En stor del av Sveriges befolkning är idag dåligt förberedda för hur ett längre strömavbrott hade påverkat kylda livsmedel. Även fast det finns torkade och konserverade livsmedel så är majoriteten fortfarande beroende av sina kylskåp. För att hitta en lösning på problemet har tre designexperiment genomförts. Genom utförliga probes och djupdykande intervjuer lades grunden för dels hur människor använder sina kylskåp men även hur en eventuell lösning hade kunnat se ut. Ett kylskåp användes i studien vars temperaturprofil observerades i flera iterationer för att undersöka hur den påverkades av att dörren öppnades. Genom ett skapande i produktdesign riktas studiens kunskapsbidrag till användare och läsare. Den lösning som designades blev en portabel frysbox som ersätter en av de redan existerande fryslådorna i både storlek och funktion. Genom att boxen nyttjas dagligen så kommer designbidraget framförallt att underlätta för de personer som inte är förberedda inför ett strömavbrott. / A large part of Sweden’s population today is poorly prepared for how a prolonged power outage would have affected chilled food. Even though there are dried and canned foods, the majority are still dependent on their refrigerators. To find a solution to the problem, three design experiments were performed. Through detailed probes and in-depth interviews, the foundation was laid for how people use their refrigerators, but also what a possible solution could have looked like. A refrigerator was used in the study whose temperature profile was observed in several iterations to investigate how it was affected by the opening of the door. Through a creation in product design, the study’s knowledge contribution is directed to users and readers. The solution that was designed was a portable freezer box that replaces one of the already existing freezer drawers in both size and function. By using the box on a daily basis, the design contribution will especially make it easier for those people who are not prepared for a power outage.

Increased use of variable energy and integration of electricity markets in the European Union have led to new challenges when balancing supply and demand in the grid. Load management is a possible way to manage these challenges by adjusting electricity consumption in order to balance the power system. Household appliances can be used for this purpose, for example by providing automatic frequency control. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate the potential of load management from private households and to examine how the power system is affected by a more flexible electricity consumption. The thesis focuses on fridges as automatic frequency control reserves and the ability of fridges to balance the power system. Attributes such as capacity, activation time, persistence and the effect of load reconnection has been modelled in Simulink, Matlab. Complementary interviews with actors from the electricity industry have been done to summarize their insights on demand response. The results indicate that fridges can be used as a part of the automatic frequency controlled reserve FCR-N, based on assumptions made in this study. However, current requirements imposed on balancing resources are not fully met by the fridges. In order for household appliances to provide the needed flexibility, some requirements might need to be rephrased. The results also show that the capacity for providing balancing services differs for positive and negative imbalances, as consumption can be reduced with 30 MW and increased with 66 MW. When controlling the fridges by moving the reference temperature, there is a risk that the appliances will synchronize with each other, i.e. reconnect or disconnect at the same time, resulting in frequency oscillations. It is therefore important that load management is designed to avoid this kind of behavior.

Increased use of variable energy and integration of electricity markets in the European Union have led to new challenges when balancing supply and demand in the grid. Load management is a possible way to manage these challenges by adjusting electricity consumption in order to balance the power system. Household appliances can be used for this purpose, for example by providing automatic frequency control. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate the potential of load management from private households and to examine how the power system is affected by a more flexible electricity consumption. The thesis focuses on fridges as automatic frequency control reserves and the ability of fridges to balance the power system. Attributes such as capacity, activation time, persistence and the effect of load reconnection has been modelled in Simulink, Matlab. Complementary interviews with actors from the electricity industry have been done to summarize their insights on demand response. The results indicate that fridges can be used as a part of the automatic frequency controlled reserve FCR-N, based on assumptions made in this study. However, current requirements imposed on balancing resources are not fully met by the fridges. In order for household appliances to provide the needed flexibility, some requirements might need to be rephrased. The results also show that the capacity for providing balancing services differs for positive and negative imbalances, as consumption can be reduced with 30 MW and increased with 66 MW. When controlling the fridges by moving the reference temperature, there is a risk that the appliances will synchronize with each other, i.e. reconnect or disconnect at the same time, resulting in frequency oscillations. It is therefore important that load management is designed to avoid this kind of behavior.

Within process or manufacturing industries, the production of goods and services or the products themselves may have negative side effects such as pollution. An important task for environmental policy is to control and limit these pollutions, for example via regulatory measures. Although, the efficiency of such measures vary greatly between different industries and an increasingly important task for environmental policy is then to encourage companies to engage in environmentally motivated innovation. Governments can utilize other measures than regulation to indirectly decrease pollution. This thesis aims to analyze such activities and how it affects the innovativeness of wastewater treatment, refrigeration and automobile manufacturing industries. The aim is also to investigate how environmental policy is shaped by opinion, technology and relationships within and to an industry. In each of the cases, the current technical system was a major determinator for what could be accomplished in an industry. This was more or less dependent on foreign conditions, such as market, opinion and policy, but the domestic level of technical advancement was critical. The geographical breadth of the issue at hand was a major factor. Also, all three cases showed that each industry has, for good or bad, dominating players that either dictates or largely influences the pace of adoption of environmentally motivated innovation. Government agencies must understand these facts, inventively use the array of policy tools at hand and include both industry representatives and foreign piers to speed up environmentally motivated innovation.