Drivers Of Energy Consumption Research Articles

A Methodology to Estimate High-Resolution Gridded Datasets on Energy Consumption Drivers in Ecuador’s Residential Sector during the 2010–2020 Period

There are no methodologies in the literature for estimating the temporal and spatial distribution of consumption drivers for the residential sector of a region or country. Factors such as energy requirement, population density, outdoor temperature, and socioeconomic aspects are considered the major drivers of consumption and have been found to directly influence residential energy consumption. In this study, a methodology is proposed to evaluate the impact of the above drivers in domestic energy consumption in Ecuador between 2010 and 2020 using publicly available data. This methodology aims to provide a spatiotemporal approach to estimate high-resolution gridded datasets for a 10-year period, 2010–2020, assessing seven energy drivers: (1) gridded population density, (2) gridded space heating requirements, (3) gridded space cooling requirements, (4) gridded water heating requirements, (5) gridded Gross Domestic Product (GDP), (6) gridded per capita GDP, and (7) the Human Development Index (HDI). Drivers 1 to 6 were analyzed at one square kilometer (1 km2), whereas HDI was analyzed at the city level. These results can be used to evaluate energy-planning strategies in a range of sustainable scenarios. This methodology can be used to evaluate a range of consumption drivers to evaluate long-term energy policies to reach the net-zero target by midcentury. The proposed methodology can be reproduced in other countries and regions. Future research could explore the spatiotemporal correlation of the consumption drivers provided in this study.

Drivers of Energy Consumption in Portuguese Hospitals - a panel analysis

Abstract Background Buildings represent about 40% of global energy consumed, playing an important role in sustainable transformation. Health institutions account for 10% of the energy consumed by the commercial sector, however public policies do not cover energy management in this setting. Energy poverty in hospitals, such as poor heating, affect patients’ and workers’ health and wellbeing. As such, this study aims to analyse drivers of electricity and natural gas consumption of Portuguese hospitals. Methods Data regarding 25 hospitals in Portugal’s National Health Service from 2015-2020 were analysed as logarithms in a panel of 18 trimesters, using Panel-corrected Standard Errors estimators. The PSAR model considers the presence of an autocorrelation within the panel, and the Hetonly modeling deals with heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation. Results There is an elastic elasticity and a statistical significance of electricity and natural gas consumption in relation to the number of beds occupied, with a greater variation of natural gas than electricity consumption. In turn, there is a predominance of an inelastic elasticity of electricity and natural gas consumption in relation to the number of workers and number of emergency episodes. Conclusions Energy consumption is highly influenced by the number of beds occupied, highlighting the need for a strategic management of energy and planning of hospital capacity. Overall, the positive absolute effects of the elasticities for energy consumption reveal that hospitals do not use effective measures aimed at rational and cleaner energy consumption, requiring a paradigm shift in the energy matrix. Increasing energy efficiency policies and environmental practices, such as autonomous energy production and renewable energies, might effectively contribute in reducing conventional energy consumption and associated energy poverty, which in turn improve patients’ and workers’ conditions within the hospital and their health and wellbeing. Key messages • Strategic energy management and capacity planning can contribute to lower energy poverty and a paradigm shift in the energy matrix. • Hospital sustainability policies must include energy management, including autonomous energy production and investment in renewable energies.

Geospatial and temporal estimation of climatic, end-use demands, and socioeconomic drivers of energy consumption in the residential sector in Ecuador

It is widely acknowledged that the drivers for energy consumption in the residential sector are ambient temperature, energy demand, population density, and socio-economic conditions. However, there are no studies in the literature assessing the temporal and spatial distribution of these drivers for a region or country. The decision-making process of the energy transition will be enhanced by using geospatial-resolved and temporal-explicit energy consumption drivers. This study estimates the climatic, end-use demands, and socio-economic drivers of energy consumption in the residential sector of Ecuador at a high spatio-temporal resolution between 2010 and 2020. This research uses publicly available datasets to calculate seven energy consumption drivers in the residential sector of Ecuador: (1) calibrated gridded population density at 1 km2 resolution; (2) validated gridded space heating demand at 1 km2 resolution; (3) validated gridded space cooling demand at 1 km2 resolution; (4) validated gridded water heating demand at 1 km2 resolution; (5) calibrated gridded gross domestic product at 1 km2 resolution; (6) calibrated gridded gross domestic product per capita at 1 km2 resolution; and (7) calibrated regional human development index, at city level. Disaggregation of the drivers at a high spatial resolution for the entire country in a range of 10 years was considered. The final high-1 km2 resolution results can be used for the evaluation of different energy policies in terms of long-term planning and in techno-economic modelling of energy systems and decarbonisation pathways.

Electrochemical Disinfection in Water and Wastewater Treatment: Identifying Impacts of Water Quality and Operating Conditions on Performance.

Electrochemical disinfection—a method in which chemical oxidants are generated in situ via redox reactions on the surface of an electrode—has attracted increased attention in recent years as an alternative to traditional chemical dosing disinfection methods. Because electrochemical disinfection does not entail the transport and storage of hazardous materials and can be scaled across centralized and distributed treatment contexts, it shows promise for use both in resource limited settings and as a supplement for aging centralized systems. In this Critical Review, we explore the significance of treatment context, oxidant selection, and operating practice on electrochemical disinfection system performance. We analyze the impacts of water composition on oxidant demand and required disinfectant dose across drinking water, centralized wastewater, and distributed wastewater treatment contexts for both free chlorine- and hydroxyl-radical-based systems. Drivers of energy consumption during oxidant generation are identified, and the energetic performance of experimentally reported electrochemical disinfection systems are evaluated against optimal modeled performance. We also highlight promising applications and operational strategies for electrochemical disinfection and propose reporting standards for future work.

Shrinking ageing population and other drivers of energy consumption and CO2 emission in the residential sector: A case from Eastern Europe

Energy use and the resulting environmental impacts are interrelated with socioeconomic development of a certain region. What is more, the residential sector plays an important role as a major consumer of the energy. Thus, it is important to identify the underlying patterns of energy consumption and the resulting CO2 emission amidst the external shocks. This paper focuses on the case of residential energy consumption and CO2 emission in Lithuania over 2004–2016. This example is important given the context of shifts in the size and structure of population, economy and energy transformation in Lithuania that occurred over the period covered. The analysis relies on the index decomposition analysis and factorizes the changes in CO2 emission into the effects of population size, household size, dwelling area, energy intensity and carbon factor. The results indicate that decline in energy intensity and population played the most important role in pushing the CO2 emission down, yet these effects were offset by the changes in the lifestyle of the population (i.e. household size and dwelling area) along with increasing carbon factor. These findings are contrasted to the corresponding findings form the earlier studies around the world and the resulting policy implications are delivered.

Technological gap, scale economy, and China's industrial energy demand

Abstract The industrial sector in China is energy-intensive and accounts for more than 60% of the nation's total energy consumption (demand). Narrating the story behind the growth of China's industrial energy consumption could help us understand the past and prepare for the future. This paper aims to investigate the factors affecting China's industrial energy consumption in the 21st century by using an extended production-theoretical decomposition approach (PDA) with considering the technological gap and scale of the economy effects. The new proposed decomposition framework includes four new factors, namely, the energy technological gap, the output technological gap, energy scale efficiency, and output scale efficiency. The results show that in the 21st century, the energy consumption of China's industry increased by more than one billion tons of standard coal. The expansion of the industrial economy is a dominant driver of China's industrial energy consumption, while potential energy intensity, energy technology, and output technology are the three largest energy-saving factors. In addition to the conventional factors, the newly proposed factors also have important effects on China's industrial energy consumption. Specifically, output scale efficiency is an energy-saving factor, while the energy technological gap, output technological gap, and energy scale efficiency are drivers of energy consumption. This suggests that China's industry is at the stage of returns to scale that is beneficial to output performance but harmful to energy performance. Meanwhile, the widening of the industrial technological gaps has negative impacts on China's industrial energy conservation. The proposed decomposition approach can provide information that cannot be obtained from traditional approaches and it can also be applied to many other cases for investigating feasible paths of energy-saving and emissions reduction.

Energy (electricity) consumption in South African hotels: A panel data analysis

Addressing the large energy consumption of hotels requires an understanding of the factors that drive this consumption. This enquiry is crucial for South Africa which has experienced significant strain in meeting its domestic energy demand. This has occurred alongside increases in international tourists, adding to the pressure on already strained resources. This paper tests hypotheses on drivers of energy consumption in hotels using a novel panel dataset which presents daily consumption data for 22 hotels across South Africa. Findings from various specifications of the Dynamic Random Effects Model suggest that the number of rooms in a hotel, the services and facilities offered, and climatic conditions are strong drivers of consumption. While the role of occupancy could not be robustly ascertained due to severe data limitations, findings indicate that price regulation plays a significant role in curtailing electricity consumption, even in high-end hotels. Results further suggest that in the design of guidelines for energy efficiency in South African hotels, the energy consumption of the facilities and services offered should be the first point of call, and the strenuous impact of extreme weather conditions on energy consumption needs to be factored in at the phase of building design and construction.

A methodology for electricity monitoring and targeting (M&T) in an Irish precision engineering SME

Energy management in small to medium enterprises (SMEs) remains undeveloped due to competing priorities and a lack of specialist knowledge. However considerable savings can be demonstrated where companies take the time to investigate their energy use. Savings of over 20% can be achieved through changes to operational and behavioural practice. Additional benefits, such as improved production tracking and improved maintenance, can been seen which add to the value in undertaking an energy monitoring and targeting (M&T) plan. The method described involves the application of a series of ‘virtuous’ cycles of engagement and energy savings that can be applied from the highest factory level right down to a specific machine. The analysis of overall energy use from utility bills and the visualisation of typical machine power profiles aid in understanding the drivers of energy consumption and in engaging management in energy efficiency. The monitoring of specific machines in production highlights the significant consumption of electricity during non-productive times. The development of energy performance indicators is described for product variations which can be useful in tendering for business and selecting optimum production pathways. The approach is illustrated with data from a case study of a precision engineering SME based in Limerick, Ireland.

Outlook of Indian Household Energy and Emission Profile

With rapid growth in economy, energy consumption in developing countries like India is increasing at a fast rate primarily due to increase in demand in energy intensive sectors. The adverse impacts on the environment due to high energy demand are also becoming evident. Energy consumption in household sector can be defined as the energy consumed in homes to meet the needs of the residents themselves. To understand the residential energy consumption pattern it is important to identify the drivers of energy use in developing India. The basic drivers are population growth, household size, fuel and technology, income level and life style changes. Energy and climate change related concern of the Indian economy include the growing gap between demand and supply of energy, and environmental externalities associated with energy use. In this paper the drivers of energy consumption and emission are identified and the Indian household energy consumption pattern is analyzed.

A data framework for measuring the energy consumption of the non-domestic building stock

The transition to a low-carbon economy urgently demands better information on the drivers of energy consumption. UK government policy has prioritized energy efficiency in the built stock as a means of carbon reduction, but the sector is historically information poor, particularly the non-domestic building stock. This paper presents the results of a pilot study that investigated whether and how property and energy consumption data might be combined for non-domestic energy analysis. These data were combined in a ‘Non-Domestic Energy Efficiency Database’ to describe the location and physical attributes of each property and its energy consumption. The aim was to support the generation of a range of energy-efficiency statistics for the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors of the non-domestic building stock, and to provide robust evidence for national energy-efficiency and carbon-reduction policy development and monitoring. The work has brought together non-domestic energy data, property data and mapping in a ‘data framework’ for the first time. The results show what is possible when these data are integrated and the associated difficulties. A data framework offers the potential to inform energy-efficiency policy formation and to support its monitoring at a level of detail not previously possible. Le passage à une économie bas carbone exige de toute urgence de meilleures informations sur les facteurs de consommation énergétique. La politique du gouvernement britannique a donné la priorité à l'efficacité énergétique du parc bâti en tant que moyen de réduction du carbone, mais ce secteur est historiquement pauvre en informations, s'agissant en particulier du parc bâti non résidentiel. Cet article présente les résultats d'une étude pilote qui a étudié si et comment les données relatives à l'immobilier et à la consommation énergétique pouvaient être combinées afin d'analyser la consommation d'énergie non résidentielle. Ces données ont été combinées en une « Base de Données de l'Efficacité Energétique Non Résidentielle », de façon à décrire l'emplacement et les attributs physiques de chaque bien immobilier et sa consommation d'énergie. Le but était d'appuyer la création d'un éventail de statistiques sur l'efficacité énergétique concernant les secteurs industriels, commerciaux et institutionnels du parc bâti non résidentiel, et de fournir des éléments probants solides pour le développement et le suivi d'une politique nationale d'efficacité énergétique et de réduction du carbone. Ces travaux ont rassemblé pour la première fois sous forme d'un « cadre de référence » des données sur l'énergie non résidentielle, des données sur l'immobilier et un mappage de ces données. Les résultats montrent ce qu'il est possible de faire lorsque ces données sont intégrées, ainsi que les difficultés qui s'y rapportent. Un cadre de référence offre la possibilité d'influer sur l'élaboration des politiques d'efficacité énergétique et d'en appuyer le suivi à un niveau de précision qui n'était pas possible auparavant. Mots clés: parc bâti, consommation, données, base de données, statistiques énergétiques, énergie, politique fondée sur des données probantes, cadre de référence