Load demand pricing - Case studies in residential buildings

Since the liberalisation of the Swedish electricity market in 1996, the competition between utilities has increased, and the generation capacity has gradually been adjusted to suit the demand. Consequently, the earlier excessive electricity production capacity has been reduced. However, if the gap between the generation capacity and demand will be too narrow, this may result in notable power shortages in the electricity market. In order to achieve lower load demand, to avoid load peaks and to reduce electricity cost, a Swedish electrical utility - Skånska Energi Nät AB (SENAB), is planning to include a load demand component in its electricity tariff to make customers more aware of their energy consumption pattern and (possible) load demand problems. This study investigates the impact of the new tariff from the viewpoint of the utility as well as its customers, compared to the existing tariff. The project was carried out by the Efficient Energy Use in Buildings Research Group at the Department of Energy Sciences, Lund University. The results of the investigation show that if a load demand component were to be introduced into SENAB’s network tariff, primarily customers with a 16-ampere fuse would incur higher network charges whereas customers with a higher fuse level would incur lower charges. With the existing network tariff, customers with high fuse levels pay relatively high standing charges in relation to their exploitation of the grid and as such they are subsidising customers with lower fuse levels. The study also shows that it is important that the new load demand pricing strategy (tariff) is communicated to customers in a comprehensive manner, so that they understand it and furthermore realise that they can save money by changing their energy consumption patterns without lowering their standard of living or comfort

Typical Load Shapes for Swedish Schools ans Hotels

In this study, typical load shapes for two categories of Swedish commercial and public buildings – schools and hotels – are presented and discussed. The measurements from 13 schools and 9 hotels in the south part of Sweden were analysed. Load shapes are developed for different mean daily outdoor temperatures and different day-types - standard weekdays and standard weekends. The load shapes are presented as non-dimensional normalised 1-hour load. The typical load shapes give a reasonable approximation of the measured load shapes, although the relative errors exceed 20% of the mean values during some hours. Daytime (9 a.m.-5 p.m.) results are generally good with errors about 10%. Absolute errors remain relatively constant during the year but as mean values decrease, the relative errors increase, causing relative errors up to 30% during some time periods

Knowledge Acquisition Using Group Support Systems

This paper reports on a project in which a group support system (GSS) equipped with a causal mapping facility was used to acquire knowledge from experts in seven European cities in order to understand the systemicity of risks which cities may face. The practical constraints demanded that participants’ experience and wisdom about the city risk environment was collected in a short period of time: three 1-day workshops. The acquisition of knowledge posed a number of important epistemological challenges which are explored in our discussion. The GSS was faced with the need to (1) facilitate sharing of knowledge with others, (2) manage the complexity of expert knowledge, (3) acknowledge the time demands on experts, (4) manage and merge multiple perspectives, and (5) acknowledge the subjectivity of knowledge in this domain. By discussing how the GSS process attended directly to these epistemological issues and to methodological considerations that linked to these issues, the paper contributes to a better understanding of the application of GSS for knowledge acquisition, particularly in comparison with other possible methods

Communities of Practice in Landscapes of Practice

The original formulation of communities of practice primarily focused on describing how learning, meaning, and identity within a community can translate into a sustained practice. Wenger-Trayner et al. elaborated the concept of landscapes of practice to describe how different communities of practice may interact, and belong to broader landscapes of practice, rather than rely exclusively on their own local situated practices. In this conceptual article, we apply the perspective of landscapes of practice to organizations. The first part of our argument is descriptive, and is aimed at developing a model of landscapes of practice in organizations. With regard to this model, we propose that practices can be seen as multilevel, including local situated practices, generic practices, and cultural fields. This, in turn, helps to clarify and organize a number of central concepts within the practice literature. The second part of our argument is prescriptive, as we suggest that landscapes of practice call for triple-legitimization of situated learning, meaning that legitimization is not only needed at the level of community and organization, but also by attending to the dynamically changing epistemic texture of the landscapes

Exploring GSS negotiation – the use of a GSS log

Group Decision Support Systems (GSS) have been used extensively to support groups in working together in organizations. This paper focuses on the particular type of GSS, called Group Explorer, which during the course of facilitated sessions generates data logs in the form of Excel spreadsheets. Data logs can be of high interest to researchers and GSS facilitators because they may possibly contain rich and valuable data such as about the detailed time of entry and the authorship of all contributions, or the results of voting activities conducted by participants. However, data logs may at first look complicated and difficult to read and follow. Thus the purpose of this paper is to provide a number of instructions and explanations for anyone interested in making good use of data logs, and to popularize similar analysis as a good opportunity to bet-ter understand the outcomes of GSS sessions

Understanding Communities of Practice:Taking Stock and Moving Forward

This paper provides a comprehensive, integrative conceptual review of work on communities of practice (CoPs), defined broadly as groups of people bound together by a common activity, shared expertise, a passion for a joint enterprise, and a desire to learn or improve their practice. We identify three divergent views on the intended purposes and expected effects of CoPs: as mechanisms for fostering learning and knowledge-sharing, as sources of innovation, and as mechanisms to defend interests and perpetuate control over expertise domains. We use these different lenses to make sense of the ways CoPs are conceptualized and to review scholarly work on this topic. We argue that current debate on the future of work and new methodological developments are challenging the received wisdom on CoPs and offer research opportunities and new conceptual combinations. We argue also that the interaction between the lenses and between CoP theory and adjacent literatures might result in new theory and conceptualizations