essence the observed categories each harbour particular conceptual perspectives that render them distinctive. This is borne out by the findings, which demonstrate robustly for the first time the conceptual differences and interrelationships among twelve dominant city categories. The 'sustainable city' is the most frequently occurring category and, in a map of keyword co-occurrences, by far the largest and most interconnected node, linked closely to the 'eco-city' and 'green city' concepts. Recently, the more narrow concepts of 'low carbon city' and 'smart city' have been on the rise, judging by their frequency of occurrence in academic journals; the latter in particular appears to have become an increasingly dominant category of urban modernization policy. On their part, ‘resilient city’ and ‘knowledge city’ represent distinct concepts, albeit with comparatively low frequency. Overall, the findings point to the need for rigor and nuance in the use of these terms, not least if one wishes to comprehend their implications for urban development and regeneration policy and practice

How shifting concepts and fuzzy borders encourage new solutions for infrastructure provision in the 21st century

Abstract: As the Next Generation Infrastructure research community is expanding across the globe, it is time to reflect on the meaning of infrastructure to people in different cultures and on users’ expectations of infrastructure services in different societies at different stages of economic development. Can infrastructure development in today’s fast growing economies be compared with the development of infrastructure in the Western world, where many of today’s infrastructure systems evolved over decades and centuries? How have historic visions of society and societal needs in Western societies shaped infrastructure development? Can today’s infrastructure development in Western and other societies be related to similar visions and strategies, or do we see new interpretations of the concept of infrastructure and new infrastructure development models being brought into being? The relevance of these questions is aggravated by the rapid urbanisation worldwide and the increasing stress on 20 Join the conversation on Twitter with #isngi2013 natural resources. Just expanding our legacy infrastructure systems is unlikely to be the best strategy to support the surging urban population in the megalopolises of the future and the dwindling rural population. Today’s planning and design choices will determine whether tomorrow’s infrastructure systems will enable or inhibit a sustainable development of societies across the globe, and to what extent we can ensure livelihoods for all, while safeguarding the livability of cities and the quality of the natural environment. We will explore how national governments and infrastructure providers navigate the multi-scale and cross-sectoral governance reality of infrastructure systems in response to the challenges of the 21st century, and how bottom-up initiatives add their own dynamics to the picture. We will reflect on the potential of translating best practices across cultural borders

Structuring Socio-Technical Complexity in Infrastructure Systems: The Biogas System

Abstract: Infrastructure systems consist of many heterogeneous decision making entities and technological artefacts. They are governed through public policy that unravels in a multi-scale institutional context, ranging from norms and values to technical standards. For example, to integrate biogas infrastructure in a region, various forms of governance, laws and regulations need to be implemented. To effectively design these requirements, insights into socio-technical systems can be gained through agent-based modelling and simulation. To implement such social concepts in agent-based models of infrastructure systems, we designed a modelling framework called MAIA, based on the Institutional Analysis and Development framework of Elinor Ostrom. This paper will explain how MAIA can be used to model a biogas energy infrastructure in the Netherlands. Citation: Verhoog, R., Ghorbani, A., Dijkema, G.P.J. & Weijnen, M.P.C. (2014). Structuring Socio-Technical Complexity in Infrastructure Systems: The Biogas System. In: Campbell P. and Perez P. (Eds), Proceedings of the International Symposium of Next Generation Infrastructure, 1-4 October 2013, SMART Infrastructure Facility, University of Wollongong, Australia

Critical Infrastructures at Risk - Securing the European Electric Power System

This book explores the potential risks jeopardising the European electricity infrastructure. The work was initiated by the need to verify the potential effects of the ongoing market and technical transformation of the infrastructure, which is fundamentally changing its operation and performance. The final aim is to set the basis for an appropriate industrial and political European-wide response to the risk challenges. Europe witnessed in the last years a number of significant power contingencies. Some of them revealed the potentiality of vast impact on the welfare of society and triggered pressing questions on the nature and reliability of electric power systems. Society has incorporated electricity as an inherent component, indispensable for achieving the expected level of quality of life. Therefore, any impingement on the continuity and properties of the electricity service would be able to distress society as a whole, affecting individuals, social and economic activities, other infrastructures and essential government functions. It would be possible to hypothesise that in extreme situations this could even upset national security. Europe has developed during the last decade a comprehensive energy supply policy, unbundling the previous monopolies and opening the generation and distribution markets. This policy has deeply changed the business and regulatory landscape of the electric power infrastructure. From the consumer point of view the effects have been positive: there are more potential suppliers, and prices follow market rules. The immediate economic effects of the new policy have not been accompanied by changes in the underpinning physical systems, whose evolution demand at least medium term investments and planning. For the time being, the power infrastructure has showed an appropriate reliability level, but new threats can be foreseen in the horizon. Some of these threats are internal to the infrastructure mainly due to the increasing complexity of many technical and market elements; some of them are external, for instance the menace the terrorism. Therefore the security of the evolving European electric power infrastructure deserves a cautious and thorough consideration. Electricity is a “common good”, central to the security and welfare of almost half billion people and the stability and future economic developments of more than 30 countries. For this reason, although local contingencies can be tolerated up to a given degree, if the power system would appear unreliable at the continental level, this will become a matter of major concern. Europe can not afford systematic failures of its power infrastructure, which could eventually lead to the weakening of the citizens’ trust on the societal institutions.JRC.G.6-Sensors, radar technologies and cybersecurit

Good governance and the regulation of the district heating market

This chapter discusses how the fundamental values of energy democracy and energy justice and the principles of good governance can play a role in developing a more consistent approach towards the regulation of the energy sector and, more in particular, in dealing with the challenges of regulating the heat transition in the Netherlands in a just way. Energy justice and energy democracy are energy specific concepts that are gaining influence when interpreting and applying the principles of good governance in the energy sector. Both concepts are based on the awareness that the energy transition is a matter for all citizens of the European Union and should not be ignored by policymakers and independent regulators. The heat transition in the Netherlands significantly impacts the position of consumers, prosumers and vulnerable customers, as an ever-larger group of consumers will be disconnected from the gas grid and will be connected to heat networks. Energy democracy and energy justice and the principles of good governance are important values that should guide policy-makers in making choices that affect consumer participation and the protection of vulnerable customers in the heat transition. It is elaborated how energy democracy and energy justice and the principles of good governance indeed can provide a useful framework within which advantages and disadvantages can be weighed of regulatory choices to be made when modernising the regulation of the heat market in a just way. In particular, there remains a lot to gain in terms of flexible regulation and supervision as well as the facilitation of consumer/prosumer participation in the Netherlands. Because it is likely that most heat consumers will remain locked in for a relatively long time in natural monopolies facilitated by older generation heat networks and the lack of alternative heating, substantive consumer-participation could yield positive results regarding community engagement in heat network management and heat supply