The South African economy went through drastic changes since the new democratic government took power in 1994. Different programmes were changed through the process of transition from the old apartheid regime to a new democratic government. The first programme introduced was the RDP, followed by GEAR and then ASGISA, but all these programmes were not enough to circumvent all the challenges experienced by the South African economy. This is the context within which the debate around privatization occurred in the ANC. All the programmes that were changed favoured privatization in one way or other. Through these changes privatization was one of the policies envisaged to be a possible means to address past inequalities. This thesis focuses on the impact of privatization on the electricity industry in South Africa with specific reference to Gauteng. The paper is based on the fact that Gauteng is believed to be the centre of business in South Africa. However because, competition in the South African electricity industry did not exist, this resulted in poor service delivery. The electricity industry in South Africa is divided into three sectors namely generation, transmission and distribution. Eskom controls almost the entire electricity industry from generation to distribution with a few private players here and there. The only private player in the generation sector is the Kelvin power plant, which holds almost 30 percent of the generation sector. Privatization in the South African electricity industry still has a far way to go before a desirable level of competition is achieved. In order to recommend how increased competition can be injected, the privatization of electricity in developed, developing and transitional countries such as UK, Greece, Chile, Hungary and Argentina was explored. The thesis recommends how the government can further expand privatization by learning from these countries. / Mr. Arnold Wentzel

M.Phil. / The main objectives of this study, which was done in Sasol 2, were to analyse energy utilization in the Sasol process and to develop an energy model that simulates all major energy flows in the Sasol process. Secondary objectives were to study the mechanics of the Sasol process and to do a literature study ...

This thesis addresses the development of industries manufacturing in the renewable energy sector. As the most mature of the renewable energy technologies, it specifically assesses the development of the wind turbine manufacturing industry up to the present in order to address what lessons may be learned for the future development of the industry and for other renewable energy industries. Data is presented in the form of a number of case studies which detail the comparative successes of Denmark, Germany, Spain and the UK in encouraging the growth of wind turbine industries. Three areas of study are identified, and the data collected in the case studies applied to each. Firstly, the question of whether it is still possible for countries to stimulate national industries to successfully gain entry to the wind turbine manufacturing industry. Applying the historical data in the context of a typological theory on entrepreneurial success with regard to industrial phase, it is argued that such entry is still possible. The remaining two areas of study are linked in that they both address what lessons might be learned from the international development of the wind turbine manufacturing industry in order for the UK to replicate the success of other nations. The first of these areas specifically addresses how lessons from elsewhere might enable UK access to the wind turbine manufacturing industry. The second area addresses the extent to which experiences in the wind turbine industry might provide lessons for entrants to the industries of newer, less mature renewable energy technologies.

This dissertation seeks to better understand the sustainable development of aviation and infrastructure. The first essay uses an instrumental variable approach to examine aviation's impact on regional economic outcomes and innovation. Using a novel set of instruments based on the historical institutional and physical requirements for expanded air connectivity, I find that a 1% increase in a core-based statistical area's Global Connectivity Index is associated with an increase in long-term total personal income by 1.7% and 6 more granted patents. The second essay provides a new first-cut estimate of climate change impacts on aviation through increased severe thunderstorm activity. As a result of projected increases in Convective Available Potential Energy due to global warming, there is growing consensus that severe thunderstorm environments will increase in the United States. Using domestic air traffic delay data from 2004-2017 with the registered storm events database from the National Centers for Environmental Information, I find that the estimated annual cost of additional delays under a RCP4.5 scenario would be in the order of 152.4 million dollars in the spring and 298.3 million dollars in the summer. The third essay is devoted to energy infrastructure in India, where it studies the social acceptability of electricity theft using a conjoint experiment with 1800 households. Consistent with hypothesis, the income and electricity supply contexts of hypothetical offenders affect the social acceptability of electricity theft.

No description available.

This study suggests an evolutionary approach to the analysis of energy technology policy. The approach emphasizes economic fluctuations, technological change and Institutional re-organization through time. The liquid fuel sub-sectors of Zimbabwe and Kenya constitute different technological systems adapted to the production and utilization of different energy forms. They represent different market niches In a techno-economic landscape. Gasoline occupies a central role In the energy budget. The 1973-74 oil crisis created major fluctuations which made it possible to introduce fuel ethanol as an alternative liquid fuel. The process of realising the ethanol niche was largely dependent on the existence of technological options whose technical and financial characteristics allowed them to compete favourably with conventional 1iquid fuels. Niche realization also required the modification of the adoptive terrain to reduce the obstacles to the introduction of the new technological systems. The entire process takes an evolutionary perspective because it involves the generation. selection and retention of technological options under constantly changing conditions. Moreover. the technological systems continue to undergo or require incremental Improvements after they have been installed. Such improvements require the generation of plant-level technical knowledge and often lead to the accumulation of local technological capacity. A glance at the evolutionary path reveals periods of gradual change. punctuated by moments of increased innovations which are often linked to periods of major fluctuations. The process is associated with a complex network of institutional arrangements which are also re-organized either in response to fluctuations or in anticipation of emerging niche opportunities. Institutions play a central role because the process is not random, it is purposive and based on socio-economic expectations. It is precisely this point that led to major differences In the process of niche realization In Zimbabwe and Kenya. although both countries were presented with the same technological options. The study draws a wide range of technology policy and research implications from these differences.

This research examines the role of framing in the process of decision-making for new capability investments under conditions of policy and technological uncertainty. I argue that framing can explain the decision to exploit current capabilities, but is not sufficient to explain the decision to explore new capabilities. This research discriminates between “frames” and “framing” in the investigation: whereas “framing” is the process of constructing the meaning of the decision problem, “frame” refers to a specific perspective adopted by the decision makers. I develop a three-level research design: the industry-level analysis adopts the approach of eliciting heuristics to identify general patterns. The firm-level examines sources of variation and causal complexity by comparative case analysis. The decision-maker level investigates the influence of senior managers' professional experience using a scenario evaluation approach. Three observations from the case study of Taiwanese solar PV firms: firstly, systematic patterns are found in the process of framing environmental uncertainty and attributing the causes of the decision problem of capability investments. Secondly, whilst differentiated framing exists and corresponds to selective attention; such a difference is not necessarily associated with different choice pattern. Finally, the loosely coupling framing and choices leads to the speculation that the role of deliberate practice, rather than framing has a stronger influence on the decision to explore. This research illustrates that the capabilities investment decision is not a single event but a complex process. While the stylised psychological principles explain the heuristic judgments, the influencing factors of an organisational decision are interdependent and temporally connected in the decision context. I argue that the problem of framing lies in prohibiting the alterative frame. Therefore exploration needs to be deliberately sought by the specially designed practice. This research contributes to understanding the relationship between behavioural view of descriptive analysis and prescriptive view of procedural rationality in the decision- making process.

This thesis assesses the future security of the UK electricity system in a low-carbon context. Electricity provision is a crucial and ubiquitous component of industrialised societies, and over the past couple of decades a number of fundamental changes to electricity systems have meant that the security of this provision has taken a central place on the policy agendas of the UK and many other industrialised nations. Alongside this, emerging normative, legal and political imperatives to mitigate climate change mean that energy systems will need to undergo a fundamental transition. The overarching aim of this thesis is to assess the future security of the UK electricity system in a low-carbon context, in order to identify the main risks, trade-offs and synergies which may emerge between different objectives in a transition to a low-carbon electricity system. To do this, this thesis develops a set of indicators for assessing the electricity security of low-carbon transition pathways, building on assessment frameworks from the existing literature and utilising a range of both quantitative and qualitative indicators. The indicator set is used to assess the security of three pathways for the UK electricity system, each of which aims to meet the UK's 2050 greenhouse gas reduction target. The indicators are then used as the basis for interview discussions with 25 experts from the UK energy sector, in order to explore the diversity of perspectives in the UK energy community. Finally, the experts' perspectives are used as multiple ‘lenses' through which to view the results of the security assessment of the three pathways. This thesis makes a contribution to knowledge and understanding in three ways. Firstly, it makes a methodological contribution by proposing and testing a set of indicators to measure the security of electricity systems in long-term scenarios of national energy transitions. The thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach and utilises both quantitative and qualitative indicators without aggregation in order to identify synergies and trade-offs. Secondly, this thesis makes an empirical contribution by applying this set of indicators in a novel way to assess the security of a set of low-carbon transition pathways for the UK electricity system: this is the first time that such a comprehensive security dashboard has been used to assess a set of future electricity system scenarios. By including reliability and cost parameters alongside a range of other important aspects of energy security such as diversity, trade and acceptability, this thesis extends the empirical work of existing frameworks to explore the potential implications of a low-carbon transition on electricity system reliability and costs, and the potential trade-offs between various objectives. Thirdly, this thesis makes a further empirical contribution by identifying the diversity of perspectives amongst UK energy experts; this is a novel contribution to the energy security literature, which contains few empirical studies on experts' perspectives on energy security, and no previously-existing work of this kind in the UK context. Finally, this thesis analyses the impacts of these perspectives on the results of the security assessment, thus providing the first study of this kind to actively incorporate multiple perspectives on energy security into an indicator assessment. The thesis finds that the three low-carbon pathways tested against the indicator framework all demonstrate a reduction in flexible, responsive supply capacity compared to the 2010 baseline, which could reduce the ability of the system to respond to unexpected perturbations in the supply/demand balance. The results show that demand reduction may be highly beneficial and results in co-benefits across multiple security dimensions (although this thesis has not conducted detailed investigation of the costs and risks of demand reduction, and therefore this issue needs to be analysed further in future research). Increasing the penetration of renewable electricity generation is shown to increase the diversity of the generation mix, and to have a positive impact on greenhouse gas emission reduction and resource depletion; however, it could lead to a reduction in system balancing capability, and does not necessarily minimise dependence on fuel imports. The decentralised transition pathway is shown to have the fewest ‘red flags' of security risk in the longer-term; this finding is an interesting addition to the academic and policy literature which has debated the potential security benefits of a decentralised electricity system for the UK. However, this thesis also highlights that there are many areas of uncertainty and potential security risk in a transition to a decentralised electricity system, which may experience some aspects of heightened security risk in the medium-term.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

Thesis (M.S.)--North Carolina State University, 2003. / Includes vita. "Jun 04, 2003." Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-82). Available also online as a PDF file via the World Wide Web.