There are generally two paths or routes to IE: product based analysis and industrial symbiosis (IS). This thesis concerns itself with the drivers and barriers to industrial ecology, focusing primarily on the symbiosis route. Although forms of IS have occurred throughout history, the implementation of IS networks on a regional or industrial park basis is emerging as potentially the main driver for IE. The research examines several system levels (national, regional, network, company) and combines research from: 1: Action research – implementation of an IS network and case study research of the local process industries; 2: Desk-based research – examination of regional and national policies; 3: Lessons and experiences from the UK National Industrial Symbiosis Programme; and findings from meetings and collaboration with BCSD-UK, the programme’s facilitators. The thesis examines how at the local and regional level IS networks can be successfully implemented by building on regional strengths in terms of cooperation and networking; and also building on policies and strategies. It examines how at the national level industrial ecology can incorporate and build in strategies and policies including: clusters, innovation, regional development, waste and sustainable development. It is argued that for IE to succeed it has to be learnt by the main actors at all levels (company, regional and national). A technology transfer model is adopted to help understand and demonstrate how this learning and evolution could occur. The research shows that it is usually a complex combination of small barriers that hinder IS development because the incentives are insufficient. The ability of IE to fit within, and indeed to unify policies and strategies, is seen to be the biggest driver. But the framework demonstrates the importance of <i>association</i> and hence how policy can induce a behavioural/cultural shift by targeting the <i>association</i> of key players. Importantly, drivers should concentrate on IE (the wider system perspective) because IS applied without wider system considerations can develop less favourable outcomes.

This thesis contends that development of mini and micro hydro power (MHP) resources can be both effective and beneficial for the development of Northern India. Fuelwood is the main energy source used in rural areas of the Indian Himalayan region. However, the increasing demand for forestry resources has resulted in the decline of the forest cover and caused environmental degradation of the region. In addition, as the rural system is brought into the wider market economy there is need to diversity economic activities in the region, which will further increase demand for energy. A substitute energy source is required to meet the increasing rural requirements. Commercial energy supplies to the remote hill areas have been inadequate and unreliable, therefore there has been growing interest in utilising decentralised renewable energy sources, of which MHP is one of the most mature and flexible. Much of the data for this study was collected during a year long study trip to India, based at the University of Roorkee in the north of Uttar Pradesh. In this thesis the development of MHP is considered in the wider context of Himalayan rural development planning and the overall energy sector in India. The experience of implementing MHP as a decentralised power source in India is also compared to the achievements in other Asian countries. An assessment has been made of the present infrastructure for MHP development and field research is reported and analysed from MHP projects in the hill region of Uttar Pradesh. The main aims of the study were to investigate the need for and the viability of MHP in the North of India.

Mini hydro plants were first installed in Sri Lanka at the end of the 19<SUP>th</SUP> Century, to provide mechanical and dc power to the tea estates. By the middle of the 20<SUP>th</SUP> Century grid supplies had reached the tea factories and, by 1970, most of the mini hydro plants had fallen into disuse. In the 1980's a weak grid almost entirely dependent on hydro-electricity and a number of dry years, caused prolonged periods of power shortages and interruptions to the electricity supply. These occurred all over Sri Lanka and, in particular, in the rural areas where the tea estates were situated. This, among other reasons, lowered the quantity and quality of tea production, and caused considerable economic difficulties in a country whose main export is tea. Managers of the tea estates started to look for more reliable, stand-alone sources of power. A number of feasibility studies of mini hydropower were undertaken on the estates but very few led to plants being installed. This thesis contends that mini hydropower is an appropriate and needed source of energy on the tea estates in Sri Lanka. It looks at the history, politics, geography and hydrology of Sri Lanka in the context of their effect on hydropower development in Sri Lanka. It discusses the process of tea manufacture and the suitability of the use of mini hydropower as a source of energy in the factory, as a source of rural electrification for the estate workers and as a diversification by selling surplus to the Electricity Board. Previous feasibility studies in mini hydropower, both international and national, are considered and appraised. This information was mainly collected on extended field visits to Sri Lanka. Over twelve months was spent in the country gaining the knowledge and expertise that was embodied in software used to survey a considerable number of sites in the tea estates. The further knowledge gained in this surveying process is discussed, results are given and conclusions drawn which suggest a strategy and methodology for the expansion of the mini hydropower capacity and industry in the tea estates of Sri Lanka.

The research study provides a participatory methodology appropriate for the management of natural resources. The major natural resources, i.e., agriculture, forest and community lands are considered. A large proportion of these resources is degraded or is in various stages of degradation. The past and the present management practices have been inadequate to maintain these resources in proper state for sustainable use. In this study, a planning process for the management of these natural resources is demonstrated by selecting a typical site which consists of six villages, with their resources, at Sohna in Haryana State of India. It involves different participants, namely the local people, Village Panchayats (village level elected administrative bodies) and the government agencies which are responsible singly or jointly for the management. In the planning, the natural resources and the goods and services derived from them along with people, livestock and their activities are viewed as an interactive and inter-dependent, 'whole system'. A systems approach has been used, beginning with detailed analysis of socio-economic and bio-physical major sub-systems of the selected site, which is followed by integration of different components of the sub-systems to achieve the specified objectives (environmental amelioration and social welfare) and goals (demand of food, fodder, timber and other minor products, employment opportunities and maximisation of income) through the use of mathematical programming especially goal and linear programming. Two alternative management scenarios - village level and community level - are presented and discussed. The salient features of this study are integration of agriculture resource with the management of common and forest lands, hitherto all of them managed singly, holistic view of management and the participation of stakeholders in the management process.

The introduction of the New Electricity Trading Arrangements (NETA) in the UK from 31^st March 2001 changed the nature of electricity trading from a centrally traded marginal pricing mechanism, known as the Pool, to a series of bilateral markets.  This changed the nature of the risks ‘facing market participants notably, higher price volatility, no single reference price on which to base long-term contracts and potentially punitive imbalance charges for participants whose commitments were not met. It would appear that Suppliers will be the major casualties of the changes because their function under the previous system was primarily the billing and metering of customers whereas the introduction of NETA means that they must submit exact information about their demand requirements and contracted position to the System Operator, 4 hours in advance of each half-hour. Any shortfalls between expectation and metered volume will attract prohibitive imbalance charges. Accurate forecasting is essential. This thesis describes effective forecasting methodologies that can be used by Suppliers to forecast their half-hourly demand at Bulk Supply Level. Artificial Neural Networks were selected as the most effective forecasting approach from an examination of the various short-term forecasting methods and by analytical comparison with Multiple Linear Regressions. The Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was optimised and configured to suit NETA’s requirements. The optimised ANN was used to forecast according to the time-of-day, and the day-of-week, to determine the most accurate configuration. Both models had their strengths, with the parallel method being more accurate but the linear, easier to implement. The present methods achieved better financial results than the current industrial standard when compared in a worked example.

This thesis examines the electricity supply and trading positions of the four Central European states; Poland, Hungary and the Czech and Slovak Republics. These states are situated at 'the cross-roads of Europe' and share a common history of centralised Socialist government. The unprecedented events of 1989 allowed them to contemplate a common goal of achieving membership of the wider European community and its institutions, following the example of their former ally, East Germany. This process of shaking off the legacy of the Communist past and looking towards the West extends to the field of connection of electricity supply networks. Throughout the history of electricity supply, the trend has been to connect regional supply networks together into larger national and international grids. This provides for many advantages in terms of reduced costs and increased security of supply, detailed in this thesis. Interconnection also requires significant investment, in both transmission equipment and grid control measures, and this investment must be recovered. Methods for recovering this investment and correctly allocating the costs and benefits of interconnection are detailed in this thesis. In Europe the process of grid connection has reached the present state of four international 'supergrids', each with different characteristics. The removal of the barrier of mutual suspicion between East and West has allowed consideration to be made of increasing the degree of connection between these networks and the volume of power traded across these connections. In order for this to take place a number of technical problems must be overcome and a clear economic case for the benefits must be made. To build such a case, a detailed examination is made of the energy supply position of each of the states, the structure and capacity of their electricity supply industries and the historic level of electricity traded between them. The Central European states common desire to join the European Union will have a significant impact on their electricity supply industries, particularly with regard to their environmental problems, but also provides access to sources of finance for investment in improving their systems.

The conventional merit-order based dispatch of generating plant in mixed fuel systems is now frequently superseded by: the scheduling, at base-load, of plant in response to commercial agreements for the compulsory purchase of fuels such as gas; operation of coal-fired plant in the intermediate-load range; and the displacement of hydro plant to supply peak loads. Hydro plant may be dispatched to meet predicted peak demand, to trade electricity at commercially opportune times, to adjust water levels in the system, for environmental reasons or flood mitigation. In countries where electricity supply utilises have a significant resource of large-hydro many of these plants operate in cascade systems. The hydrological interdependence of plants in cascade hydro electric systems means that operation of any one plant will have an effect on water levels and storage at other plants in the system. Water levels in the system are also affected by the weather. Hydrologically and commercially efficient operation of cascade systems requires that the water and energy are managed simultaneously. This requires considerable experience and expertise. The hydrological and electrical details of cascade systems are extensive but are consulted frequently by the hydro control engineers. Any requirement to schedule hydro plant has hydrological and commercial consequences which require expert judgement of the outcome as part of the decision process. These circumstances should be conducive to the application of computer-based modelling and artificially intelligent decision support. This thesis describes the principles of cascade water management in the circumstances above and the development and validation of an expert system to predict rapidly the hydrological impact of possible despatch schedules.

No description available.

This research investigates Thailand's renewable energy (RE) innovation program for very small power producers (VSPPs) using diffusion of innovations as a theoretical lens. I investigate the influence of socio-political, economic, industrial, environmental, institutional, innovations and networks determinants that must be considered when setting energy policies and strategies for similar RE initiatives. In order to structure and categorize my source data, I created a multi-determinant analytical framework which forms the basis of my analysis of the seven determinants set out above. By doing so, I added to the existing knowledge base regarding analytical approaches to RE innovations diffusion. I investigate causal connections between these key determinants and the development and prospects for sustainability of the VSPP program. Through the use of my analytical framework, I was able to identify existing gaps in diffusion of innovations theory and other relevant literature; for example, I discovered a number of VSPPs who did not fit into the description of 'innovators' or 'adopters' as defined in diffusion of innovations theory. These participants were actually compelled to adopt the VSPP program due to pressure from local communities and government concerning environmental pollution. This finding discloses a gap in diffusion of innovations theory by showing that some adopters did not have a choice to adopt the program. The VSPP program represents a unique RE initiative in Thailand and the participants, VSPPs and other stakeholders are engaged in the diffusion of innovations process. I also examine, in detail, the reasons why the program appears to be developing at a very slow rate. I also developed analytical tools, such as encapsulating tables which summarise my findings for each of the determinants. These tools further advance the knowledge base with respect to analytical techniques for diffusion of innovations research. The findings reinforce the notion that RE innovations programs, including the VSPP initiative, are better understood when a pluralistic analytical approach is taken which investigates multiple determinants in order to discover what barriers exist that limit program development and how stimulants might be used to counteract them. While the research focused on the VSPP program, in Thailand, the multi-determinant analytical framework may be suitable for investigating RE initiatives in other developing countries.

This thesis explores how climate policy is developing at sub-national or “regional” scales of decision-making. It considers local-global connections on both the science and the politics of climate change by investigating four main research questions as they pertain to regional climate action: What triggers regional policy action on global climate change? What arguments and lines of evidence underlie the policy discourse? How do “winning” arguments gain salience? How does regional action make a difference to broader scale climate policy? The research is conducted through one in-depth case study in California. It shows that action on climate change mitigation in California is enabled in part by past action in related policy arenas of air pollution control and energy policy within a multilevel, social-practice environmental governance framework. More recently the emergences of a comprehensive policy framework is triggered by a unique policy window where a change in California’s leadership capitalised on the void of federal policy to reframe arguments for state-level action on climate change. The case study identifies two dominant policy frames leading to a third master frame or meta-narrative in the period 2004-6: i) climate change as a problem of regional environment risk; ii) mitigation policy as a “win-win” for the local economy and the environment; iii) climate change as a regional policy issue. This period represents a paradigm shift from a previous dominant framing that characterised climate change as predominantly a national rather than a state policy issue. The case study shows that today’s dominant policy frames rely upon a process of co-construction that combine insights from expert and local knowledge, thus intertwining “facts” and “ values in the policy process. “Winning arguments” or policy frames gain salience through a relatively open policy process, which permits an array of non-governmental actors -- including social movement organisations, business organisations and experts -- to operate in the outer-periphery of the policy process and generate ideas in a timely way to influence policy decisions. The research underscores the power of localising problems of global environmental change and their solutions, of taking up climate change as a regional policy issue where solutions can be tapered to reflect regional contexts and norms. It shows that there is a relatively larger scope for experimentation and social and technical innovation at regional scale, compared to broader scales of action, which can open the way for cross-scale learning and influence to emerge.