A just energy transition requires not only the achievement of low-carbon goals but also the creation of fairer energy systems where special attention is given to identifying vulnerable groups and addressing the inequalities they experience. Governing energy transitions at the regional level may help formulate and implement tailored policies addressing vulnerabilities at the local level. However, there is limited understanding of the vulnerabilities that citizen groups experience in energy regions. We formulated three objectives to address this gap: I) identifying energy vulnerabilities in a regional transition context; II) understanding what citizen groups experience them and why; and III) identifying barriers that prevent policies from engaging with these groups. We applied a case-study research design to the Rotterdam-The Hague energy region in the Netherlands. Data collection involved semi-structured expert and stakeholder interviews and a review of newspaper articles and policy reports. We processed data with a thematic analysis drawing from energy justice literature and intersectionality theory. Three main energy vulnerabilities were identified: unaffordability of energy consumption, the lack of opportunity to own self-generation technology, and little to no inclusion in decision-making processes. The findings reveal five groups prone to vulnerability and the conditions that put them in a vulnerable situation, such as living in an energy-inefficient house. We conclude that regional energy transition policies should consider intersections of society while offering more support to municipalities to enable them to engage citizen groups at higher risk of energy vulnerability.

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The digital transformation of education has rapidly evolved in recent years, driven by advancements in technology and further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital education Technologies (DETs) have become integral to higher education, reshaping how institutions deliver learning and manage resources. However, despite the widespread adoption of DETs, there has been limited focus on the sustainability of these technologies. This paper explores how sustainability considerations are integrated into DET selection processes at European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) through semi-structured interviews with key decision-makers. The research focuses on three sustainability dimensions-environmental, social, and technological-and their impact on decision-making. The results indicate that while HEIs are making efforts toward sustainability, economic considerations still dominate the decision-making process. Moreover, the emphasis across sustainability dimensions remains unbalanced: social dimensions, such as privacy, are prioritized over environmental dimensions due to the former being treated as knockout criteria and due to a lack of reliable data on the environmental impacts of DETs. This study also identifies several challenges, including long procurement processes, limited financial resources, and heavy dependence on external service providers for digital infrastructure. The findings offer insights into how HEIs can better align their digital strategies with broader sustainability goals.

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Renewable heating systems (RHS), such as solar thermal, geothermal, heat pumps, wood pellets, biomass, are essential to reduce dependence on fossil fuel-based heating systems and resulting CO₂ emissions. Despite their benefits in terms of CO₂ emissions, the widespread adoption of RHS has yet to be achieved. This paper aims to get insights into the intention to adopt RHS in the Netherlands For this purpose, it designs and conducts a survey based on the extended version of the theory of planned behavior, with five components: attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, personal norms, and descriptive norms. The survey also includes questions on participation in a thermal energy community. The results show that several factors affect individuals’ intention to adopt RHS. Many individuals in the Netherlands have a positive attitude toward adopting RHS, which is primarily caused by environmental concerns and wanting energy independence for their country. However, the majority of individuals think that they do not have the knowledge, financial means, or time to adopt RHS. Also, individuals who feel strong moral values and responsibilities are more likely to adopt RHS. Most individuals are willing to participate in a thermal energy community, and prefer participating in an energy community over adopting RHS individually. Based on these insights, a number of recommendations are made to stimulate the adoption of RHS in the Netherlands, such as taking into account moral norms, introducing policies to incentivize thermal energy communities, and addressing issues of injustice.

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Individual households, responsible for 25% of total energy consumption in Europe, are crucial actors in the energy transition. Although various policies and energy choices are available for such actors (e.g., individual solar photovoltaic or community energy systems), they are usually restricted to municipal governance, and public opinion towards national energy policy is not strongly presented. This study explores and describes the influence of the availability of alternative energy choices on different levels of governance to facilitate households' energy transition. An agent-based model is conceptualised through multi-level governance, the institutional analysis and development framework and the social value theory. To also address the ongoing energy crisis, the study focuses on the Dutch thermal energy transition and the thermal energy communities as a collective action for generating, distributing, and consuming renewable thermal energy and, therefore, three layers of energy choice alternatives are provided for households: national level (i.e., sources of natural gas), municipal/ community level (i.e., collective renewable energy technologies), and individual level. The results delineated the importance of the availability of alternative energy choices in the suggested multi-level governance collective action system. Such systems consumed only 12% natural gas, while they covered their thermal demand by increasing the capacity of collective thermal energy systems (83% on average) and adopting more individual thermal energy systems (heat pump, approximately 85%). Although the performances on voluntary blackouts/ discomfort (2.7% on average) and CO₂ emissions (85% reduction approximately) were also positive, this was reflected in a significant price increase.

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The European energy system is undergoing a drastic change, focusing on reducing natural gas consumption and import. European households, which are responsible for 25 % of final energy consumption, mainly based on natural gas, could play a significant role in such a transition. Therefore, the study aims to understand the perception towards natural gas consumption reduction and imports. An online questionnaire was designed based on an extended version of the theory of planned behaviour, which 257 highly educated respondents filled out. The results delineated the respondents' positive perception of reducing natural gas consumption. Specific attributes (i.e., environmental concerns, national sustainable and efficient energy system, and national energy independence) and personal moral norms (i.e., moral responsibility) significantly impact the willingness and effort to reduce natural gas consumption. The lack of control is the largest perceived control behaviour in reducing the respondents' natural gas consumption compared to available knowledge and affordability. Finally, the respondents care significantly and want to know about natural gas import sources, and they are highly against natural gas imports from Russia, the United States, the Middle Eastern, and Arab countries. Based on the insights, the study provides detailed recommendations. The study provides concrete recommendations for policy-makers to include environmental, humanitarian and energy-independence concerns in their decision-making processes related to natural gas imports and consumption. It also emphasises informing and involving individual households in such decision-making processes.

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Energy communities play an important role in the energy transition to future clean and sustainable energy. The economic feasibility of an energy community is largely affected by its investment options: either a third party or households themselves can invest in distributed energy resources. Another common problem for energy communities is cost allocation among local community members to ensure cost recovery. For these reasons, in this paper, an economic feasibility analysis for energy communities with two investment options is conducted: third party investment and self-investment, while also taking into account various cost allocation methods. An optimization model is developed to solve the optimal operation of the energy community with both investment options. The results indicate that it is economically feasible for a third party to invest in an energy community with the right energy prices and payback time. In this case, the third party makes the highest profits when the payback time is 15 years, which is around 50% percent of its total investment cost. In addition, it is possible for the third party to have multiple cost allocation methods within the same energy community. On the other hand, local community members benefit the most from a joint investment, despite the high initial investment costs. The energy costs of each household are largely affected by the payback time and cost allocation methods. These variations are the largest when payback time is 25 years, which is also the system lifetime. Overall, this study provides insights both for third parties and households to make decisions on investment options and cost allocation.@en

As higher education digitalises, institutions increasingly outsource the development and management of their digital infrastructure including server hardware and services such as email, shared storage, and video conferencing, to private companies. This outsourcing trend is a change in paradigm, since universities have historically been pioneers in deploying and maintaining their own digital infrastructure, a practice also known as self-hosting. Digital infrastructure has a key role in all of a university’s functions: administration, research, and education. While outsourcing infrastructure has benefits in the form of convenience and lower costs, it also erodes institutional independence, centralises points of failure, and dele- gates highly relevant value choices about privacy, data ownership and environmental impact to external actors. In this article, we provide a first quantification of a potential return to self-hosting, emphasising its effect in energy reduction and avoided e-waste. We then outline some policy actions that could enable higher education institutions to re-take control over their digital infrastructure by building local services. This mode of operation reduces waste, and has the added benefit of increased resilience to scenarios of resource scarcity and collapse of external infrastructure. As an example of what could be achieved leveraging these policies, we detail the architecture of a low-impact data centre made of upcycled hardware and resource-aware software. By exploring our main structural choices we aim to showcase how, even starting from a generally heavy-weight software stack such as Kubernetes, there is significant space to reduce digital infrastructure’s overall resource footprint. @en

Citizens are expected to play a significant role to the current energy transition in Europe, such as through prosumerism and collective initiatives for energy efficiency. While there are many platforms for domestic energy analytics and for engaging citizens and transition stakeholders on energy topics, context-specific information is frequently lacking. This article outlines the development of an Interactive Policy Platform that aims to provide contextualized, impact-driven, and ready-to-use information on the role of citizen initiatives in the energy and low-carbon transition in Europe. Specifically, it will help researchers, policymakers, and citizens to explore different dimensions of energy citizenship, understand the decarbonization potentials of diverse clusters of citizens, and identify the conditions under which citizen-led energy initiatives are currently operating. The Platform will be co-designed together with a sample of its future users, ensuring the usability of its interface and the relevance of the provided information. Ultimately, the Platform is envisioned to help transition stakeholders understand and support initiatives related to energy citizenship around Europe, thus contributing to the EU's promise of a just and inclusive decarbonization. @en

Flexibility coming from consumers in residential and service sectors has received significant attention to deal with uncertainty and variability of renewable energy sources. Since these consumers are too small individually to participate in the electricity markets, their assets can be pooled by an aggregator. The aggregator can implement business models by trading flexibility obtained from these consumers’ assets in different electricity markets. However, the aggregator and the consumers are only motivated to implement a business model, if it is economically feasible. The economic feasibility of a business model depends on (1) financial aspects: how much profit the aggregator makes, and how much money the consumers save, and (2) operational aspects: how the consumers’ assets are operated to increase the financial aspects. This paper aims to provide insights in these operational and financial aspects of the aggregator's business models in residential and service sectors. For this purpose, a literature review is conducted, and a framework is presented to analyze the selected papers on these operational and financial aspects. Based on this analysis, different strategies for the aggregator to implement business models are determined. Moreover, knowledge gaps are identified and several recommendations for future research are provided.

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In order to limit the amount of greenhouse gas emission, transitioning to renewable energy sources (RES) is critical. However, integrating RES in the existing power system is not straightforward since RES possess variable and uncertain characteristics. Due to these characteristics, as the penetration of RES increases, maintaining the balance between electricity demand and generation becomes more challenging. Therefore, to deal with variability and uncertainty of RES, the power system needs to become more flexible. Flexibility from the demand side is acquired by modifying the electricity demand of the consumers’ assets, such as appliances and battery energy storage systems. Nevertheless, the electricity demand and generation of individual consumers in residential and service sectors is too small to participate in electricity markets, and to contribute substantially to flexibility. To overcome this, these consumers can be represented by aggregators. To trade flexibility and make profit from it, the aggregator can choose between different business models and strategies to implement these. To make a business model viable in the long run, it should be feasible in a multi-actor context, i.e., for the aggregator, the consumers and the power system. It should contribute to the aggregator’s profit and it should reduce consumers’ cost, the economic feasibility. Moreover, it should provide flexibility to the power system to maintain the system balance, and should operate the consumers’ assets in a suitable way, the operational feasibility. This thesis aims to analyze the operational and economic feasibility of aggregators’ different business models in a multi-actor context. For this purpose, first an overview of the possible business models is provided, as well as the extent to which they differ in terms of the operational and economic aspects. After that, various optimization models are employed to study the economic and operational feasibility of these business models, the economic relation between the aggregator and the consumers, and the combination of different business models. @en

Aggregators are considered essential to obtain flexibility from small residential and service sector consumers. They can implement business models by trading flexibility from their consumers' assets in various electricity markets. The aim of this paper is to identify challenges faced by aggregators with different roles, while implementing business models. We consider aggregators possessing three roles: of a supplier, Balance Responsible Party (BRP), and of an independent aggregator. The results show that challenges identified create higher complexity for aggregators with BRP's role and independent aggregators to implement business models, while it is significantly easier for aggregators with supplier's role. Recommendations are given to overcome the higher complexity: standardization of contracts and raising consumers awareness. These recommendations facilitate aggregators with different roles to implement their business models, and enable a healthy competition in electricity markets.

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Consumer batteries, when bundled by an aggregator, can provide flexibility by being used for consumers self-consumption and by offering Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR). Combining these two can also generate additional revenues for consumers since the aggregator pays an allowance to the consumers for FCR, called FCR price. The aim of this paper is determine the optimal share of consumer batteries that should be reserved for self-consumption and FCR to minimize the consumer's cost, while considering various FCR prices and investment cost of batteries which is paid by either consumers or the aggregator. For this purpose, an optimization model is presented, and applied to a case study in the Netherlands. The results show the consumers annual cost is minimized by finding the optimal FCR share of batteries. Despite that, investing in the battery is still not profitable for the consumers, unless the aggregator invests in the batteries.

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The high level of uncertainty of renewable energy sources generation creates differences between electricity supply and demand, endangering the reliable operation of the power system. Demand response has gained significant attention as a means to cope with uncertainty of renewable energy sources. Demand response of residential and service sector consumers, when accumulated and managed by aggregators, can play a role in existing electricity markets. This paper addresses the question to what extent aggregator-mediated demand response can be used to deal with the impacts of the uncertainty of solar generation. Uncertain solar generation leads to imbalances of an aggregator. These imbalances can be reduced by shifting flexible loads, which is called demand response for internal balancing. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of demand response from loads in residential and service sectors for internal balancing to reduce the imbalances of an aggregator, caused by uncertain solar generation. For this purpose, a Model Predictive Control model which minimizes the imbalances of the aggregator through load shifting is presented. The model is applied to a realistic case study in the Netherlands. The results show that demand response for internal balancing succeeds in reducing imbalances. Even though this is favorable from the power system's perspective, economic analysis shows that the aggregator is not financially incentivized to implement demand response for internal balancing.

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The increase in variable renewable energy sources requires more flexibility in the power system. This could be provided by small distributed energy sources located at end-users. Aggregators can potentially exploit this flexibility by providing Primary Control Reserve (PCR) services to the Transmission System Operator, and congestion management services to Distribution System Operators. A simulation model based on Linear Programming is used to assess, for a case study in the Netherlands, whether such congestion management services are efficient. The results show that an aggregator can reduce the total system costs with 10-15% relative to traditional grid reinforcements, depending on price and depreciation of batteries, PCR remuneration, and wholesale electricity price.

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Aggregators are considered essential to extend demand response (DR) to small residential and service sector consumers. Both sectors currently have untapped load flexibility, which is considered key to support renewable resource integration. Aggregators can offer this flexibility in bulk to other power system parties. This paper addresses the question under which conditions DR can be profitable for both aggregators and end-consumers. The paper builds further on existing research that shows end-consumer preference for flat-rate tariffs. The aim is to find the range of flat-rate retail prices for different photovoltaic (PV) feed-in-Tariffs which make DR profitable for both aggregator and end-consumers. For this purpose, an optimisation model which minimises costs through load scheduling is presented. The model is applied using two approaches: optimising from aggregator's and from end-consumers' perspective. The results show that only the aggregator's perspective yields a range of flat-rate retail prices that are profitable for both actors. However, both the price range and the expected profits of DR are small.

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The EU has set ambitious targets for an energy transition. While research often focuses on technology, institutions or actors, a transition requires complex coordination and comprehensive analysis and design. We propose a framework accounting for technology, institutions and actors' perspective to design in socio-technical systems. We present its application, firstly, to biodiesel production in Germany; secondly, to vehicle-to-grid contracts in a Car as a Power Plant microgrid. We show how using the framework as the core in modelling can contribute to the performance improvement of these systems. Future work will elaborate on the next generation of thermal energy systems, coordination control of microgrids and implementing flexibility through demand response aggregation. Overall, designing solutions to the problems described calls for comprehensive engineers who look beyond the technical design and deal with multi actor socio-political processes including institutional consideration.@en