Residential electricity consumption in the United States has many adverse impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions, dependence on fossil fuels, and costs. Efficient and renewable energy technologies have the potential to help mitigate some of these impacts, but appear to be under-utilized in the United States. One major barrier to expanding the deployment of these kinds of technologies and maximizing the benefits they can provide is a lack of consumer engagement. The overall purpose of this thesis is to better understand the extent to which efficient and renewable energy technologies are being engaged with and what factors may influence such engagement (or lack thereof) through case studies on smart meters and a community anaerobic digester system (CADS) in Vermont. In this thesis, engagement involves awareness, support, and utilization. Additionally, a subset of awareness (a precursor to awareness for many) was examined in each of these studies, which is interest in receiving additional information on the technology. While each case study focuses on different aspects of engagement that are unique to each smart meters and CADS, there is some overlap on the topics explored, especially when it comes to awareness of the technology, potential concerns about the technology, and interest in receiving additional information on it. The focus of the first study is on how efficiently smart meters have been utilized by residential electricity customers in Vermont and what factors may influence this. This study was conducted via a statewide telephone survey in Vermont and involved a sample that was statistically representative of the state. These data were analyzed via quantitative analysis. The focus of the second study is on local support of a CADS in Vermont and what factors may influence this. This study was conducted via a mailout survey to houses located in or near the area where the community anaerobic digester was located, and the data were analyzed via quantitative and qualitative analysis. In both studies, limitations to engagement with the technologies were found. In the smart meter study, less than 50% of the surveyed customers reported having a smart meter and, for those who did report having a smart meter, less than 20% of them thought that the smart meter had reduced their electricity use. In the CADS study, 52.1% of respondents reported being familiar with the CADS project, and 69.8% reported support for the project. However, other forms of support for the project, such as WTP for the Cow Power program or willingness to drop of food scraps to the CADS, were more limited. Additionally, a variety of demographic and other factors were found to have a statistically significant impact on or relationship to consumer engagement with these technologies. Overall, the results show that there is some engagement with these technologies, but more can be done to bolster engagement with them. One potential strategy to increase engagement with these technologies may be to tailor outreach according to factors that correspond to different levels of engagement. It is hoped that the results from these studies can be used to help improve consumer engagement with these and other efficient and renewable energy technologies, thus hopefully expanding their utilization and benefits they can provide in the process.

Germany is to undertake a speedy phase-out of nuclear energy and at the same time move into the age of renewable energy. The policy basis for the transformation of the electricity system is the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). The aim of this report is to investigate the transformation of the German electricity system: popularly called the Energiewende. The report will introduce and analyze the Renewable Energy Sources Act as a policy instrument, and how the electricity grid needs to be developed in order to handle the increasing shares of electricity from renewable sources. The history, main regulations, and the success of the EEG will be investigated. Furthermore, the ways in which the EEG needs to be revised will be given attention. The imperfections of today’s electricity grid when implementing a dominating share of renewable electricity, and ways in which Information and Communication Technology can be used in solving those imperfections will be analyzed. The basis for this thesis is a literature study. Since this is a current topic changing frequently, up-to-date research is used as the main reference. The EEG is based on a feed-in tariff system. The main concern when implementing a dominating share of renewable electricity is the fluctuation over time. It is difficult to know how much power will be produced and when. The future challenge of the electricity grid is to keep meeting demand and supply in a secure way. To succeed with the transformation, the EEG not only needs to be revised but a solution to the system stability is also necessary. The EEG is considered a successful policy instrument but what it is missing today is incentives for balancing demand and supply, energy efficiency, and technology innovation. In order to deal with fluctuating sources, the main focus when upgrading the grid should be to improve the forecasting issues. The success of making RES a significant part in electricity generation could become strong proof for the global community that an electricity system based on renewable energy sources is possible.

[pt] A sociedade está vivendo em uma época de forte convergência tecnológica, onde novas tecnologias são descobertas e extintas em um prazo cada vez menor. Esta revolução tecnológica também já chegou para o setor de infraestrutura de distribuição de energia que são as Redes Elétricas Inteligentes, sendo o medidor inteligente o principal equipamento desta revolução. Apesar da evolução do parque de medidores brasileiros, a regulação comercial não acompanhou esta modernização e continua tendo como referência o sistema de medição convencional com a atuação de leituristas e não considerando as oportunidades de usar dados de consumo, mesmo que não sejam da data do faturamento nos casos de falhas de transmissão da informação e aplicação de ferramentas estatísticas para estimação no faturamento. Neste contexto, esta dissertação tem como objetivo avaliar as regras regulatórias de faturamento considerando as ausências de leituras, propor uma nova metodologia para definir como realizar o faturamento na ausência de leituras considerando consumos anteriores e usar ferramentas estatísticas para a definição do valor a ser faturado. A metodologia pode ser dividida em duas fases: (i) imputação de dados faltantes na base de dados decorrentes de possíveis erros de transmissão dos medidores; (ii) previsão do consumo de energia elétrica por cliente. O presente trabalho cumpriu os objetivos aos quais se propôs e apresentou uma alternativa promissora para o faturamento com medidores inteligentes e que utilize tecnologias de comunicação de baixo custo e que possam apresentar uma efetividade de medição abaixo da ideal, no caso, 100 por cento. / [en] Society is living in a time of strong technological convergence, where new technologies are discovered and extinguished in an ever shorter time frame. This technological revolution has also arrived for the energy distribution infrastructure with the Smart Grid, in which the smart meter being the main equipment of this revolution. Despite the evolution of the Brazilian meter park, the commercial regulation did not go along with this modernization and continues with reference to the conventional metering system and not considering the opportunities to use consumption data comes from out of the billing date, in cases of data transmission failures, being thus possible use statistical tools for billing estimation. In this context, this dissertation aims to evaluate the regulatory rules of billing considering the absences of readings, proposing a new methodology to define how to estimate the billing in the absence of readings, considering previous consumption and using statistical tools to define the value to be billed. The methodology can be divided into two phases: (i) imputation of missing data in the database, resulting from possible transmission errors of the meters; (ii) forecast of electricity consumption per customer. The present work fulfilled the objectives proposed and presented a promising alternative for billing with smart meters using low cost communication technologies that could have low measurement effectiveness, in this case, 100 percent.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Power outages can cause great harm to consumers, especially for commerce and industry. Therefore, it is important that the utilities attend the emergency occurences as fast as possible. In this context, it is done an avaliation of the reduction of the time of the emergency occurences after the exchange of conventional meters for smart meters. These meters provide instant information of the conditions of the distribution network, including the outages. The utility is immediately informed about the outage of energy, getting through this the exact location of the defect. Therefore, the exchange of the meters provides a reduction of the fault location time, with consequent reduction of the time of attendance of occurrences, whose values are monitored by the brazilian Electric Agency. As a consequence of this reduction, there is a reduction of individual continuity índex Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI), equivalent índex "System Average Interruption Duration Index" (SAIDI) and Expected Energy Not Supplied (EENS). This paper analyze the reduction of SAIDI and EENS in a distributor of Brazil, using scenarios of exchange of meters defined by Monte Carlo Method (MCM). The results demonstrate a reduction in SAIDI and EENS, but possibly the location where the search was conducted contributed to this reduction was not as significant as expected. / Interrupções de energia podem ocasionar grandes prejuízos aos consumidores, especialmente para o comércio e indústria. Por isso, torna-se importante que as concessionárias realizem o atendimento as ocorrências emergenciais de forma mais rápida possível. Nesse contexto, é realizada a avaliação da redução do tempo de atendimento as ocorrências emergenciais através da troca de medidores convencionais por medidores inteligentes. Esses medidores proporcionam a informação instantânea das condições da rede de distribuição, inclusive no que se refere a interrupções de energia. Através dos novos medidores, a concessionária é informada imediatamente sobre a falta de energia, obtendo através disso a localização exata do defeito ocorrido na rede de baixa tensão (BT). Portanto, a troca de medidores proporciona a redução do tempo de localização do defeito, com consequente redução do tempo de atendimento às ocorrências, cujos valores são fiscalizados pela Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica (ANEEL). Como consequência dessa redução, tem-se a redução do indicador de continuidade individual - Duração Individual por Unidade Consumidora (DIC) - e coletivo - Duração Equivalente por Unidade Consumidora (DEC) ambos limitados pela ANEEL. Além disso, ocorre redução da Energia Não Distribuída (END). Este trabalho realiza a análise de redução de DEC e END em uma Concessionária de Distribuição de Energia Elétrica do interior do Rio Grade do Sul, através de cenários de trocas de medidores definidos pelo Método de Monte Carlo (MMC). Os resultados demonstram que há redução de DEC e END, mas que possivelmente o local onde foi realizada a pesquisa colaborou para que essa redução não fosse tão significativa.

Digitalization is hitting the energy industry by empowering energy producers and retailers, butmore importantly it’s empowering the end customers and the energy producers and retailers areno longer in possession of all power. Due to digitalization, energy networks are beingmodernized and new emerging technologies called smart grids and smart meters have beenintroduced. Smart grids can automatically monitor energy flows and adjust to changes in energysupply and demand. Smart meters on the other hand empowers the consumers to adapt theirenergy usage in both time and volume to different energy prices throughout the day by costcuttingtheir energy.With empowered and conscious end-customers, electricity retailers will have to compete in newways or risk losing their business. There is a risk that the majority of the over 100 electricityretailers in Sweden will be wiped out with time if data and information is not leveraged to theend-customers. This is potentially also threatening the business of TSU as well as othercompanies providing IT solutions to the energy market.For long Tieto Smart Utility (TSU) has offered IT services for both electricity retailers anddistributors across the Nordics. In relation to recently developed solutions as well as theopportunities and challenges created by digitalization and disruptive technologies such as smartmeters, the Nordic countries are in the forefront. Hence, TSU sees a potential in increasing itspresence in Western Europe to provide services to the retailers and distributors. However, inorder to expand to Western European countries TSU seeks to have a greater marketunderstanding of the different markets, in terms of for example market size, market structure,regulations. The problem is to have a structured and comprehensive way to increase marketunderstanding when assessing new West European energy markets due to the major differencesin each country.This thesis therefore aims to develop a framework which enables IT solution providers toconduct a market opportunity analysis in order to increase market awareness and assess theopportunities and potential in Western European markets, influenced by the smart-meter roll outand thus facilitate strategic decisions.A framework has been developed on the foundation on existing frameworks and applied onTSU by conducting a case study on a market opportunity assessment tool for energy IT solutionproviders. The framework consists of three levels of analysis; European-, Country- andCustomer Level which intends to identify market opportunities and potential.This thesis provides a framework for companies who wants to assess market opportunities andfacilitates strategic decisions regarding the potential of entering the markets. The findings of thisthesis has shown that the market opportunities for TSU are the greatest in Germany especiallydue to the market magnitude as well as the status for the smart meter roll-out. Furthermore,since IT solution providers usually offers many different services and solutions, the findings canbe used in a larger extent in order to asses the potential depending on type service and solution.

Additional electricity meters behind the grid access point can improve understanding of energy consumption patterns and thus, adjust consumption behavior. For this study, smart meters were installed in three hostels, out of which two are analyzed further in this paper. Starting from an onsite inspection, all appliances were assigned to reasonable groups for sub-metering. Based on data for the year 2021, the sites are characterized according to the sub-metering concept. In addition, load profiles for type-days are derived, which allows to establish a baseload during COVID lockdown and compare it to consumption patterns for normal occupation. In the prescriptive part, the demand profiles are analyzed regarding their economic potential for load shifting. Consumption data for one week with normal occupation is used as input for techno-economic modeling. The mixed-integer model minimizes electricity purchasing costs for different scenarios including dynamic tariffs and onsite generation from photovoltaics.

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Essay 1: People’s planning to evade the inheritance tax curtails its merits. However, the extent of planning remains a matter of argument. According to popular belief, it is widespread, but few estimates have been presented. This study estimates the extent of estate size under-reporting, a form of inheritance tax planning, using the repeal of the Swedish tax on spousal bequests, in 2004, and a regression discontinuity design. The results show that, on average, estate sizes were 17 percent lower, and the share of estates that completely escaped tax payments was 26 percent larger due to under-reporting. As a consequence, government revenues from the tax were only half of what they would have been without under-reporting. Moreover, preferences and means for under-reporting were not only prevalent among the wealthy, but also among those receiving relatively small inheritances. The study contributes to a growing literature on tax avoidance and evasion by estimating the extent of estate size under-reporting, its effect on government revenues and by showing that it was widespread in the population. / Essay 2: There is an ongoing debate about whether or not inheritance and estate taxes are effective in raising revenues and in contributing to a more equal society. The different views on transfer taxes are largely dependent on beliefs about whether people plan their wealth to avoid these taxes. In this paper, we follow Kopczuk (2007) and study people's planning response to the onset of terminal illness. An extension of Kopczuk’s work is that we can effectively control for responses in wealth caused by terminal illness but unrelated to tax planning. We do this by exploiting a tax reform in Sweden that removed the incentives for people to plan their estates to avoid inheritance taxation. We find some evidence of long-term terminal illness inducing responses consistent with tax planning, but that these are not widespread or efficient enough to reduce the overall tax burden in the study population. Our results, similarly to those of Kopczuk, show that people appear to postpone some decisions about their estates until shortly before death. / Essay 3: Small businesses form an essential part of all economies, making it necessary to understand the conditions under which they operate. This paper contributes to that understanding by studying how survival, income and profits of small businesses change when their owners receive inheritances. Using a difference-in-differences strategy and Swedish registry data on small businesses and estate reports, it is shown that survival rates increase with almost three percentage points when the owners receive inheritances of, on average, SEK 275,000. However, the profits of the surviving small businesses and the income of their owners do not increase, indicating that the inheritance did not increase survival by making investments possible, investments to increase profits and income, but by enabling small business owners of lower ability to subsist. The study contributes to the literature on the conditions for small businesses by providing causal evidence on the effect of increased access to capital among existing businesses. It thereby complements the rich literature on the role of capital for small business start-ups. / Essay 4: This article shows that a simple monetary incentive can dramatically reduce electric energy consumption (EEC) in the residential sector and simultaneously achieve a more desirable allocation of EEC costs. The analyses are based on data from a policy experiment conducted in 2011 and 2012 by a private housing company in about 1,800 apartments. Roughly 800 of the tenants (treatment group) were subject to a change from having unlimited EEC included in their rent to having to pay the market price for their own EEC. This change was achieved by installing EEC meters in each apartment. Tenants in the other 1,000 apartments (control group) experienced no policy change and were subject to apartment-level billing and metering during the entire study period. Using a quasiexperimental research design and daily data on EEC from 2007 to 2015, we estimate that apartment-level billing and metering permanently reduce EEC by about 25%. Moreover, we show that households reduce EEC immediately after being informed that they will be billed for EEC, the reduction is larger when the production cost is higher, and the reduction in EEC comes almost exclusively from households with very high EEC before the policy change. Finally, we show that apartment-level billing and metering are cost-effective, with a cost per reduced kilowatt hour of US$0.01, and for each invested dollar, the social value of reductions in air pollution, including CO2 emissions, is $2.

Nos sistemas de distribuição, a grande ramificação, radialidade, heterogeneidade, dinâmica das cargas e demais particularidades, impõem dificuldades à localização de faltas, representando um desafio permanente na busca por melhores indicadores de continuidade e confiabilidade no fornecimento de energia elétrica. A regulação incisiva dos órgãos do setor, a penetração de geração distribuída e a tendência de modernização trazida pelas redes inteligentes, demandam detalhados estudos para readequação dos sistemas elétricos a conjuntura atual. Neste contexto, esta tese propõe o desenvolvimento de uma metodologia para localização de faltas em sistemas de distribuição empregando a capacidade dos medidores inteligentes de monitoramento e de aquisição de tensão em diferentes pontos da rede elétrica. A abordagem proposta baseia-se na estimação, por ferramentas de aprendizado de máquina, das impedâncias de sequência zero e positiva entre os pontos de alocação dos medidores inteligentes e de ocorrência de falta, e do estado de sensibilização destes medidores frente a correntes de falta. Assim, calculando-se as respectivas distâncias elétricas em função das impedâncias estimadas e definidas as direções das mesmas em relação a topologia da rede, busca-se identificar o ponto ou área com maior sobreposição de distâncias elétricas como o local ou a região de maior probabilidade da falta em relação aos medidores inteligentes. Para tanto, faz-se uso combinado de ferramentas convencionais e inteligentes pela aplicação dos conceitos de análise de sistemas elétricos, diagnóstico dos desvios de tensão, e classificação de padrões por meio da técnica de aprendizado de máquina denominada Árvore de Decisão. Os resultados obtidos pela aplicação desta metodologia demonstram que o uso de informações redundantes fornecidas pelos medidores inteligentes minimiza os erros de estimação. Além disso, para a maior parte dos casos testados o erro absoluto máximo de localização da falta se concentra entre 200 m e 1000 m, o que reduz a busca pelo local de ocorrência da falta pelas equipes de manutenção da rede elétrica. / In distribution systems, the dense branching, radial pattern, heterogeneity, dynamic of the loads, and other characteristics create several difficulties in defining the fault location, representing a great challenge in the search for better continuity and reliability indicators of the electrical energy supply. The intense government regulations, the increasing use of distributed generation, and the trend towards modernization via smart grids require a detailed study in order to upgrade the current systems. In this context, this thesis proposes a methodology development for fault location in distribution systems with the use of smart meters monitors and the acquisition of voltage at different points in the electrical network. The proposed method is based on the estimation, using machine learning, of the state of awareness of smart meters across the fault currents and of the zero and positive sequence impedance between the location of these meters and of the fault occurrence. Therefore, by calculating the electrical distances as a function of the estimated impedances and defining its the direction in relation to the network topology, the point/region with the biggest superposition of the electrical distances can be assigned as the point/region with the highest probability of fault occurrence in relation to the smart probes. For this purpose, a machine learning technique named decision tree is used to apply concept analyses to the electrical systems, diagnosis of voltage deviations, and pattern recognition of the electrical systems. The results obtained by the application of this methodology demonstrate that the use of redundant information provided by the smart meters minimizes estimation errors. In addition, for most of the cases tested, the maximum absolute error of the fault location is concentrated between 200 m and 1000 m, which reduces the search for the fault location by the maintenance teams of the electrical network.

Through the Smart Metering Initiative in the Canadian province of Ontario, all residential electricity customers will be converted from a tiered rate regime to a time-of-use (TOU) rate regime by the year 2010. Although TOU rates are designed to be cost-neutral for the average consumer, research suggests that TOU rates may affect consumers differently depending on their socioeconomic characteristics. In an effort to better understand the effects of TOU rates on lower-income and senior-headed households, a case-study in Milton was conducted between June and December of 2007. The overarching thesis question is: What are the behavioural responses to, and financial impacts of, TOU electricity rates on lower-income and senior-headed households? Nine expert interviews were conducted with Ontario professionals working in government, environmental non-profit groups, citizen advocacy organizations and affordable housing associations in order to provide context for the study. Time-differentiated electricity consumption data were then collected from 199 households from two senior housing complexes and two affordable housing complexes in Milton, Ontario between June and December 2007. A questionnaire was also sent to each household to determine some socio-economic and structural characteristics of the households. The electricity consumption data collected from the four sites suggest that the households would not benefit financially from TOU rates given electricity consumption behaviour during the period prior to the implementation of TOU rates in June 2007. Thus, they would have to change their behaviour in order to benefit financially from TOU rates. During this pre-TOU period, Site A, Site B and Site C would have paid more, on average, for their electricity under TOU rates than on tiered rates ($0.34, $0.61 and $0.15 per week, respectively). While Site D, on average, would have seen no change under TOU rates. A conservation effect was detected by comparing the electricity consumption from billing periods in 2006 to corresponding billing periods in 2007 after the implementation of TOU rates. Site A saw a conservation effect during the first corresponding billing period (35%); while Site B saw a conservation effect for three corresponding billing periods (21%, 24% and 9%). Site C saw a conservation effect for the first five corresponding billing periods (ranging from 8% to 21%), while Site D saw a conservation effect for all corresponding billing periods (ranging from 10% to 34%). The presence of a conservation effect at Site D was unexpected, particularly because households at Site D are not responsible for paying their own electricity bills. Although a conservation effect was observed after the implementation of TOU rates, the extent to which it could be attributed to the implementation of TOU rates is unclear, and should be investigated further. There was no considerable shift in the proportion of electricity consumed during each of the peak periods during the summer TOU period for Site A and Site D after the introduction of TOU rates. There was, however, a slight reduction in the portion of electricity consumed during the summer TOU period for Site B and Site C (0.2% and 0.1% per week, respectively). Due to the change in the on-, mid- and off-peak schedule from the summer TOU period to the winter TOU period, the households consume more electricity during the off-peak periods in the winter than they do during the off-peak periods in the summer (even though their patterns of consumption do not change). Similar to the pre-TOU period, during the summer post-TOU period, Site A and Site B, and Site C, on average, paid more for electricity (commodity) under TOU rates than they would have paid if they had continued on tiered rates ($0.38, $0.51 and $0.16 more per week, respectively), while Site D would have seen no change in their electricity costs. In contrast, during the winter post-TOU period several sites paid less for electricity on TOU rates than they would have if they had continued on tiered rates. Site B, Site C and Site D paid, on average, $0.78, $0.16 and $1.76 less per week, respectively. Although Site A paid more under on TOU rates during the winter post-TOU (on average $0.18 more per week), the cost was less than during the summer post-TOU period. The change in costs expressed here does not reflect any reduced costs that may have resulted from conservation. For example, if the households were shown to have a conservation effect, they might have lower electricity costs. Additionally, the changes in costs do not reflect any additional fees or charges that might be attributed to the smart meter installation and the Smart Metering Initiative (e.g., additional fees from Milton Hydro). In conclusion, TOU rates appear to be ineffective at motivating these lower-income and senior-headed households in Milton, Ontario to shift electricity from on-peak periods to off-peak periods, however, a reduction in electricity usage may be attributed to TOU rates. Further research is required to confirm these effects. It is important to note that some of the lower-income and senior-headed households in this study appeared to see an increase in their electricity bill, particularly during the summer TOU period. Lower-income and senior-headed households are thought to be less able to shift electricity consumption, therefore it is important to develop mechanisms to identify households that are at risk of bill increases.