Store Your Power

Abstract

As our electricity system becomes more complex, decentralized, and unstable, research on solutions to relieve the grid are needed. Local energy storage could contribute significantly to the solution. This study focused on one solution in particular: the neighborhood battery. Neighborhood batteries are emerging as a technical and social innovation for smart neighborhoods, which enable to share and store energy collectively. Since each neighborhood has its own characteristics, different technical needs, and economic conditions, the fitability of a battery per neighborhood will also differ. If stakeholder values are considered during a project, the technology can have more support from the citizens. Therefore, technology support can be considered as an important aspect of the success of new projects to succeed. In this thesis, it is considered neighborhood batteries have embedded values and can satisfy the demands of different actors. The theory of Responsible innovation tries to align technological innovations with the technical, socio-economic, and institutional aspects of the innovation. The objective of this study is to better understand the alignment of technical functionalities of the batteries and citizens' values. Accordingly, neighborhood batteries are not only assessed on a technological and economic performance indicator, but ethical aspects provide a wider understanding of the development of neighborhood batteries. Agent-Based Modeling is used to model the batteries in the neighborhood and study the influence of values and interactions on the technology support. In addition, this research uses Schwartz values to model values.

The results show the multi-functional usability of neighborhood batteries. Additionally, the results demonstrate how a neighborhood battery can be designed to match the values of the neighborhood and how value similarity and communities can influence the support for the battery. The diverse functionalities of the neighborhood battery show advantageous technical and economic capabilities. The current rules and regulations enable battery projects, but still business models that achieve large-scale implementations are missing. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the amount of neighborhood battery projects in The Netherlands that focus on equal benefits for all energy users. Within these projects, value-based decisions can help the process of implementing the neighborhood battery. It is important to consider the social dimensions of neighborhood batteries and responsible innovations can help to do so. If more attention is given to local developments and the role of all energy users, the neighborhood battery will provide a platform to store and share your power.