In this thesis, a research project is conducted to help technical service providers (TSP) that are active in the energy transition of the industrial sector implement Product Service System (PSS) business models. An analytical framework is created to identify success factors for the implementation of PSS business models.

According to the Paris agreement in 2015, global warming should be limited by applying new innovative technologies in the industry in order to keep the global temperature 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Governmental organisations, institutes and manufacturing companies themselves are concerned about high emissions and all together are making efforts to find and apply more appropriate technologies to reduce GHG emissions. This research focuses on the chemical industry, from the perspective of the chemical industrial cluster, and presents a way to identify the most suitable technologies for decarbonisation. The concept of an industrial cluster has the view of interconnected companies located in industrial proximity and there is a perspective of cooperation in order to find a way to reduce emissions. This cooperation, however, creates complexity as the companies will have to cooperate on a financial, technical and social level.

In order to study the topic, a specific case study was chosen to study, which is the Port of Moerdijk industrial cluster. Using publicly available data, three are chemical manufacturing companies and the one is a glass packaging manufacturing company, which is taken into account. The cluster analysis, results that companies are already strongly interlinked by exchanging material streams and utilities, which is an example of existing industrial symbiosis. The main raw material is naphtha, while energy is produced mainly by burning natural gas. This explains the high emissions of the cluster, around 2.8 Mt CO2/y, while the biggest emitter is the steam cracker unit (55% of the total emissions). Based on the cluster analysis, various options for decarbonisation are studied, such as alternatives for feedstock, energy carriers and the alternative processes itself.

The proposed scenario for the cluster of Moerdijk is, investing in the partial substitution of fossil-based naphtha feedstock with 10% co-feed of bionaphtha and 10% co-feed of waste plastic oil. Implementation of the electrification of the steam cracker, the steam boilers and the glass production processes and finally, Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) technology is recommended. By implementing the recommended combination of decarbonisation options, it is estimated that by 2035 this will result in reduction of 45% of cluster emissions.

After the proposal of the final scenario for the case study, an attempt is made to generalise this analysis, and thus a way towards a decision framework is presented. Essentially, a list of actions is presented, which someone could follow to find the appropriate solution for another chemical industrial cluster. In this framework, all the social, environmental, economic and technical sectors are taken into account. This leads to a rather complex topic that should be solved or at least simplified. This study can be used by decision makers of a chemical manufacturing company, which is a part of an industrial cluster, as a tool in order to follow the right steps to conclude the most suitable option for decarbonisation.  The advantage of studying this topic from an industrial cluster perspective is the decrease of individual investment costs by investing in a common solution with shared infrastructure.

This report presents an analysis of the emergence of residential batteries from a consumer’s perspective and their effect on the load peak of the distribution grid. First, the future of residential batteries was evaluated in social and technical context by mapping the present situation, its trends, and its possible drivers. Three different battery control strategies were analysed: maximising self-consumption, market price arbitrage, and load peak reduction. The corresponding battery profile was determined with a rule-based approach. Second, load summation was used to simulate battery development scenarios within the distribution network, after which the effect of residential batteries was determined on a selected substation with a load peak analysis. From consumer perspective, residential batteries are driven by the phase-out of the net-metering scheme, increasing wholesale daily price spread, a decline of investment costs, or renewed tariff structures. The results showed that residential batteries become economically attractive when net-metering is abolished and the daily electricity price spread increases. The load profile results of the selected substation show a reduction of both size and number of overload hours for all control methods in case of medium and low emergence of residential batteries. In case the batteries are used to reduce individual load peaks, this reduction is largest and is smallest when batteries are used for market price arbitrage. Battery usage for self-consumption and peak reduction mainly operate during summer months when PV generation is higher. Therefore, demand load peaks in winter are not relieved as much. Although it was found that grid reinforcement is still not alleviated for the selected substation, the maximum and minimum load peak are unified leading to a reduction of required reinforcement capacity. It is found that retail price regulations strongly influence which control method will be dominant. Incentives to increase self-consumption or reduce load peaks will relieve pressure on the grid. However, critical grid congestion moments are not explicitly relieved. Therefore, further research is required to identify methods to utilise the batteries for DSO control during critical peak moments or winter seasons with low self-consumption usage.

The rise of the so called Insurtechs, leveraging digital technologies to offer superior and personalized offerings, has shaken the insurance industry leading to a new age of innovation and business models. In addition, the importance of a digital customer experience is increasing as the number of sales completed online are rising. Customers expect wide availability of personalized options and offerings tailored to their specific risk scenarios. Traditional insurers should react fast to face the threat of new players and remain competitive in this fast-paced market environment. A customer-centric approach to digitalization is required to meet demanding requests from customers while targeting benefits including financial flexibility, lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), speed to market, and availability of information anywhere and at any time. Concurrently, the rise of cloud computing technologies spark interests in traditional players that have an opportunity to tackle these challenges by transforming their IT infrastructure to generate value for clients while substantially improving the enterprise’s operations. The aim of this document is to inspire the management to perceive the need for innovation and structural change and provide them with the tools and key recommendations to tackle the challenge. Besides, the literature is lacking contents weighting the cloud computing advantages in the insurance industry and exploring the business model’s innovations necessary to welcome the use of the cloud. Hence, the additional goal of this research, is to address this gap and explore the barriers hindering cloud adoption in the financial services industry together with the mitigation strategies expected to reduce such risk factors.

As the variable renewable energy share keep on increasing throughout the energy transition, power systems require more and different flexibility measures. Battery energy storage can provide these essential services that enable the energy system to carbonise and transform on short time scales. Energy arbitrage, the trading of electricity on the electricity markets, can create economic value for batteries. This research assesses the energy arbitrage opportunities for utility-scale battery energy storage in the Netherlands. It compares five different battery technologies and defines the optimal size and power capacity with a linear mixed-integer Matlab optimization model. Furthermore, the operation of for the most optimal technology is simulated for one year with a Model Predictive Control algorithm to be able to compare the effects of forecasting accuracy of the electricity prices on the estimated profits. The results show that according to optimized planning and dispatch in the operation of a battery system can lead to financial opportunities in the Netherlands regarding energy arbitrage for flow batteries. If not today, then in the future. It has been shown that towards 2030 the business case for battery energy storage will significantly increase due to decreasing capital costs and increasing price volatility with the rise of the VRES and phase-out of fossil energy sources. With this research, a contribution is delivered towards the realisation of commercially operating an independent utility-scale battery energy storage facility. Insights are provided on what battery configuration is best suited for energy arbitrage purposes and the effectiveness of simulating the optimized operation of a battery facility with a model predictive control method has been shown. This has lead to clearer insights into the profitability of operating a BESF in the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands more wind farms are constructed and energy is contracted in long-term Power Purchase Agreemenats (PPA) to guarantee a steady revenue stream for the wind farm owners. However, until now only large corporates closed PPA contracts to obtain the Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) from a wind farm and claim to be renewable. A new type of PPA is designed that has a direct link between the corporate and wind farm and transfers both power and the RECs. This direct trade PPA is analysed by applying an economic theory, the property rights theory, on the energy sector and by modelling the financial consequences. The result is a framework with the transactions, the risk allocation and the economic incentives of the actors involved. It shows more incentives to invest in renewable energy, moreover the corporate takes more volume risk on the energy production in order to obtain benefit which can be reduced by contracting a service provider. Furthermore, the financial model shows a significant financial benefit for a direct trade PPA compared to a traditional contract and shows a positive eect on the match between supply and demand. Moreover, the match and benefit can be increased by 25% by adding solar capacity in combination with wind energy. The next step is to further investigate this direct trade PPA and to promote this PPA type to corporates that want to invest in renewables and use this as a preferred contract type.