This book presents interdisciplinary approaches to help buildings, electrical energy networks and their users contribute to the energy and societal transition. Smart Grids and Buildings for Energy and Societal Transition examines the technologies, uses and imaginaries involved in implementing smart buildings and smart grids. Production and consumption forecasts, modeling of stakeholder involvement and self-consumption within a renewable energy community exploiting blockchain technology are examples developed with a view to fostering the emergence of smart grids. The potential of smart buildings, taking into account user comfort while increasing energy efficiency, is identified. Full-scale demonstrators are used to test the proposed solutions, and to ensure that users take full advantage of the potential for electrical flexibility.

This book presents interdisciplinary approaches to help buildings, electrical energy networks and their users contribute to the energy and societal transition. Smart Grids and Buildings for Energy and Societal Transition examines the technologies, uses and imaginaries involved in implementing smart buildings and smart grids. Production and consumption forecasts, modeling of stakeholder involvement and self-consumption within a renewable energy community exploiting blockchain technology are examples developed with a view to fostering the emergence of smart grids. The potential of smart buildings, taking into account user comfort while increasing energy efficiency, is identified. Full-scale demonstrators are used to test the proposed solutions, and to ensure that users take full advantage of the potential for electrical flexibility.

Climate change and the loss of biodiversity are now realities. Their causes and origins stem from the energy, goods and resources relied upon by the lifestyle of a growing part of humanity. Smart Users for Energy and Societal Transition presents this much needed transition, as well as the scenarios and paths essential to mitigating the impacts of climate change. It deals with transitions experimented in the form of ecosystems in universities, cities and territories, as well as with concepts of smart buildings, smart grids and smart cities, addressed to smart users – or not – in an interdisciplinary research context. Sociological issues related to the role of smart building users are discussed, ranging from acceptance to the appropriation of the technologies made available to them. The book highlights the ethics of this essential transition and the importance of individual behaviors in safeguarding humanity on a preserved planet.

Social Impacts of Smart Grids: The Future of Smart Grids and Energy Market Design explores the significant, unexplored societal consequences of our meteoric evolution towards intelligent, responsive and sustainable power generation and distribution systems—the so-called ‘smart grid’. These consequences include new patterns of consumption behavior, systems planning under increasing uncertainty, and the ever- growing complexities involved. The work covers the historical impact of the transformation, examines the changing role of production and consumption behavior, articulates the principles and options for socially responsible smart grid power market design, and explores social acceptance of the smart grid. Where relevant, it examines adjacent literatures from P2P electricity markets, electric vehicles, smart homes and smart cities, and related ‘internet of energy’ developments. Finally, it provides insights into mitigating the likely social consequences of our integrated low-carbon energy future. Evaluates the connections between the concept of sustainability and the social impacts of the smart grids Analyzes emerging trends in smart grids connected with trends towards the sharing economy Investigates environmental degradation awareness and environmental stewardship goals associated with smart grids Explores how to mitigate social challenges with effective smart grid power market design Integrates energy stewardship and social acceptance literatures into the discussion of the smart grid

This book focuses on near-zero energy buildings (NZEBs), smart communities and microgrids. In this context, demand response (DR) is associated with significant environmental and economic benefits when looking at how electricity grids, communities and buildings can operate optimally. In DR, the consumer becomes a prosumer with an important active role in the exchange of energy on an hourly basis. DR is gradually gaining ground with respect to the reduction of peak loads, grid balancing and dealing with the volatility of renewable energy sources (RES). This transition calls for high environmental awareness and new tools or services that will improve the dynamic as well as secure multidirectional exchange of energy and data. Overall, DR is identified as an important field for technological and market innovations aligned with climate change mitigation policies and the transition to sustainable smart grids in the foreseeable future. Smart Buildings, Smart Communities and Demand Response provides an insight into various intrinsic aspects of DR potential, at the building and the community level.

Smart zero-energy buildings and communities have a major role to play in the evolution of the electric grid towards alignment with carbon neutrality policies. The goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the built environment can be pursued through a holistic approach, including the drastic reduction of buildings’ energy consumption. The state-of-the-art in this field relates, on the one hand, to design methodologies and innovative technologies which aim to minimize the energy demand at the building level. On the other hand, the development of information and communication technologies, along with the integration of renewable energy and storage, provide the basis for zero and positive energy buildings and communities that can produce, store, manage and exchange energy at a local level. This book provides a structured and detailed insight of the state-of-the-art in this context based on the analysis of real case studies and applications.

This book elucidates what it means to transition to alternative sources of energy and discusses the potential for this energy transition to be a more democratic process. The book dynamically describes a recent sociotechnical study of a number of energy transitions occurring in several countries - France, Germany and Tunisia, and involving different energy technologies - including solar, on/off-shore wind, smart grids, biomass, low-energy buildings, and carbon capture and storage. Drawing on a pragmatist tradition of social inquiry, the authors examine the consequences of energy transition processes for the actors and entities that are affected by them, as well as the spaces for political participation they offer. This critical inquiry is organised according to foundational categories that have defined the energy transition - ‘renewable’ energy resources, markets, economic instruments, technological demonstration, spatiality (‘scale’) and temporality (‘horizon(s)’). Using a set of select case studies, this book systematically investigates the role these categories play in the current developments in energy transitions.