Policy Coherence for Sector Coupling in Smart Energy Cities

The net-zero transitions of societies and cities are needed to mitigate global warming. The electrification of energy end-use sectors, i.e., sector coupling, forming smart energy systems of electricity, heating and cooling, and gaseous energy infrastructures, is at the center of the transitions. Policies of the infrastructures are sector-specific, which calls for alignment between them. Currently, global actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions are falling behind from international climate targets, which creates the need to accelerate net-zero transitions. Increasing the policy coherence of the infrastructures would answer this need. The aim of this dissertation is to contribute to both scientific and practical knowledge on accelerating net-zero transitions. To reach its aim, this dissertation i) reviews gaps and established practices in previous research by analyzing policy coherence related to urban energy transitions; ii) delves into the local context, including energy-system actor preferences, to gain insights into which policies are most relevant in the context of net-zero transitions; and iii) quantifies the impacts of policy outcomes in the context of smart energy cities. The main findings of the literature review imply that there is a gap in applying the policy coherence concept in the context of sector coupling. In addition, the previous literature features relatively few examples of policy-oriented techno-economic energy system modeling studies that have analyzed the impacts of cities’ net-zero targets. To address this gap, the rest of this dissertation consists of single case studies focusing on the city of Tampere, Finland. Three publications in this dissertation are based on qualitative analyses of policy documents, interviews, and survey data. The results in these publications indicate gaps in the national implementation of EU directives regarding district-scale energy system structures, resulting in conflicts at the local level, especially between incumbent district heating (DH) system operators and individual heat pump providers. This dissertation examined these tensions through the socio-technical transitions lens. Finally, this dissertation applied techno-economic city energy system modeling to quantify the impacts of conflicts and synergies between policy scenarios, which were based on the literature review and the analyses of the local context. The scenarios consisted of individual heat pump diffusion, renewable electricity generation, and electrofuel production. As a main result, the analysis displayed a synergy in promoting renewable electricity diffusion across the scenarios. In contrast, the simultaneous introduction of individual heat pumps and electrofuel production increased the total energy system cost, peak electricity import, and dependence on electricity import, although reducing the demand for bioenergy. As the main scientific contribution, this dissertation proposes that future research in smart energy systems should analyze the novel concept of coherence of policy outcomes. This dissertation demonstrated how a combined application of qualitative and quantitative methods can determine locally relevant policy mixes, interpret their outcomes, and quantify the impacts of the outcomes in various policy mix scenarios. Such a mixed methods approach enhances evidence-based policymaking by i) ensuring the policy relevance of energy system modeling studies, and ii) extending the analysis of policy synergies and conflicts to the quantification of the impacts of policy outcomes. Hence, policy makers are served with both more contextually relevant and numerically accurate data, which they can utilize to enhance policy coherence and, consequently, accelerate net-zero transitions so that international climate targets can be met.