Yael Parag

Reichman University (IDC)

Prosumers are agents that both consume and produce energy. With the growth in small and medium-sized agents using solar photovoltaic panels, smart meters, vehicle-to-grid electric automobiles, home batteries and other ‘smart’ devices, prosuming offers the potential for consumers and vehicle owners to re-evaluate their energy practices. As the numbe...

Microgrids are now emerging from lab benches and pilot demonstration sites into commercial markets, driven by technological improvements, falling costs, a proven track record, and growing recognition of their benefits. They are being used to improve reliability and resilience of electrical grids, to manage the addition of distributed clean energy r...

Here we discuss how personal carbon allowances (PCAs) could play a role in achieving ambitious climate mitigation targets. We argue that recent advances in AI for sustainable development, together with the need for a low-carbon recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, open a new window of opportunity for PCAs. Furthermore, we present design principles ba...

This study examines integrating large-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems into the power grid to achieve a 30% PV share, addressing operational and economic challenges such as backup generation, storage, and grid stability. Applying an electricity dispatch model to the test case of Israel, it highlights significant impacts on fuel consumption, cost, an...

The transition to renewable energy sources is crucial for combating climate change and enhancing energy security. However, along with well-acknowledged benefits, the energy transition may impose overlooked and unintentional risks to sustainability, stemming from patterns of trade between countries. The buildup of solar and wind energy capacity requ...

Reducing private car ownership, shifting mobility patterns, and encouraging the use of electric vehicles can help alleviate congestion, repurpose parking spaces for other urban uses and reduce emissions. This study explores the public perception and acceptance of a new concept: shared car services in multi-unit residential buildings, offering resid...

Energy systems are undergoing a transformation toward a “long tail.” Market liberalization and affordable technologies are enabling massive deployment of distributed energy resources, the development of new services, the entry of new types of players, and the emergence of new business models. Much of this innovation is taking place at the edge of t...

This paper attempts to systematically conceptualize and construct the commonly used term “electricity island,” arguing that no single definition can fully capture this notion. Rather, electricity islands are complex and dynamic, can be located at various points on the spectrum ranging from grid connectivity to isolation, and encompass technical and...

Consumers’ tendency to avoid purchasing cosmetically “suboptimal” fruits and vegetables has been widely recognized as a significant contributor to food waste. However, the mechanisms that shape and influence this tendency remain largely unknown. The current study evaluates the impact of visual perception and taste experience on willingness to purch...

“Smart consumption”. ‘What is that? Energy transitions are at the top of global agendas. The EU is positioning itself as playing a pivotal role in addressing climate risks and sustainability imperatives. Smart consumption as a key element of these efforts, however, mostly explored from a predominantly technical perspective thus often failing to ide...

This paper considers bottled water with respect to the three pillars of sustainability: economic viability, environmental impacts, and social equity. Per-capita consumption of bottled water has been growing steadily and is the fastest-growing sector of the packaged beverages industry, with expected annual growth of 10% until 2026. Most bottled wate...

Meeting net-zero goals requires behavioral change. The middle-out perspective helps identify middle actors who can address barriers to consistent low-carbon lifestyles. Congregations, building professionals, and schools are examples of middle actors that can foster low-carbon living from the middle out by altering values and social norms and influe...

Literature review within the framework of the GAMES (Grid Aware Mobility and Energy Sharing) project.

Decreasing costs of distributed generation and storage, alongside increasing network charges, provide consumers with a growing incentive to defect from the main grid. On a large scale, this may lead to price inflation, hindrance of the energy transition, and even a “death spiral” – a domino effect of disconnections. Here, we develop a game-theoreti...

This winter exceptionally high energy prices are forcing many householders and businesses in Europe to change the way they use energy. It is important to learn how their energy use changes over a short period of time, the effects of government actions, which policies work and which fail, and what trade-offs emerge. The digital society offers unique...

Aims The middle-out perspective (MOP) provides a lens to examine how actors positioned between government (top) and individuals (bottom) act to promote broader societal changes from the middle-out (rather than the top-down or bottom-up). The MOP has been used in recent years in the fields of energy, climate change, and development studies. We argue...

Distributed energy systems (DES), made possible by decentralized energy generation and management, are growing in number and present opportunities for cheaper, cleaner, and prevalent energy supplies to local energy consumers and communities. The emergence of these systems reshuffles the traditional hierarchical, well-defined electric power structur...

Background Renewable energy (RE) systems are becoming a central component of the clean energy transition and are often seen as the way to combat climate change. Their establishment requires innovation, investments, and deployment policies for emerging technologies. Governments around the world are increasingly trying to create and support the energ...

Israel's power sector will undergo intensive transitions within the next two decades. One element of this transition is an increasing reliance on PV, which is expected to reach and exceed a share of 30% in the annual national electricity supply. Such a PV-intensive mix will rely on both central as distributed PV systems. Another element of the powe...

Many cities throughout the world have set carbon and / or energy targets including renewable energy production and emissions reduction goals. Despite the commitment to take action, cities do not directly control the majority of the uses of energy or consumption-related sources of carbon emissions within their boundaries. Could a focus on household...

This report continues the science-based approach of linking concrete changes in lifestyles to measurable impacts on climate change in order to keep with the 1.5-degree aspirational target of the Paris Agreement on climate change. The 1.5-degree lifestyles approach examines GHG emissions and reduction potentials using consumption-based accounting, w...

Background Renewable energy (RE) systems are becoming a central component of the clean energy transition and often seen as the way to combat climate change. Their establishment requires innovation, investments, and deployment policies for emerging technologies. Governments around the world are increasingly trying to create and support the energy-te...

Background: The Middle–Out Perspective (MOP) provides a lens to examine how actors positioned between government (top) and individuals (bottom) act to promote broader societal changes from the middle–out (rather than the top–down or bottom–up). The MOP has been used in recent years in the fields of energy, climate change, and development studies. P...

Issue Complementing ‘Bottom-up' and ‘Top-down' approaches, the Middle-Out Perspective (MOP) conceptual framework focuses on how middle actors can influence action by enhancing other actors' interest and ability to act. Middle actors exert influence sideways on other middle actors, upwards on policymakers and downwards on individuals. Middle actors...

The middle-out perspective (MOP) is a relatively new analytical perspective that provides a unique lens to examine the impact of middle actors on action, inaction, change, and stagnation. This research explores the middle-out mechanism and is the first to intersect the various components of the MOP: directions of influence (upwards, downward, and s...

The residential sector's electricity consumption during peak hours is significant. Reducing it would be valuable in economic and environmental terms, particularly for isolated grids and 'electricity islands'. While time-of-use (TOU) programs could help moderate this demand, in many countries such programs are voluntary, with low enrollment rates. A...

In a first of its kind, controlled field study, a middle-out strategy (MOS) was developed and applied in an aim to shave midweek summer peak demand. The MOS focuses on middle actors as agents that can induce change from the middle-out, exerting influence via their networks in three directions: downstream (on end-users), upstream (on suppliers and r...

Obstacles to collaborative public health frameworks such as Health in All Policies continue to emerge. Partnership-based public health programs present opportunities to study how public servants and practitioners address these barriers in real time. To this end, we utilized “Middle-Out,” a socio-technical analytical approach that highlights the imp...

This paper addresses the costs and benefits associated with microgrid development relative to the costs and benefits of conventional generation interconnected to a bulk transmission and distribution grid. The costs and benefits are classified as: environmental (avoided environmental damage costs); economic (mainly employment multiplier effects); de...

The data gathered by the survey in both demo sites (SON – residential and non-residential buildings, and VIL – residential only) was statistically analysed to identify the following: (a) Information regarding household (hh) occupancy patterns. (b) existing energy practices and behaviour (use of appliances, thermal comfort, perceived flexibility) (c...

The InBetween approach is that there is no ‘one size solution that fits all’. Accordingly, InBetween aims to spark the End User behaviour change by tailoring advice and providing incentives to each User according to their own constraints, i.e. to provide information and advice that are relevant to the specific User and that the User can act upon wi...

This report discusses strategies for approaching users in the stages of the platform development and calibration (first phase) and the stage of platform and app trialing (second stage). In the first stage users’ collaboration is needed to help calibrate the platform. In the second stage users’ collaboration is needed for evaluating and developing t...

In order to understand and capture behavioural aspects related to energy use in buildings, we designed two surveys – one for households and another one for non-residential buildings. We added behavioural questions to the technical surveys. This allows 1) better understanding of the technical and social environments in which energy decisions are mad...

The goal of this report is to propose a set of tailored engagement options in response to consumers profiles (defined in D3.4) and according to consumers preferences. 'Tailored engagement' means that the app and the interventions are set up not only according to the technical demand reduction potential, but also according to the user preferences...

This deliverable presents a framework for profiling energy users according to their level of agency (consumers' willingness and ability to make their own free choices regarding energy consumption and energy related behavior) and capacity (users’ ability to perform the choices they made) as seen through the surveys of the hh of the project’s pilot s...

The methodologies for user energy profiling and user energy efficiency evaluation are presented in this report, highlighting the innovative aspects of the InBetween platform. These energy use profiles consider not only the total energy consumption or average daily consumption, but also normalize it to the number of people who use the building or ho...

Social and technological innovations are commonly seen as either being induced from the ‘top-down’ — e.g., by policymakers—or evolving from the ‘bottom-up’— e.g., by consumers. Instead, a ‘middle-out’ perspective (MOP) focuses on agents of change that are located in the middle, between the top and the bottom. Janda and Parag (2013) and Parag & Jand...

July and August are the warmest months of the Israeli summer, with temperatures rising daily above 30°C. The air-conditioner penetration rate is higher than 90%, and during summer middays they are responsible for more than 50% of residential electricity consumption. Because Israel's electricity generation is based on fossil fuels, the mid-week summ...

As our energy systems become more decentralized and as the share of small and medium size renewable intermittent sources grows, prosumers become a common phenomenon. The term "prosumers" refers to consumers who can potentially provide valuable prosuming services to the energy system, including not only microgeneration (Megawatts), but also demand r...

A field study of 50 households in a collective community in Israel provides initial support for the hypotheses about the relations between actors’ agency, capacity and electricity demand reduction. ‘Agency’ refers to actors’ willingness and ability to make their own free choices and ‘capacity’ refers to actors’ ability to perform the choices they m...

Technological advances allow electricity consumers to become ‘prosumers’, offering services to the grid, such as generation, demand reduction, load shifting and electricity storage. Well-integrated prosumers improve the resilience and efficiency of the energy system and facilitate the integration of renewable energy, improving energy and climate se...

Technological advances allow electricity consumers to become ‘prosumers’, offering services to the grid, such as generation, demand reduction, load shifting and electricity storage. Well-integrated prosumers can improve the resilience and efficiency of the energy system and facilitate the integration of renewable energy. The study reported here is...

Future renewable, smart-grid and highly efficient low-carbon energy systems present many challenges to existing energy security policies and will thus require a paradigm shift in the way these policies are planned and structured. In particular, demand side management will necessarily play a greater role in future low carbon energy systems and this...

The transition to a low-carbon society is imperative to climate change mitigation and requires cross-sectoral action at multiple levels. A growing literature emphasizes local action, but less is written about scaling up action at a county level. Combining three analytical perspectives – transition theory, strategic niche management and the middle-o...

Personal carbon trading (PCT) is a radical and innovative mitigation approach for the residential and personal transport sectors. PCT is an umbrella term for various downstream cap-and-trade policies, all of which aim to limit carbon emissions within a society by engag-ing individuals in the process, and could cover more than 40% of national carbon...

A field study of 79 households in a rural collective community in Israel provides initial evidence that support the middle-out hypothesis about the relations between actors’ agency, capacity and likelihood of change, in the specific case of electricity demand reduction. The middle-out analytical framework suggests that two essential elements for su...

A field study of 79 households in a rural collective community in Israel provides initial evidence that support the middle-out hypothesis about the relations between actors' agency, capacity and likelihood of change, in the specific case of electricity demand reduction. The middle-out analytical framework suggests that two essential elements for su...

Traditional literature and policy approach to energy security focus on the security of energy supply. It is argued here that a supply-centric approach to energy security is too narrow to account for the complex nature of energy systems and tends to overlook energy users, their expectations from, interaction with and roles in future low carbon energ...

A ‘middle-out’ perspective is used to investigate potential roles for professionals and practitioners in creating societal change. Social and technological innovations are commonly seen as either being induced from the ‘top-down’ or evolving from the ‘bottom-up.’ Instead, a ‘middle-out’ perspective focuses on agents of change that are located in th...

A comparative experiment in the UK examined people's willingness to change energy consumption behavior under three different policy framings: energy tax, carbon tax, and personal carbon allowances (PCA). PCA is a downstream cap-and-trade policy proposed in the UK, in which emission rights are allocated to individuals. We hypothesized that due to ec...

http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/94mewsUcThh2yxAvfa9W/full

An updated (2023) open access review is available on: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/12/9760 The bottled water industry is a huge business that involves many of the biggest food brands in the world and worth billions. It has grown dramatically in the last decade and today millions of people around the world, in developed and developing countr...

Theories of the policy process are used to identify existing and possible future barriers to personal carbon trading (PCT) in the political and policy arenas. PCT is a policy invention, i.e. a policy that does not yet exist anywhere and therefore is perceived as risky by many. It faces more barriers than `conventional' new policies. Obstacles to PC...

The paper suggests the 'middle out' as an additional, and sometimes alternative approach to 'bottom-up' and ' top-down' efforts to drive low carbon innovations and practices in society. Individuals are often seen by policy makers as the target agents for changing their own behaviour. To induce bottom-up change in energy demand patterns, governmenta...

In this chapter we introduce PCA and place it in the policy context of other suggested policies for reducing emissions from individuals’ activities. We then describe the mechanisms through which PCA would reduce emissions, and describe current thinking on PCA within the UK. We continue by laying out the rational for applying a budgeting framework a...

The UK residential (household) sector is responsible for approximately 30% of total carbon dioxide emissions and is often seen as the most promising in terms of early reductions. As most direct household emissions come from only two fuel sources, this paper critically examines how existing emissions reduction policies for the sector shape – and are...

The environmental impact of the rising consumption of bottled water is over 100 times higher than drinking tap water, so its rise has grave implications for the environment and society. This article argues that the increasing flight from drinking tap water is at least partly the result of the growing distrust of the state's ability to protect the h...

Israel's air quality is poorer than that of most European countries. Despite this, Israel's industrial emissions to the air are not governed by an overall legislation, but instead are controlled by a voluntary agreement—a covenant—between the industrialists and the Ministry of the Environment. Why did the Ministry of the Environment opt for a coven...

Tackling climate change is one of the biggest challenges expected to face policy makers around the globe over the next decade. Personal Carbon Trading (PCT) is a proposed downstream cap and trade mitigation policy aiming to reduce energy demand by putting individuals under an obligation to live within an emissions budget. As PCT is a novel policy i...

This paper introduces the Policy Process Networks (PPN) as a new framework for policy understanding and analysis. PPN combines the strengths of the Policy Cycle and the Policy Networks’ approaches with the systems thinking ideas of dynamic process and interdependencies. I argue here that different actors’ networks participate in the different stage...

In 1998 the European Union (EU) revised its Drinking Water Directive, which is responsible for regulating the quality of water in the EU intended for human consumption. Specifically, the EU added a new standard for the element boron in drinking water (1 mg/l). Yet, because of scientific uncertainty concerning the causes and magnitude of the boron p...

A large literature exists regarding explanations for the emergence of cooperation in the Mediterranean basin, but there is less information regarding the effectiveness of Mediterranean cooperation and its programs. Through a case study of Israel's implementation and compliance with the Barcelona Convention and the Mediterranean Action Plan, we eval...