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Abstract We apply an approach that theoretically connects processes at different scales within a sociotechnical sustainability transitions frame, focusing on individual actors. Drawing on interviews with actors involved in the electric mobility transition in Lower Saxony, Germany, we analyse actors’ narratives as revelatory of situated or ‘conjunctural’ knowledge, as viewed from a strong structuration perspective of sociotechnical change. The purpose is to shed a particular type of light on structure-agency processes. Strong structuration is an extended version of Giddens’ social theory that takes account of actors’ subjective experience of their situation, viewing this as both shaped by - and shaping of - structure, in the sense of rules that are internal and external to individuals. Here we show how actors’ narratives of their experiences and positions in the sociotechnical system reveal themes relevant to the on-going structuration electric vehicles in the case study region of Lower Saxony, Germany. We identify general ‘meta-narratives’ that span more than one individual, as well as personal narratives that are specific to individuals. In addition, the analytic value of narratives in transition literature is discussed.

Electric vehicles offer the potential of climate-friendly driving and have received more and more attention in diffusion research recently. However, the effect of the availability of home charging options on the market potential of electric vehicles has not been targeted in detail in the diffusion process so far, although it represents a beneficial differentiation to conventional vehicles. Therefore, we present an agent-based simulation to address the buying behavior of German consumers regarding electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles using empirical data primarily derived from a choice-based conjoint study. We explicitly consider individual possibilities of home charging in our model, which appears to have an important influence on the diffusion of both, electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. However, its importance decreases with faster charging times at public charging stations. Furthermore, our findings reveal that in the longer term, technological progress in charging time, range, and charging station density of electric vehicles is presumably cannibalizing plug-in hybrid electric vehicles’ market shares more than that of conventional vehicles. However, with still lower technological capabilities of electric vehicles, a governmental subsidy can initially promote plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, but electric vehicles will benefit later from that promotional effect.

Users charging the batteries of their electric vehicles in an uncoordinated manner can present energy systems with a challenge. One possible solution, smart charging, relies on the flexibility within each charging process and controls the charging process to optimize different objectives. Effective smart charging requires forecasts of energy requirements and parking duration at the charging station for each individual charging process. We use data from travel logs to create quantile forecasts of parking duration and energy requirements, approximated by upcoming trip distance. For this task, we apply quantile regression, multi-layer perceptrons with tilted loss function, and multivariate conditional kernel density estimators. The out-of-sample evaluation shows that the use of local information from the vehicle's travel data improves the forecasting accuracy by 13.7% for parking duration and 0.56% for trip distance compared to the data generated at the charging stations. In addition, the analysis of a case study shows that using probabilistic forecasts can control the interruption of charging processes more efficiently compared to point forecasts. Probabilistic forecasting leads up to 7.0% less interruptions, which can cause a restriction in drivers' mobility demand. The results show that charging station operators benefit from leveraging the driving patterns of electric vehicles. Thereby, smart charging and the application of the proposed models as benchmarks models for the related forecasting tasks is an improvement for the operators.

Smart-Charging of Electric Vehicles (EVs) is able to provide frequency regulation capacity services to the System Operator (SO) upon an automation generation control (AGC) signal. While the amount of available regulation capacity is of-fered in the Day-Ahead Market (DAM), there is high uncertainty on the actual amount of reserves that will be called in the Real-Time Market (RTM). This work focuses on aiding EV smart-charging to offer a consistent and reasonable amount of regulation capacity, taking into account the impact of potential future instantaneous called regulation reserves while also maintaining simplicity. The work also analyzes the results of different charger types with different characteristics and shows that they play an important role on the regulation provision. Finally, it has been shown that even though the regulation income is inevitably reduced (up to 66%), the Energy Management System (EMS) can still successfully charge the EV s and simultaneously provide regulation reserves with remuneration. Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public. DC systems, Energy conversion & Storage

Port cities and their neighbouring areas, located at the confines between sea and land, are key hubs in the transportation of goods and people. Ports serve global transport needs, while they are embedded in local geographies, topographies, political, economic and historical settlements. People have always been attracted to human settlements at the interface of water and land. These settlements have evolved into large population centres and metropolitan areas. Major cities, economic hubs and trade centres are engines of key importance for expansive territories and the ports in their vicinity, but they are also places at the forefront of many contemporary threats, including sea level rise as a consequence of climate change. Today, according to the United Nations Development Programme, 55% of humans worldwide live in cities and 40% live within 100 kms off the coast, thus in the vicinity of water-related threats. Maritime and logistic flows cross ports and densely built territories, creating additional environmental and other challenges. The war in Ukraine, long periods of drought and excessive water levels due to heavy rainfall in Pakistan are only the latest examples of both the need for and the danger of port activities for cities and landscapes. Nonetheless, a comprehensive understanding of the relationships between ports, cities and their territories is missing. This special issue argues that we need to embrace a holistic, inclusive approach to port city development, based on ecosystems values, embedded in various layers of capital: natural, cultural, social, human, industrial and creative. To achieve a port city symbiosis and avoid parasitism—defined here as a relationship where one partner benefits at the expense of another-, new port governance frameworks will have to answer to what knowledge needs to be shared to make multiple value creation in the port city ecosystem happen. For transitions to happen, port city territories will have to nurture ecosystem values to unlock this capital. New governance ...

Adopting electric vehicles (EVs) and implementing variable electricity tariffs increase peak demand and the risk of congestion in distribution grids. To avert critical grid situations and sidestep expensive grid expansions, Distribution System Operators (DSOs) must have intervention rights, allowing them to curtail charging processes. Various curtailment strategies are possible, varying in spatio-temporal differentiation and possible discrimination. However, evaluating different strategies is complex due to the interplay of economic factors, technical requirements, and regulatory constraints - a complexity not fully addressed in the current literature. Our study introduces a sophisticated model to optimize electric vehicle charging strategies to address this gap. This model considers different tariff schemes (Fixed, Time-of-Use, and Real-Time) and incorporates DSO interventions (basic, variable, and smart) within its optimization framework. Based on the model, we analyze the ´rexibility demand and total electricity costs from the users' perspective. Applying our model to a synthetic distribution grid, we îond that ´rexible tariffs offer consumers only marginal economic benefits and increase the risk of grid congestion due to herding behavior. All curtailment strategies effectively alleviate congestion, with variable curtailment featuring spatio-temporal differentiation, approaching optimality regarding ´rexibility demand. Notably, applying curtailment from the users' perspective does not lower cost savings significantly.

Abstract Thermal storage offers an alternative to the consumption of battery charge for many applications requiring heat, space heating in electric vehicles for example. Metallic phase change materials are energy dense, thermally conductive and are economically viable for this application. The frequent cycling and non-inertial environment of an electric vehicle necessitate compatibility between the metallic phase change material and the container up to and beyond the metal's melting point. This article is concerned with the identification of alloys appropriate for this application and containers appropriate for those alloys utilising automated macro generation, implemented in two CALPHAD database. Thermal properties sufficient for engineering calculations of over a hundred eutectic compositions are tabulated and compatible containers identified where possible. The output of the study is validated by comparison to literature.