Combined Heat and Power in Europe STS perspectives on a pioneering technology

Matthias Weber AIT – Austrian Institute of Technology, Department Foresight & Policy Development

Symposium to celebrate the contribution of Dr. Stewart Russell

University of Edinburgh

30 March 2012

Overview

CHP – cogeneration

Historical perspectives and patterns of diffusion

STS perspectives on CHP

Recurrent STS issues

Future perspectives

Conclusions

2 05.04.2012

CHP - cogeneration

Technology of CHP – an old principle rediscovered

Simultaneously generation of electricity and useful forms of heat in the same

process

Established technology known since the early the 20th Century, which

corresponds to „Stand der Technik“, though with continuous developments at the

level of prime movers and control systems

Main advantage is the potential to achieve much higher energy efficiency than

generating heat and power separately

Due to the limitations to transporting heat, CHP plants must be located

decentrally and close of heat demand

Three main application areas:

District heating

Industrial CHP

Micro-CHP

3 05.04.2012

The rise of CHP

The main phases of development

Early industrial applications

Post-war reconstruction

The impact of the oil crisis

CHP in the post-liberalisation period

CHP in the era of decentralised renewables

In spite of similar phases, the patterns of diffusion differ significantly across

European countries

It‘s not the technology, stupid!

4 05.04.2012

Share of CHP in total electricity production (2002)

In spite of being affected by similar external developments, the level of

diffusion differed and still differs significantly, pointing to the importance of

historical, cultural, institutional as well as technological path-dependencies

5 05.04.2012

Source: Raven and Verbong, 2007

Fast growth in the Netherlands …

CHP grew almost by a factor of 4 in about fifteen years

Growth in industrial, district heating and small-scale applications

6 05.04.2012

Source: Raven and Verbong, 2007

… but stagnation at a low level in the UK

Some noteworthy growth, but stagnating at a comparatively low level

Concentrated on industrial application

7 05.04.2012 Source: DoECC, 2010

STS perspectives on CHP (1)

Some open questions

Why is such a seemingly promising technology not more successful?

Why are the differences across countries so significant?

Why are the shares of DH and industrial CHP so different?

Some inroads for STS

Technological determinism vs. social shaping?

Over-reliance on economic arguments is not sufficient to explain differences in

patterns?

Historical and cultural path-dependencies?

Organisational and institutional determinants?

Interests and power?

Socio-technical complexity?

8 05.04.2012

STS perspectives on CHP (2)

Historical perspective on the interplay of structure, agency and power

(Russell 1986/1993/1994/1996)

CHP in the context of urban planning, addressing the local benefits of

CHP/DH,and the main barriers (Alcock and Marvin 1988):

awareness and acceptance,

uncertainty about economic and financial issues,

lack of attention to environmental benefits,

institutional and legal issues

Detailed local case studies of CHP projects, conceived as large technical

system (Summerton 1992)

9 05.04.2012

STS perspectives on CHP (3)

Comparative analysis of the tension between liberalisation and

sustainability, and the political strategies for dealing with it (Hard/Olsson

1995):

Cultural dependence

Political enforcement

The governance and steering of CHP from pre- to post-liberalisation phase,

and how different countries handled the new „rules of the game“ to stimulate

the uptake of CHP (Weber 1999)

Renewed interest in CHP as one among other decentral options in the

context of multi-level transitions research(Raven and Verbong 2007,

Meijer/Hekkert/Koppenjan 2007)

The role of perceived uncertainties on innovation decisions

Competition between different regimes

10 05.04.2012

Recurrent STS issues – organisation and institutions

Organisational and institutional determinants

CHP in the UK fell into the gap between electricity companies and heat suppliers,

which both had a marginal interest

Centralised power supply system is conflicting with decentralised technologies

If strong municipalities are in place with local grid ownership (e.g. Sweden,

Denmark, Austria, Germany), much better opportunities exist to bridge the

boundaries between heat supply and electricity supply

„The second aspect is the necessity of understanding the institutional structure of

the sector. The key absence has been an organization with national responsibility

for heat supply or even conservation, so that CHP and DH have been left to

organizations with other major responsibilities, for which they would be additional

and marginal activities with precarious financial and political support.“ (Russell,

1993, 52)

11 05.04.2012

Recurrent STS issues – interests and power

The pursuit of partial interests and the power to enforce them

Organisational interests are channeled through apparently technical debates

„The terms of appraisal were clearly dependent on the perfoming institutions and

the precise constraints on it. It is not sufficient to ask whether the option was

‚economic‘. We need to ask for whom its economics was assessed, and why

narrowly defined economic criteria were used and whether they were

appropriate“ (Russell, 1993, 52)

Options are systematically excluded, because they challenge established

interests of the incumbents, who have the power to restrict access to the market

„The electricity industry was not always actively opposed to CHP; but nor was it

ever a strong supporter. We need first a broad picture of the major objectives and

programmes it had defined for itself, and its evolving relation as a nationalized

industry with government and with the rest of the sector.“ (Russell, 1993, 52)

12 05.04.2012

Recurrent STS issues – structure and agency

From the structure – agency duality towards a multi-level perspective

Not just tracing actor-networks, but also social structures and contextual

developments in which they are embedded

The emphasis on the interplay between structures and actions is taken up later

on in a modified form in the multi-level perspective

„I find it necessary (…) to argue the need for several different levels of analysis in

the social systems within which technologicacal development is situated (…)“

(Russell 1993, 51)

„A contextual analysis (…) is necessary if we are to understand whether the

exclusion of this technology has been accidental (..) or systematic (..).“ (Russell,

1993, 52)

13 05.04.2012

Recurrent STS issues – governance (1)

Political governance and the role of state

Political enforcement strategy has worked in Austria, Sweden, and some other

countries, but was not pursued and accepted in other countries like the UK

Deregulation and privatisation provided an opportunity to change course, but

would have required an active and sustained policy to remove obstacles and

provide incentives.

„At privatisation it was widely assumed that the chances of a significant

introduction of CHP would improve, but the structure of the new electricity market

is providing a new and perhaps more daunting set of obstacles„ (Russell, 1996,

1)

„CHP still has to fit somehow into a (deregulated*) system that has not been

designed to suit it“ (Russell, 1994, 31)

14 05.04.2012

Recurrent STS issues – governance (2)

Softer forms of determined support and steering efforts

Deregulation and liberalisation opened up the electricity market to competition

and gave access to the grid

Establishment of carrier organisations broke down organisational barriers

Political commitments and targets as orientation

Feed-in tariffs as incentives

„(..) the present situation requires a stable and persistent energy policy, where

governments are not afraid of taking on the roles of a „guiding actor“ and

„creative regulator“. Deregulation and privatization may not be driven too far.“

(Hard and Olsson, 1995)

15 05.04.2012

Recurrent STS issues – embedding in broader expectations

Embedding of CHP in future expectations related to broader energy debates

In some countries, proponents of CHP have been more successful in generating

legitimacy and support for CHP by „embedding“ it in broader debates

The legitimating broader debates change in the course of time, for instance from

energy security and efficiency gains,to CO2 reduction, climate change and

renewables, and most recently to smart grids.

„(Before liberalisation*) CHP found itself at the intersection of a number of

debates in Britain:

• on energy strategies, the environment, conservation, and alternatives to nuclear power;

• on the role of coal, the maintenance of markets for it, and the defence of the industry

against run-down;

• on fuel poverty, living conditions and degenerating housing stock;

• on problems of the nationalised industries, alternative forms of public ownership and (..)

the devolution of centralised state functions to regional and city levels; and

• on criticism of the electricity supply industry over ist nuclear programme, over-

forecasting and excess capacity“ (Russell 1994, 19)

16 05.04.2012

Future perspectives and issues – recurrent debates

Fuel cells, renewables and other decentral power generation options

A wave of technological options have emerged which show similar characteristics

as CHP, and are likely to be confronted with similar barriers

CHP is increasingly positioned as an option that fits the renewables trajectory

Smart grids

The next „hype“ for decentralised energy supply, with particular relevance to

micro-CHP

The phasing out of nuclear power

Austria, Sweden as precursors of the debate whether CHP can substitute for

nuclear power (Hard/Olsson 1995)

The recent decisions on nuclear phase-out (e.g. in Germany) may re-start the

debate about the role of CHP

17 05.04.2012

Conclusions

Stewart Russell was pioneering research on the social shaping of CHP, with

CHP being a model case for highlighting the role of STS perspectives that

are equally important in other cases and technologies

CHP was a precursor technology that foreshadowed later debates about

decentral and renewable energy technologies. There is much to learn for

current – and future – debates by looking at Stewart‘s work and the work of

his successors in the social study of CHP

Recent political decisions and upcoming fundamentel choices about the

future pathways of energy supply may re-ignite a debate about the role of

CHP, but it remains to be seen whether we have learnt something from past

experiences

18 05.04.2012

References

DoECC (2010): Digest UK Energy Statistics 2010, Chapter 6 Combined Heat and Power,

Department of Energy and Climate Change, London

Hard, M., Olsson, S.-O. (1995): Reluctant Marriage: How District Heating and Electricity Systems

Have Been Combined, in: Kaijser, A., Hedin, M. (eds.): Nordic Energy Systems: Historical

Perspectives and Current Issues, Science History Publications, Canton (MA), 187-204

Alcock, J., Marvin, S. (1988): Political Constraints on the Introduction of Cogeneration in the

United Kingdom, Proceedings of the Euroforum – New Energies Congress, Volume 1,

Saarbrücken

Meijer, I.S.M., Hekkert, M.P., Koppenjan, J.F.M. (2007): How perceived uncertainties influence

transition: the case of micro-CHP in the Netherlands, Technological Forecasting and Social

Change, 74, 519-537

Raven, R., Verbong, G. (2007): Multi-Regime Interactions in the Dutch Energy Sector: The Case

of Combined Heat and Power Technologies in the Netherlands 1970-2000, Technology Analysis

and Strategic Management, 19, 491-507

Russell, S., (1986): The Political Shaping of Energy Technology: Combined Heat and Power in

Britain, PhD thesis, Aston University

Russell, S., (1993): Writing energy history: explaining the neglect of CHP/DH in Britain, British

Journal for the History of Science, 26, 33-54

19 05.04.2012

References

Russell, S. (1994): Combined Heat and Power in Britain, in: Hard, M., Olsson, S.-O. (eds.): The

Combined Generation of Heat and Power in Great Britain and the Netherlands: Histories of

Success and Failure, NUTEK Research Report R1994:29, Stockholm

Russell, S. (1996): At the Margin: British Electricity Generation after Nationalisation and

Privatisation, and the Fortunes of Combined Heat and Power, Paper for SHOT `96 Conference

(Society for the History of Technology), London

Summerton, J. (1992): District heating comes to town: The social shaping of an energy system,

PhD thesis, Linkoeping University

Weber, K.M. (1999): Innovation diffusion and political control: A comparison of combined heat

and power generaltion in the UK and Germany, Physica, Heidelberg

20 05.04.2012

Thank you for your attention !

Dr. Matthias Weber

AIT Austrian Institute of Technology

Department Foresight & Policy Development

Vienna

matthias.weber@ait.ac.at

21 05.04.2012