Pub Date : 2025-09-06DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2025.102040
Sophie Ruprecht, Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen
CiFi PV projects facilitate broader public participation in solar energy, particularly among those unable to install their own rooftop systems. Despite their potential, these projects are under-researched. This study explores whether CiFi PV can engage diverse populations or if it mainly attracts the same individuals as personal rooftop PV. It examines the role of tacit and explicit knowledge, as measured by education and solar experience, in the acceptance of CiFi PV, as well as in the evaluation of project characteristics that motivate people to choose CiFi PV. Using a Swiss conjoint experiment, findings suggest that the inclusive potential of CiFi PV may be limited, with similar preferences observed across knowledge groups.
{"title":"Going solar? The role of knowledge in shaping social acceptance of citizen-financed PV projects in Switzerland","authors":"Sophie Ruprecht, Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen","doi":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102040","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102040","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>CiFi PV projects facilitate broader public participation in solar energy, particularly among those unable to install their own rooftop systems. Despite their potential, these projects are under-researched. This study explores whether CiFi PV can engage diverse populations or if it mainly attracts the same individuals as personal rooftop PV. It examines the role of tacit and explicit knowledge, as measured by education and solar experience, in the acceptance of CiFi PV, as well as in the evaluation of project characteristics that motivate people to choose CiFi PV. Using a Swiss conjoint experiment, findings suggest that the inclusive potential of CiFi PV may be limited, with similar preferences observed across knowledge groups.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23554,"journal":{"name":"Utilities Policy","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 102040"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145005344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-06DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2025.102037
Yin Cui
Environmental performance of urban transport infrastructure (EPUTI) reflects the positive influence of urban transport infrastructure on the natural environment. It is influenced by various determinants, including the inputs of its operational facilities and numerous urban economic and social development factors. In addition, urban transport infrastructure encompasses multiple categories of transportation modes, and their environmental performances may differ; however, they are typically influenced by similar factors. Therefore, it is necessary to use a scientific method to analyze their determinants jointly. This paper examines the environmental performance of different categories of urban transport infrastructure and their determinants, taking six megacities in China as examples. Their EPUTIs are evaluated by the entropy method. The seemingly unrelated regression models are employed to analyze the determinants of the environmental performance across different categories of urban transport infrastructure. The results display that 1) the improvement of environmental performance of urban bus was not significantly relied on the increase of its operational vehicles; 2) the improvement of environmental performance of urban rail transit was mainly relied on the enlargement of scales of their operational vehicles and environmental performance of urban road was significantly negatively affected by the scale of civilian car ownership; 3) urban economic and population scales were still the important determinants of environmental performance of urban transport infrastructure; 4) the investment intensity of urban transport infrastructure and urban technological level have weaker impacts on environmental performance of urban transport infrastructure.
{"title":"Modeling determinants of the environmental performance of urban transport infrastructure in six Chinese megacities","authors":"Yin Cui","doi":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102037","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102037","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Environmental performance of urban transport infrastructure (EPUTI) reflects the positive influence of urban transport infrastructure on the natural environment. It is influenced by various determinants, including the inputs of its operational facilities and numerous urban economic and social development factors. In addition, urban transport infrastructure encompasses multiple categories of transportation modes, and their environmental performances may differ; however, they are typically influenced by similar factors. Therefore, it is necessary to use a scientific method to analyze their determinants jointly. This paper examines the environmental performance of different categories of urban transport infrastructure and their determinants, taking six megacities in China as examples. Their EPUTIs are evaluated by the entropy method. The seemingly unrelated regression models are employed to analyze the determinants of the environmental performance across different categories of urban transport infrastructure. The results display that 1) the improvement of environmental performance of urban bus was not significantly relied on the increase of its operational vehicles; 2) the improvement of environmental performance of urban rail transit was mainly relied on the enlargement of scales of their operational vehicles and environmental performance of urban road was significantly negatively affected by the scale of civilian car ownership; 3) urban economic and population scales were still the important determinants of environmental performance of urban transport infrastructure; 4) the investment intensity of urban transport infrastructure and urban technological level have weaker impacts on environmental performance of urban transport infrastructure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23554,"journal":{"name":"Utilities Policy","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 102037"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145005343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-05DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2025.102043
Tamer Emre
This paper examines Türkiye's three-pillar energy-poverty strategy (2019–2023), focusing on the Maximum Settlement Price (AUF), a universal market-wide tariff intervention functionally similar to an inframarginal cap. Using high-frequency EPİAŞ prices and DisCo-level indicators (disconnections, consumption), the analysis shows that AUF acts as an implicit consumer subsidy and, together with the 240-kWh tier, improves affordability for low-consumption users, especially in Eastern and Southeastern regions. Reframing a mechanism often criticized for lowering producer revenues, the study documents its distributional footprint on vulnerable households. By linking market design to energy-poverty outcomes, it offers a cost-effective, replicable template for behavior-informed targeting under crisis conditions.
{"title":"Hidden subsidies and behavioral targeting: Insights from Türkiye's three-pillar energy poverty strategy (2019–2023)","authors":"Tamer Emre","doi":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102043","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102043","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines Türkiye's three-pillar energy-poverty strategy (2019–2023), focusing on the Maximum Settlement Price (AUF), a universal market-wide tariff intervention functionally similar to an inframarginal cap. Using high-frequency EPİAŞ prices and DisCo-level indicators (disconnections, consumption), the analysis shows that AUF acts as an implicit consumer subsidy and, together with the 240-kWh tier, improves affordability for low-consumption users, especially in Eastern and Southeastern regions. Reframing a mechanism often criticized for lowering producer revenues, the study documents its distributional footprint on vulnerable households. By linking market design to energy-poverty outcomes, it offers a cost-effective, replicable template for behavior-informed targeting under crisis conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23554,"journal":{"name":"Utilities Policy","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 102043"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144997002","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-04DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2025.102044
Bill Lee , Jinke Li , Jing Shao
The Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme in the UK was designed to promote residential solar photovoltaic (PV) projects by offering fixed payments for electricity generated, thereby positioning solar PV as an investment opportunity for households. This study investigates the role of income in shaping the uptake of solar PV under the FIT scheme and assesses the intertemporal fairness of the financial returns it provides. Using data from 323 local authority districts, the analysis focuses on two major installation peaks in 2011 and 2015, which correspond to significant changes in tariff rates. The findings reveal a positive relationship between income and solar PV adoption during the first peak, but a negative relationship in the second. This shift suggests that as installation costs declined, lower-income regions began to catch up in adopting solar PV. However, by estimating the expected (ex ante) rates of return across these periods, the study identifies a substantial decline in returns, both between the two peaks and following sharp reductions in tariff rates. These results indicate that early adopters in higher-income regions achieved significantly higher financial returns than those who adopted later. The study reveals a form of intertemporal unfairness embedded in the FIT scheme, confirming the need for more frequent and responsive tariff adjustments to ensure consistent investment incentives over time.
{"title":"The intertemporal unfairness of the feed-in tariff scheme in the United Kingdom: Catching up across regions","authors":"Bill Lee , Jinke Li , Jing Shao","doi":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102044","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102044","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme in the UK was designed to promote residential solar photovoltaic (PV) projects by offering fixed payments for electricity generated, thereby positioning solar PV as an investment opportunity for households. This study investigates the role of income in shaping the uptake of solar PV under the FIT scheme and assesses the intertemporal fairness of the financial returns it provides. Using data from 323 local authority districts, the analysis focuses on two major installation peaks in 2011 and 2015, which correspond to significant changes in tariff rates. The findings reveal a positive relationship between income and solar PV adoption during the first peak, but a negative relationship in the second. This shift suggests that as installation costs declined, lower-income regions began to catch up in adopting solar PV. However, by estimating the expected (ex ante) rates of return across these periods, the study identifies a substantial decline in returns, both between the two peaks and following sharp reductions in tariff rates. These results indicate that early adopters in higher-income regions achieved significantly higher financial returns than those who adopted later. The study reveals a form of intertemporal unfairness embedded in the FIT scheme, confirming the need for more frequent and responsive tariff adjustments to ensure consistent investment incentives over time.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23554,"journal":{"name":"Utilities Policy","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 102044"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144997001","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2025.102033
Andres Cabrera Flamini , Klaas Schwartz
This study provides a historical framework of the cumulative mandates of water supply utilities: universal coverage, commercial viability, and sustainability. The political agendas, development programs, and societal demands that have led to this overlap of multiple, and at times competing, mandates are discussed to inform the complexity water utilities face. Further, the detrimental effect of climate change, demographic change, urbanization, pollution, and ageing infrastructure on achieving these mandates is explained. Water utility management is portrayed as becoming increasingly complex, resulting in a need for more diverse knowledge, skills, and capacities in addressing the challenges facing water utilities.
{"title":"Meeting multiple mandates: The increasing complexity of water utility management","authors":"Andres Cabrera Flamini , Klaas Schwartz","doi":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102033","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102033","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study provides a historical framework of the cumulative mandates of water supply utilities: universal coverage, commercial viability, and sustainability. The political agendas, development programs, and societal demands that have led to this overlap of multiple, and at times competing, mandates are discussed to inform the complexity water utilities face. Further, the detrimental effect of climate change, demographic change, urbanization, pollution, and ageing infrastructure on achieving these mandates is explained. Water utility management is portrayed as becoming increasingly complex, resulting in a need for more diverse knowledge, skills, and capacities in addressing the challenges facing water utilities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23554,"journal":{"name":"Utilities Policy","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102033"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144921835","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-29DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2025.102032
Jacobus Nel, Roula Inglesi-Lotz
The relationship between electric vehicle (EV) stock and electricity consumption is complex, with many factors influencing both variables. Furthermore, higher EV adoption can have adverse and unforeseen impacts on electrical networks and generation capacity requirements, necessitating the development of proactive policies and tariff decisions. To this end, this study investigates this relationship for 20 European countries from 2000 until 2022, utilising an Error Correction Model to estimate the impact of EV sales on electricity consumption. Results indicate positive and statistically significant results for certain sub-samples, which can have far-reaching implications for policymakers and generation and network capacity planners.
{"title":"The relationship between electric vehicle adoption and electricity consumption: Evidence from Europe","authors":"Jacobus Nel, Roula Inglesi-Lotz","doi":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102032","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102032","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The relationship between electric vehicle (EV) stock and electricity consumption is complex, with many factors influencing both variables. Furthermore, higher EV adoption can have adverse and unforeseen impacts on electrical networks and generation capacity requirements, necessitating the development of proactive policies and tariff decisions. To this end, this study investigates this relationship for 20 European countries from 2000 until 2022, utilising an Error Correction Model to estimate the impact of EV sales on electricity consumption. Results indicate positive and statistically significant results for certain sub-samples, which can have far-reaching implications for policymakers and generation and network capacity planners.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23554,"journal":{"name":"Utilities Policy","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102032"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144912512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-28DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2025.102035
Will Gorman, Galen Barbose, Sunhee Baik, Cesca Miller, Juan Pablo Carvallo
Adoption of paired solar-plus-storage systems has accelerated in recent years, driven by both the demand for backup power and a desire to manage utility bills. Tradeoffs between those two uses can arise through the reserve setting on the battery storage system, which serves to maintain a minimum state of charge in case of a power interruption. Our paper applies an economic framework to evaluate this tradeoff in terms of changes in bill savings and customer reliability value across reserve levels, considering how those tradeoffs depend on the underlying electricity rate structure and levels. The analysis is based on a representative set of load profiles, solar profiles, tariff designs, and stochastic power interruption events across ten different regions in the United States. We find that the opportunity cost of holding storage capacity in reserve, in terms of foregone bill reductions, outweighs any gains in reliability value from mitigated power interruptions in the majority of customer situations. Higher storage reserve levels increase total customer value only in specific circumstances, such as for customers with inferior reliability (10x average interruptions), with a very high value of lost load ($50/kWh), and with tariff or interconnection rules that disallow grid charging. However, even this result is dampened when considering tariff designs with higher price differentials that increase the opportunity cost of holding storage in reserve (e.g. import/export or time-of-use rates). Allowing grid charging in tariffs essentially eliminates the necessity to hold any storage in reserve in all sensitivity cases explored.
{"title":"Backup power or bill savings? How electricity tariffs impact residential solar-plus-storage usage in the United States","authors":"Will Gorman, Galen Barbose, Sunhee Baik, Cesca Miller, Juan Pablo Carvallo","doi":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102035","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102035","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Adoption of paired solar-plus-storage systems has accelerated in recent years, driven by both the demand for backup power and a desire to manage utility bills. Tradeoffs between those two uses can arise through the reserve setting on the battery storage system, which serves to maintain a minimum state of charge in case of a power interruption. Our paper applies an economic framework to evaluate this tradeoff in terms of changes in bill savings and customer reliability value across reserve levels, considering how those tradeoffs depend on the underlying electricity rate structure and levels. The analysis is based on a representative set of load profiles, solar profiles, tariff designs, and stochastic power interruption events across ten different regions in the United States. We find that the opportunity cost of holding storage capacity in reserve, in terms of foregone bill reductions, outweighs any gains in reliability value from mitigated power interruptions in the majority of customer situations. Higher storage reserve levels increase total customer value only in specific circumstances, such as for customers with inferior reliability (10x average interruptions), with a very high value of lost load ($50/kWh), and with tariff or interconnection rules that disallow grid charging. However, even this result is dampened when considering tariff designs with higher price differentials that increase the opportunity cost of holding storage in reserve (e.g. import/export or time-of-use rates). Allowing grid charging in tariffs essentially eliminates the necessity to hold any storage in reserve in all sensitivity cases explored.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23554,"journal":{"name":"Utilities Policy","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102035"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144912511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-28DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2025.102038
Monowar Mahmud , Tarek Abedin , Md Mahfuzur Rahman , Shamiul Ashraf Shoishob , Tiong Sieh Kiong , Mohammad Nur-E-Alam
The rapid growth of electric vehicles (EVs) demands efficient, grid-friendly charging systems. This study introduces a dynamic pricing framework combining short-term demand forecasting and deep reinforcement learning. Using Adaptive Charging Network (ACN) data, XGBoost predicts charging demand accurately (R2 = 0.84, MAE = 0.45 kW). Compared to a uniform rate applied to all charging usage, set at 0.15 USD/kWh across all hours, with no adjustment for system demand conditions or time-of-day, the optimized strategy enhanced total daily revenue by 133 % and diminished load variance by 72.37 %. The PPO agent also surpassed traditional Time-of-Use and demand-based pricing models by 67–94 %, while ensuring pricing stability with a price standard deviation of 0.132 USD/kWh. The simulation results illustrate the framework's efficacy in facilitating off-peak charging and improving grid reliability.
电动汽车（ev）的快速增长需要高效、电网友好的充电系统。本研究引入了一个结合短期需求预测和深度强化学习的动态定价框架。XGBoost利用自适应充电网络（ACN）数据，准确预测充电需求（R2 = 0.84, MAE = 0.45 kW）。与适用于所有充电使用的统一费率（在所有时间内设置为0.15美元/千瓦时，不根据系统需求条件或一天中的时间进行调整）相比，优化后的策略使每日总收入增加了133%，负载差异减少了72.37%。PPO代理也比传统的基于使用时间和需求的定价模型高出67 - 94%，同时确保了价格的稳定性，价格标准差为0.132美元/千瓦时。仿真结果表明了该框架在促进非峰充电和提高电网可靠性方面的有效性。
{"title":"Integrating demand forecasting and deep reinforcement learning for real-time electric vehicle charging price optimization","authors":"Monowar Mahmud , Tarek Abedin , Md Mahfuzur Rahman , Shamiul Ashraf Shoishob , Tiong Sieh Kiong , Mohammad Nur-E-Alam","doi":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102038","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102038","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rapid growth of electric vehicles (EVs) demands efficient, grid-friendly charging systems. This study introduces a dynamic pricing framework combining short-term demand forecasting and deep reinforcement learning. Using Adaptive Charging Network (ACN) data, XGBoost predicts charging demand accurately (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.84, MAE = 0.45 kW). Compared to a uniform rate applied to all charging usage, set at 0.15 USD/kWh across all hours, with no adjustment for system demand conditions or time-of-day, the optimized strategy enhanced total daily revenue by 133 % and diminished load variance by 72.37 %. The PPO agent also surpassed traditional Time-of-Use and demand-based pricing models by 67–94 %, while ensuring pricing stability with a price standard deviation of 0.132 USD/kWh. The simulation results illustrate the framework's efficacy in facilitating off-peak charging and improving grid reliability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23554,"journal":{"name":"Utilities Policy","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102038"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144907118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study examines the presence of abnormally low bids in public-private partnership (PPP) project tenders across Latin America. To this end, a representative database of PPP processes in Latin America was developed. Surprisingly, the findings indicate a notable absence of abnormally low bids. This result stands in stark contrast to recent studies. The analysis of 122 PPP projects spanning diverse countries and sectors provides a foundation for constructing a statistical test to identify abnormally low bids.
{"title":"Abnormally low bids in PPPs: Analysis of evidence and a proposed statistical test","authors":"Sergio Hinojosa , Roberto Muñoz , Giancarlos Oviedo","doi":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102021","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102021","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the presence of abnormally low bids in public-private partnership (PPP) project tenders across Latin America. To this end, a representative database of PPP processes in Latin America was developed. Surprisingly, the findings indicate a notable absence of abnormally low bids. This result stands in stark contrast to recent studies. The analysis of 122 PPP projects spanning diverse countries and sectors provides a foundation for constructing a statistical test to identify abnormally low bids.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23554,"journal":{"name":"Utilities Policy","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102021"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144903863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-26DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2025.102036
A. Bennich , V. Bergion , D. Nilsson
Digitalisation has gained interest in the broader water sector, with data-driven solutions seen as key to this development. Digital technologies are often portrayed as solutions to current and future challenges and potential applications have been identified across all areas of urban water management. However, their implementation in water utilities remains limited. This paper examines how the use of data-driven solutions aligns with and addresses the perceived needs of water utilities. It is based on an interview study with 23 key informants from Swedish water utilities involved in implementing and using data-driven solutions in urban water management. Our findings suggest that these solutions are not yet well-aligned with the technical and organisational structures of utilities. While they can address the long-term needs of water utilities with promises of improved efficiency and performance, they are less equipped to meet short-term needs which call for simple, immediate-impact solutions. Although implementing data-driven solutions should be justified by actual organisational needs, we must distinguish between the short-term and long-term needs of water utilities. Prioritising short-term needs may be more efficient in the short run but can be detrimental in the long run, which creates an ambidexterity dilemma for water utilities. Utilities should formulate digital vision or strategies that consider both the short-term and long-term needs of utilities to benefit fully from digitalisation.
{"title":"Digital solutions in search of a problem? Balancing short-term and long-term needs in water utilities","authors":"A. Bennich , V. Bergion , D. Nilsson","doi":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102036","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jup.2025.102036","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Digitalisation has gained interest in the broader water sector, with data-driven solutions seen as key to this development. Digital technologies are often portrayed as solutions to current and future challenges and potential applications have been identified across all areas of urban water management. However, their implementation in water utilities remains limited. This paper examines how the use of data-driven solutions aligns with and addresses the perceived needs of water utilities. It is based on an interview study with 23 key informants from Swedish water utilities involved in implementing and using data-driven solutions in urban water management. Our findings suggest that these solutions are not yet well-aligned with the technical and organisational structures of utilities. While they can address the long-term needs of water utilities with promises of improved efficiency and performance, they are less equipped to meet short-term needs which call for simple, immediate-impact solutions. Although implementing data-driven solutions should be justified by actual organisational needs, we must distinguish between the short-term and long-term needs of water utilities. Prioritising short-term needs may be more efficient in the short run but can be detrimental in the long run, which creates an ambidexterity dilemma for water utilities. Utilities should formulate digital vision or strategies that consider both the short-term and long-term needs of utilities to benefit fully from digitalisation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23554,"journal":{"name":"Utilities Policy","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102036"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144903862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号