Socio-technical evolution of Decentralized Energy Systems: A critical review and implications for urban planning and policy

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Abstract

The growth of Decentralized Energy Systems (DES) signals a new frontier in urban energy planning and design of local energy systems. As affordability of renewable energy technologies (RET) increases, cities and urban regions become the venues, not only for energy consumption but also for generation and distribution, which calls for systemic and paradigmatic change in local energy infrastructure. The decentralizing transitions of urban energy systems, particularly solar photovoltaic and thermal technologies, require a comprehensive assessment of their sociotechnical co-evolution – how technologies and social responses evolve together and how their co-evolution affects urban planning and energy policies. So far, urban planning literature has mainly focused on the impact of physical urban forms on efficiency of energy consumption, overlooking how the dynamics of new energy technologies and associated social responses affect local systems of energy infrastructure, the built environments and their residents. This paper provides an interdisciplinary review on the co-evolving technical and social dynamics of DES focusing on Distributed Generation (DG), MicroGrids (MG), and Smart MicroGrids (SMG), in order to draw insights for their integration in urban planning and policy, in particular reference to climate change mitigation and adaptation planning.

Introduction

Centralized approaches to energy production, delivery and consumption constituted the original framework for provision of modern energy services. With the invention of high voltage AC power in late 19th century, electricity could to be transmitted over large distances through electric cables [1], [2]. Mass production, delivery and consumption of energy were expanded, stretched across the country through one nation-wide grid, designed as if to convey electricity perpetually to the energy-hungry masses of residential, commercial and industrial consumers. Although the sheer ingenuity of the centralized energy paradigm underpinned unprecedented growth in the 20th century – with ׳electrification׳ named its greatest invention [3] – the signs of its decay in the 21st century are increasingly evident. In an assessment by the American Society of Civil Engineers [4], energy infrastructure received a dismal D+. In addition, increasing resource conflicts tied to fossil fuels, depletion of the fossil fuel reserves, and anthropogenic climate change offer ample reasons for designing an alternate energy system that enables weaning off of carbon-intensive fossil fuels in meeting the world׳s current and future energy needs.

The alternate approach is decentralized; it is predicated on recognition of the finiteness of fossil fuels and their carbon-intensive character, deteriorating energy infrastructure and growing demand for energy. Decentralized Energy Systems (DES) suggest a paradigm shift in the way energy is produced, delivered and consumed. DES conceived on the basis of Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) offer a clean and inherently resilient approach towards reaching sustainable development goals. Literature notes four characteristic advantages of such DES over centralized energy systems: the ability to offer low to zero-carbon emissions [5], [6], [7], offset capital-intensive investments for network upgrades [8], [9], [10], impart local energy independence and network security [11], [12], [13], and motivate social capital and cohesion [14], [15], [16]. As RET becomes more affordable and penetrate the energy markets, cities become the place for celebrating these benefits of DES.

As DES contribute to environmental, economic and social aspects of urban sustainability, they are viewed from different perspectives in literature. This is mainly because energy systems research is itself located at the disciplinary boundaries of social science and technology studies. This becomes especially true in the case of DES, where the physical proximities between local energy technologies and social structures are reduced [13], [17], [18], [19], [20]. Existing literature on this subject mainly takes a technocratic approach, investigating optimal placement of DES [21], [22], [23], [24], [25] and their integration into building and transport infrastructures [26], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34]. On the other hand, social perspectives on DES are concerned with spatial and temporal diffusion of DES across urban regions [35], [36], [37] and their influence on consumer behavior and response [38], [39], [40], [41], [42], [43]. Lastly, interdisciplinary socio-technical research on DES is focused on examining the mutual impacts of social and technical aspects of DES in co-creating social and commercial value [44], [45], [46], [47], [48], [49], [50] and exploring the potential for their realization through commercial organization models for new local energy infrastructure [51], [52], [53], [54], [55]. These topics of study locate the research on DES squarely in the domain of interdisciplinary socio-technical research.

The transition to DES requires a more comprehensive assessment on how new energy technologies and social responses evolve together in cities and how we link their sociotechnical co-evolution to urban planning and policies. So far, there remains a disconnection in literature across highly technical (engineering based), social (social science based) and applied (planning and policy based) studies. Most urban planning literature has focused on the association between urban forms on transport and building energy consumption [56], [57], [58], [59], [60], while the technical, social and institutional impact of DES on urban planning and policy received little attention. Recently planning literature calls for planners to engage with emerging energy technologies [61], link land use regulations with renewable energy generation [62] and pursue collaborative planning for promoting clean energy [45], [63]. Still, little attempt has been made to incorporate new DES such as MicroGrids and Smart Grids into planning and emphasize their role in climate change and collaborative planning.

In this review, we advance this research orientation further by bringing the co-evolving social and technical perspectives of DES to bear on urban planning and policy. We accomplish this by pulling together different strands of research from the existing literature, identifying corresponding parallel arguments and drawing insights for planning of local energy systems. We then use these insights to point further avenues for urban planning and policy with a particular focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation, given the rising importance and urgency of climate change planning, and the direct contribution of DES towards reducing greenhouse gas emission and increasing resilience of local energy infrastructure. Such implications to planning and policy can vary significantly depending on geography and socioeconomic condition of each country; this paper sheds light on best practices and literature from the U.S. and Europe to identify the implications for local energy planning in North American and European cities, particularly in the U.S.

Here, we focus our attention on three specific decentralized energy technology configurations, namely Distributed Generation (DG), MicroGrids (MG), and Smart MicroGrids (SMG). Considering these three configurations under the umbrella term of DES, we provide a general overview of the literature landscape. Auxiliary devices for storage and co-generation as well as electric vehicles (EVs), for purposes of organization, are assumed to be included within the ecosystem of technologies that each configuration creates in its wake. Reflecting the predominant focus of DES literature on solar PV and solar thermal in urban areas, most examples in this paper naturally address urban application of on-site solar energy generation and distribution; however, the general framework can be applied to other RET such as on-site micro wind generation and biomass as their urban applications become more common. Fig. 1 illustrates the schematic structure of the article as well as the configurations considered for review.

The definition of each of the three DES configurations considered in this paper is as follows:

Distributed Generation (DG) is defined as an electric power system that is either connected within the distribution networks or on the consumer side [64]. Individual installations of RET characterize the distributed nature of clean energy generation. Therefore, DG has come to predominantly be associated with renewable energy generation [10]. In the case of urban geographies, major scholarship discusses solar energy based RET like solar PV and solar thermal, most likely due to the relative ease of installation, operation and maintenance in urban settings. From a systems view, any RET operating either independently (off-grid) or in connection with the grid and serving specific energy needs at their site of installation is described as Distributed Generation.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) defines Microgrid as “a group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources (DER) within clearly defined electrical boundaries that acts as a single controllable entity with respect to the grid and can connect and disconnect from the grid, operate in grid-connected or island mode” [65, p. 7]. The image depicted by this definition denotes a neighborhood or community level expanse of Microgrids. In fact, the funding opportunity announcement by DoE, from which the definition originates, proposes achieving community-defined objectives for electricity system resiliency through this DES configuration [65].

The additional layer of intelligent functionality on Microgrids, enabling real-time and transactive (2-way) information and energy flows between consumers and providers characterizes a Smart MicroGrid (SMG). Note that this is different from ׳Smart Grid׳ which refers to the network upgrades to the entire power grid system using digital processing and transactive communication technologies [66]. As such, while Smart Grid denotes a grid-wide network improvement, Smart MicroGrids are urban scale counterparts and, as some authors suggest, key components of future Smart Grids [67], [68], [69]. In fact, the DoE׳s Smart Grid initiative considers Microgrids as basic units of the future Smart Grid [12].

In the following section, we review these different technology configurations – DG, MG and SMG – from the literature and depict their evolving socio-technical sophistication. First, we consider the technical advantages and drawbacks of DG, MG and SMG configurations as discussed in literature, alongside the social perspectives relating to each. The review describes the contributions to technical sophistication of DES as each technology configuration improves over previous ones, although not in a linear fashion. The selection of literature for this review is thus informed and guided by the aim of drawing out parallel arguments that exist across different perspectives in particular reference to DG, MG and SMG, and at a scale that is distinctly urban. This helps explain how improvements in technology and their social implications co-evolve, summarized in Section 3. Lastly, the relevance of DES at the local scale is considered through a broad discussion of their implications for urban planning and policy in Section 4. This discussion in conducted in specific reference to climate change mitigation and adaptation based on the arguments drawn out. Finally, in Section 5, we conclude by underscoring further research avenues and directions.

Section snippets

Growth of Distributed Generation

Although there is some agreement on what DG means, it should be noted that ambiguities persist; differences in specifics like sizing, expanse of service areas, interconnection mode with the utility grid etc., continue to be negotiated (see [64] for details). Nevertheless, DG technologies like solar PV and solar thermal have numerous benefits. With cost reductions, these technologies are achieving grid parity in locations where retail electricity costs are extremely high, for instance in Hawaii

Interdisciplinary discussion of socio-technical dynamics

The discussion of DES technology configurations offers two general insights. First, it shows the evolution of DES from DG to MG to SMG, with each subsequent configuration overcoming the shortcomings in the previous one. It should be noted, however, that this continuum of technical sophistication does not suggest the practicality of one technical configuration over another, and does not detract from the technical, financial and institutional contexts which dictate their relative feasibility and

Implications for urban planning and policy

At the outset, it is easy to see that as DES continue to gain traction with decreasing costs of RET, cities become the locations of their diffusion, implicating urban planning and policy. The parallel arguments posited above from a sociotechnical view of the literature are considered in terms of their potential implications on urban regions. The following general observations can be made:

  • The emergence of grid-tied and community-owned energy generation systems, which entails expansion in the

Conclusion

This study provides a useful framework for examining the co-evolving social and technical dynamics – pertaining to Distributed Generation, MicroGrids, and Smart MicroGrids – as a continuum of increasing technical sophistication and smartness supported by extensive literature from various disciplines. Such a view of literature on DES has helped to draw out parallel arguments across interdisciplinary sociotechnical research landscape. Admittedly, the continuum greatly simplifies the process of

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

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