Metering is fundamental in the efficient operation of electricity networks, as meters facilitate ... more Metering is fundamental in the efficient operation of electricity networks, as meters facilitate controlled usage and improve health and well-being. However, across the Global South, meters have often been found to be lacking or not fit for purpose. Therefore, this study sought to determine residents’ perceptions and access to electricity metering across a community in Mumbai, with the goal of developing recommendations to support the implementation of meters in the future. Fifty semi-structured interviews were conducted by phone, with participants from different areas and socioeconomic classes, within Greater Mumbai. The sample consisted of 20 low-income, 20 middle-income, and 10 high-income participants. The Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) was used to inform the interview schedule and to organise the thematic analysis. Meter accessibility and location was variable across the participant groups, as was the education and awareness of metering technology. Socio-political factors w...
Society 5.0 represents an opportunity to transform the economy and create a digital society with ... more Society 5.0 represents an opportunity to transform the economy and create a digital society with the goal of long-term sustainable development and economic growth. There is a growing importance of boosting ICT as an effective and efficient means of achieving this transformation, and Target 9c of the UN Sustainable Development Goals is to ‘Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries’. Mobile telecommunication systems have become the most effective and convenient means of communicating in the world, and as such, they are revolutionizing business operations. Nigeria is the fastest growing telecommunication market in Africa, with approximately 298 million subscribers accommodated by over 53,000 base transceiver stations (BTSs) which are largely concentrated in urban areas. As a result of increasing subscribers, all mobile network service providers in Nigeria ...
The water sector in India has undergone several institutional and structural reforms through diff... more The water sector in India has undergone several institutional and structural reforms through different policies and legislation changes over the past decades to address the water scarcity challenges. This study presents and analyses various water utility policies chronologically emphasising persuasive conservation and use efficiency approach towards their implementation. A review of existing policies indicated that most of them have been only partially effective in implementing efficient water management due to the lack of a need-specific institutional framework, further deepening the water crisis. Moreover, the Indian water sector has been identified to concentrate majorly on water resource management, while overlooking sustainable aspects like water use efficiency through water metering. This study performed an 'indicator-based analysis', applying the framework of bounded rationality coupled with a 'cause-effect' model to recognise the effect of 12 significant water supply policies executed since independence. While initial policies focused on coverage and supply of adequate, safe, and improved drinking water majorly to rural sectors, the water sector gained holistic importance during the post-1990s considering aspects of the water source, supply frequency, water tariffing, etc. However, the gap coherence analysis illustrated that the concept of ‘water metering’ has not been distinctly considered in these policies. The findings from this study indicate a need for a discrete water metering policy, an equitable, universal, and cost-reflective tariff structuring, and the formulation of an institutional metering framework involving codes, testing laboratories, water metering standard associations. The above offers an alternate approach to the existing policy and a feasible solution to the water crisis in India. Internalising the advantages of metering in policy agenda may unlock the possibilities of success of the forthcoming policies.
In an Energy Positive Neighborhood (EPN) the annual energy demand is lower than annual energy sup... more In an Energy Positive Neighborhood (EPN) the annual energy demand is lower than annual energy supply from local renewable energy sources. Short-term imbalances in energy supply and demand are corrected with national energy supplies. In this paper, some tools for intelligent management of energy positive neighborhoods are presented. These tools include an energy management tool for real-time management of the energy flows, user interfaces that support energy efficient behavior of the users in the neighborhood and an urban planning decision support tool. These tools have been developed as part of a European co-operation, and are designed so that they can easily be adopted in different European countries with minimum changes. The focus of this paper is the description of the developed user interfaces for energy awareness and management in an energy positive neighborhood.
Heavy Industrial projects have become more complex and difficult to manage due to the large scale... more Heavy Industrial projects have become more complex and difficult to manage due to the large scale and tedious process of planning. In Alberta, Canada, because of the harsh weather and expensive labor costs, contractors prefer to build the components for industrial projects offsite as modules and ship them to site for installation. The modules are built to be as large as the mode of transporting them to the site permits, and as much work as possible is completed prior to shipment. To ensure high efficiency and productivity for onsite installation, mobile crane operations need to be well managed, considering the high rental and operation costs of this equipment and its impact on the overall construction schedule. Traditionally, lifts on a given project are planned by rigging engineers by means of manual methods based on the equipment weights, site layouts, and crane configurations. With hundreds of heavy lifts to analyze, this planning exercise is tedious, and rapid implementation of ...
LiDAR (light detection and ranging) is an optical remote-sensing technique that uses laser light ... more LiDAR (light detection and ranging) is an optical remote-sensing technique that uses laser light to densely sample surfaces, producing highly accurate measurements. It is primarily used in airborne laser mapping applications. However it offers a huge potential for improving the data input available for modelling urban energy systems and visualising urban carbon emissions. This paper explores this potential and highlights some of the limitations of the information that can be obtained from LiDAR data and how these limitations can be ameliorated. To do so it presents an example of the use of LiDAR data and aerial imagery to provide input data for building geometry and building physics models to develop an energy model of a mixed-use inner urban area in the North East of England. The work presented highlights the significance of data accuracy for the assessment of heat-loss parameters, orientation, shading and renewable energy micro-generation; and the limitations of remotely sensed da...
One of the repeating themes around the provision of the knowledge and skills needed for deliverin... more One of the repeating themes around the provision of the knowledge and skills needed for delivering sustainable communities is the idea of a “common language” for all built environment professionals. This suggestion has been repeated regularly with each new political and professional review within and between different sectors responsible for the delivery of sustainable communities. There have been multiple efforts to address academic limitations, industry fragmentation and promote more interdisciplinary working and sector collaboration. This research explored the role of skills for sustainable communities, particularly within the higher education (HE) sector, and the responses to support the development of a “common language of sustainability” that can be shared between different sectors, professional disciplines and stakeholders. As an interdisciplinary group of academics and practitioners working with the HE sector in the North East of England, we evaluate the progression of secto...
panel of representatives from UK industry and government. At the level of theory it is now widely... more panel of representatives from UK industry and government. At the level of theory it is now widely accepted that energy consumption patterns are a complex technical and socio-cultural phenomenon and to understand this phenomenon, it must be viewed from both engineering and social science perspectives. However, the methodological approaches taken in household energy studies lag behind the theoretical advances made in the last ten or fifteen years. The quantitative research methods traditionally used within the fields of building science, economics, and psychology continue to dominate household energy studies, while the qualitative ethnographic approaches to examining social and cultural phenomena traditionally used within anthropology and sociology are most frequently overlooked. This paper offers a critical review of the research methods used in household energy studies which illustrates the scope and limitations of both qualitative and quantitative research methods in this area of s...
SUMMARY: This paper presents a case study of a wireless sensor network (WSN) to support energy ma... more SUMMARY: This paper presents a case study of a wireless sensor network (WSN) to support energy management utilizing Web services and middleware technologies. The approach presented proposes the integration of WSNs with Ethernet/Internet/XML/Web Service communications into a ‘knowledge and information services ’ platform to support energy management which can be accessed via a Web service to support inhabitant actions to reduce energy demand. It is based on the idea of collecting energy information using various wireless devices operating with different communication standards. This is important as there are various communication standards developed for WSNs including ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, Wi-Fi, WirelessHART and ISA100.11a. The hardware components which are needed for a system using one specific communication standard cannot be used directly within another system, due to differences in firmware, radio components, communication standards, and in some cases profile parameters. This is prob...
SUMMARY: The main aim of the research presented in this paper is to contribute to a reduction in ... more SUMMARY: The main aim of the research presented in this paper is to contribute to a reduction in carbon emissions from buildings. Carbon reduction is a global goal and in line with this UK government policy seeks to
Energy storage devices provide services in the capacity market (CM). Li-ion batteries are 11 a po... more Energy storage devices provide services in the capacity market (CM). Li-ion batteries are 11 a popular type of energy storage devices used in CM. Battery lifetime is a key factor in determining 12 the economic viability of Li-ion batteries and current approaches to estimating this are limited. 13 This paper explores the potential of a lithium-ion battery to provide CM services with four de-rating 14 factors (0.5h,1h,2h and 4h). During the CM contract, the battery experiences both calendar and cycle 15 degradation which reduces the overall profit. Physics-based battery and degradation models are 16 used to quantify degradation cost for the battery in the CM to enhance earlier research results. The 17 degradation model quantifies capacity losses related to solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer, 18 active material loss and SEI crack growth. Results show that the physics-based degradation model 19 can accurately predict degradation cost at different operating conditions thus can subs...
This paper presents a case study of a wireless sensor network (WSN) to support energy management ... more This paper presents a case study of a wireless sensor network (WSN) to support energy management utilizing Web services and middleware technologies. The approach presented proposes the integration of WSNs with Ethernet/Internet/XML/Web Service communications into a ‘knowledge and information services’ platform to support energy management which can be accessed via a Web service to support inhabitant actions to reduce energy demand. It is based on the idea of collecting energy information using various wireless devices operating with different communication standards. This is important as there are various communication standards developed for WSNs including ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, Wi-Fi, WirelessHART and ISA100.11a. The hardware components which are needed for a system using one specific communication standard cannot be used directly within another system, due to differences in firmware, radio components, communication standards, and in some cases profile parameters. This is problematic be...
Electricity networks base their stability on the balance between electricity usage and generation... more Electricity networks base their stability on the balance between electricity usage and generation. Unbalance in the electricity network results in blackouts and can escalate to systems disruption at national and multinational level. The National grids, Transmission Network Operators (TNOs) and Distribution Network Operators (DSOs) ensure the electricity grid remains within safe operational threshold. Demand Response (DR) is a series of the mechanisms intended to procure that the electricity grid stays stable when a peak demand period is forecasted. A demand response action aims at alleviating grid stress or constrains making use of the flexibility that some users have on their electricity use at specific periods. This flexibility is agreed through contracts between companies acting as aggregators and the National grid in the case of the UK for the current DR programs. These aggregators need to acquire flexibility from the qualified users (industry and large energy consumers mainly) ...
Metering is fundamental in the efficient operation of electricity networks, as meters facilitate ... more Metering is fundamental in the efficient operation of electricity networks, as meters facilitate controlled usage and improve health and well-being. However, across the Global South, meters have often been found to be lacking or not fit for purpose. Therefore, this study sought to determine residents’ perceptions and access to electricity metering across a community in Mumbai, with the goal of developing recommendations to support the implementation of meters in the future. Fifty semi-structured interviews were conducted by phone, with participants from different areas and socioeconomic classes, within Greater Mumbai. The sample consisted of 20 low-income, 20 middle-income, and 10 high-income participants. The Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) was used to inform the interview schedule and to organise the thematic analysis. Meter accessibility and location was variable across the participant groups, as was the education and awareness of metering technology. Socio-political factors w...
Society 5.0 represents an opportunity to transform the economy and create a digital society with ... more Society 5.0 represents an opportunity to transform the economy and create a digital society with the goal of long-term sustainable development and economic growth. There is a growing importance of boosting ICT as an effective and efficient means of achieving this transformation, and Target 9c of the UN Sustainable Development Goals is to ‘Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries’. Mobile telecommunication systems have become the most effective and convenient means of communicating in the world, and as such, they are revolutionizing business operations. Nigeria is the fastest growing telecommunication market in Africa, with approximately 298 million subscribers accommodated by over 53,000 base transceiver stations (BTSs) which are largely concentrated in urban areas. As a result of increasing subscribers, all mobile network service providers in Nigeria ...
The water sector in India has undergone several institutional and structural reforms through diff... more The water sector in India has undergone several institutional and structural reforms through different policies and legislation changes over the past decades to address the water scarcity challenges. This study presents and analyses various water utility policies chronologically emphasising persuasive conservation and use efficiency approach towards their implementation. A review of existing policies indicated that most of them have been only partially effective in implementing efficient water management due to the lack of a need-specific institutional framework, further deepening the water crisis. Moreover, the Indian water sector has been identified to concentrate majorly on water resource management, while overlooking sustainable aspects like water use efficiency through water metering. This study performed an 'indicator-based analysis', applying the framework of bounded rationality coupled with a 'cause-effect' model to recognise the effect of 12 significant water supply policies executed since independence. While initial policies focused on coverage and supply of adequate, safe, and improved drinking water majorly to rural sectors, the water sector gained holistic importance during the post-1990s considering aspects of the water source, supply frequency, water tariffing, etc. However, the gap coherence analysis illustrated that the concept of ‘water metering’ has not been distinctly considered in these policies. The findings from this study indicate a need for a discrete water metering policy, an equitable, universal, and cost-reflective tariff structuring, and the formulation of an institutional metering framework involving codes, testing laboratories, water metering standard associations. The above offers an alternate approach to the existing policy and a feasible solution to the water crisis in India. Internalising the advantages of metering in policy agenda may unlock the possibilities of success of the forthcoming policies.
In an Energy Positive Neighborhood (EPN) the annual energy demand is lower than annual energy sup... more In an Energy Positive Neighborhood (EPN) the annual energy demand is lower than annual energy supply from local renewable energy sources. Short-term imbalances in energy supply and demand are corrected with national energy supplies. In this paper, some tools for intelligent management of energy positive neighborhoods are presented. These tools include an energy management tool for real-time management of the energy flows, user interfaces that support energy efficient behavior of the users in the neighborhood and an urban planning decision support tool. These tools have been developed as part of a European co-operation, and are designed so that they can easily be adopted in different European countries with minimum changes. The focus of this paper is the description of the developed user interfaces for energy awareness and management in an energy positive neighborhood.
Heavy Industrial projects have become more complex and difficult to manage due to the large scale... more Heavy Industrial projects have become more complex and difficult to manage due to the large scale and tedious process of planning. In Alberta, Canada, because of the harsh weather and expensive labor costs, contractors prefer to build the components for industrial projects offsite as modules and ship them to site for installation. The modules are built to be as large as the mode of transporting them to the site permits, and as much work as possible is completed prior to shipment. To ensure high efficiency and productivity for onsite installation, mobile crane operations need to be well managed, considering the high rental and operation costs of this equipment and its impact on the overall construction schedule. Traditionally, lifts on a given project are planned by rigging engineers by means of manual methods based on the equipment weights, site layouts, and crane configurations. With hundreds of heavy lifts to analyze, this planning exercise is tedious, and rapid implementation of ...
LiDAR (light detection and ranging) is an optical remote-sensing technique that uses laser light ... more LiDAR (light detection and ranging) is an optical remote-sensing technique that uses laser light to densely sample surfaces, producing highly accurate measurements. It is primarily used in airborne laser mapping applications. However it offers a huge potential for improving the data input available for modelling urban energy systems and visualising urban carbon emissions. This paper explores this potential and highlights some of the limitations of the information that can be obtained from LiDAR data and how these limitations can be ameliorated. To do so it presents an example of the use of LiDAR data and aerial imagery to provide input data for building geometry and building physics models to develop an energy model of a mixed-use inner urban area in the North East of England. The work presented highlights the significance of data accuracy for the assessment of heat-loss parameters, orientation, shading and renewable energy micro-generation; and the limitations of remotely sensed da...
One of the repeating themes around the provision of the knowledge and skills needed for deliverin... more One of the repeating themes around the provision of the knowledge and skills needed for delivering sustainable communities is the idea of a “common language” for all built environment professionals. This suggestion has been repeated regularly with each new political and professional review within and between different sectors responsible for the delivery of sustainable communities. There have been multiple efforts to address academic limitations, industry fragmentation and promote more interdisciplinary working and sector collaboration. This research explored the role of skills for sustainable communities, particularly within the higher education (HE) sector, and the responses to support the development of a “common language of sustainability” that can be shared between different sectors, professional disciplines and stakeholders. As an interdisciplinary group of academics and practitioners working with the HE sector in the North East of England, we evaluate the progression of secto...
panel of representatives from UK industry and government. At the level of theory it is now widely... more panel of representatives from UK industry and government. At the level of theory it is now widely accepted that energy consumption patterns are a complex technical and socio-cultural phenomenon and to understand this phenomenon, it must be viewed from both engineering and social science perspectives. However, the methodological approaches taken in household energy studies lag behind the theoretical advances made in the last ten or fifteen years. The quantitative research methods traditionally used within the fields of building science, economics, and psychology continue to dominate household energy studies, while the qualitative ethnographic approaches to examining social and cultural phenomena traditionally used within anthropology and sociology are most frequently overlooked. This paper offers a critical review of the research methods used in household energy studies which illustrates the scope and limitations of both qualitative and quantitative research methods in this area of s...
SUMMARY: This paper presents a case study of a wireless sensor network (WSN) to support energy ma... more SUMMARY: This paper presents a case study of a wireless sensor network (WSN) to support energy management utilizing Web services and middleware technologies. The approach presented proposes the integration of WSNs with Ethernet/Internet/XML/Web Service communications into a ‘knowledge and information services ’ platform to support energy management which can be accessed via a Web service to support inhabitant actions to reduce energy demand. It is based on the idea of collecting energy information using various wireless devices operating with different communication standards. This is important as there are various communication standards developed for WSNs including ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, Wi-Fi, WirelessHART and ISA100.11a. The hardware components which are needed for a system using one specific communication standard cannot be used directly within another system, due to differences in firmware, radio components, communication standards, and in some cases profile parameters. This is prob...
SUMMARY: The main aim of the research presented in this paper is to contribute to a reduction in ... more SUMMARY: The main aim of the research presented in this paper is to contribute to a reduction in carbon emissions from buildings. Carbon reduction is a global goal and in line with this UK government policy seeks to
Energy storage devices provide services in the capacity market (CM). Li-ion batteries are 11 a po... more Energy storage devices provide services in the capacity market (CM). Li-ion batteries are 11 a popular type of energy storage devices used in CM. Battery lifetime is a key factor in determining 12 the economic viability of Li-ion batteries and current approaches to estimating this are limited. 13 This paper explores the potential of a lithium-ion battery to provide CM services with four de-rating 14 factors (0.5h,1h,2h and 4h). During the CM contract, the battery experiences both calendar and cycle 15 degradation which reduces the overall profit. Physics-based battery and degradation models are 16 used to quantify degradation cost for the battery in the CM to enhance earlier research results. The 17 degradation model quantifies capacity losses related to solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer, 18 active material loss and SEI crack growth. Results show that the physics-based degradation model 19 can accurately predict degradation cost at different operating conditions thus can subs...
This paper presents a case study of a wireless sensor network (WSN) to support energy management ... more This paper presents a case study of a wireless sensor network (WSN) to support energy management utilizing Web services and middleware technologies. The approach presented proposes the integration of WSNs with Ethernet/Internet/XML/Web Service communications into a ‘knowledge and information services’ platform to support energy management which can be accessed via a Web service to support inhabitant actions to reduce energy demand. It is based on the idea of collecting energy information using various wireless devices operating with different communication standards. This is important as there are various communication standards developed for WSNs including ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, Wi-Fi, WirelessHART and ISA100.11a. The hardware components which are needed for a system using one specific communication standard cannot be used directly within another system, due to differences in firmware, radio components, communication standards, and in some cases profile parameters. This is problematic be...
Electricity networks base their stability on the balance between electricity usage and generation... more Electricity networks base their stability on the balance between electricity usage and generation. Unbalance in the electricity network results in blackouts and can escalate to systems disruption at national and multinational level. The National grids, Transmission Network Operators (TNOs) and Distribution Network Operators (DSOs) ensure the electricity grid remains within safe operational threshold. Demand Response (DR) is a series of the mechanisms intended to procure that the electricity grid stays stable when a peak demand period is forecasted. A demand response action aims at alleviating grid stress or constrains making use of the flexibility that some users have on their electricity use at specific periods. This flexibility is agreed through contracts between companies acting as aggregators and the National grid in the case of the UK for the current DR programs. These aggregators need to acquire flexibility from the qualified users (industry and large energy consumers mainly) ...
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Papers by Tracey Crosbie