Smart Energy Management: Supporting a Step Change in Local Authorities

The concepts of Smart Cities in general and Smart Solutions in particular have emerged during the last decade. A review of the related literature to these concepts has come to the conclusion that ‘Smart’ is most of the time linked to technological solutions. This is why the Smart City focuses, in a first instance, on the use of technologies for facilitating the management of the different aspects of the city, one of which is energy. The latter is putting organisations under much pressure as on one hand prices are increasing, and on the other, these organisations are compelled to reduce their carbon emissions which can be achieved by decreasing their energy consumption. Hence, there is a great focus on energy management. This thesis focuses on one aspect of the Smart City which is energy management. It deals with the concept of Smart in a specific setting, Local Authorities (LAs), and for a specific aspect which is energy. It addresses the need to identify what Smart can mean in this setting, the change and associated transition it brings to these organisation and how it can improve energy management in order to identify what is meant by Smart Energy Management (SEM).

The thesis adopts a mixed methods approach to address the research aim and objectives. The data has been collected in two main phases and using different tools. The first phase consists mainly of interviewing heads of energy management or their representatives from each type of LAs in the UK, and when possible from outside of the country, to explore how the energy management practice is applied in their respective authorities and what additions ‘Smart’ technologies (like smart meters) are bringing. These data are analysed depending on a set of themes identified in the literature review. The results of this analysis inform the second phase of data collection which consists of an in-depth case analysis of the process of incorporating energy management into a Local Authority and identifies how smart technologies are used for facilitating the application of this practice. Two main data collection instruments are used. The first one is a set of semi-structured interviews with key energy management stakeholders such as heads of energy management, energy managers, building clerks, budget holders and Councillors. The second is a content analysis of corporate documents including the energy management system (EnMS) of the case study Local Authority, energy and metering contracts and periodic energy related reports. The researcher has also sent a questionnaire to the participants in the 1st phase to report and validate the findings with them.

The findings from this research support the development of a Smart Energy Management framework for Local Authorities and identify the different factors that can enable its embedding within these organisations. The first group of factors are at the macro level and include legislation & Central Government policy, Central Government financing opportunities, and how the public sector can lead by example. The second group is at the Meso level and includes the support and endorsement of top management of the organisation. The third one is at the Micro level and covers the availability of high-resolution energy data, highly qualified and motivated members of staff. The final group of factors is embedded in the organisation and includes cultural change.