Abhigyan Singh presented on social energy exchanges for emerging decentralized neighborhoods. Singh discussed early explorations of energy sharing concepts through gaming and vehicle-to-community studies. More recent work involved setting up people-controlled energy kiosks in two off-grid villages in India to study peer-to-peer energy exchanges. Singh's research identified three types of returns - in-cash, in-kind, and intangible returns. The study found energy exchanges involved complex social and cultural dimensions beyond rational economic transactions. Singh recommended designing energy services that consider various social relations and values and interconnect energy and local economies.

3. ENERGY & SUSTAINABILITY
Designing Ecosystems
Moderator: Erik Roscam Abbing | Livework Studio

4. Social Energy Exchanges for Emerging
Decentralized Neighbourhoods
Abhigyan Singh | Delft University of Technology

5. Abhigyan Singh
Postdoctoral Researcher,
Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft
SOCIAL ENERGY EXCHANGES
for
Emerging Decentralized Neighbourhoods

6. DOCTORAL RESEARCH
‘Conceptualizing Inter-household Energy Exchanges:
An Anthropology-through-Design Approach’
Knowledge Contribution:
Energy Anthropology
Design Anthropology
Singh (2019) Conceptualizing inter-household energy exchanges: An anthropology-through-design approach. doctoral dissertation, TU
Delft. doi: https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:57be7165-2726-4a1a-b076-c5ed3988e00b

7. EMERGING ENERGY SYSTEMS
‘Local Energy Grid Model’
Examples:
Brooklyn Micro-Grid (USA),
SOLShare (Bangladesh),
Okra (Cambodia)
‘Energy Kiosk Model’
Examples:
Rural Spark (India),
Ikisaya Energy Centre (Kenya),
Lighting a Billion Lives (India)

8. ELEMENTS OF INTER-HOUSEHOLD ENERGY
EXCHANGE

9. DOMINANT VIEWS
Householders as Rational Actors
Energy exchange as Impersonal, Anonymous, And Competitive Buying And Selling
Missing discussion on Social And Cultural Dimensions Of Energy Exchanges

10. EARLY EXPLORATION: SERIOUS GAMING APPROACH
Singh et al. (2015) ‘Electric City’: Uncovering Social Dimensions and Values of Sharing Renewable Energy through Gaming. Works-In-
Progress paper at ACM CHI’15, April 18-23, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

11. EARLY EXPLORATION: VEHICLE-TO-COMMUNITY STUDY

12. EARLY EXPLORATION: STANDALONE GRIDS IN INDIA

13. India Gaya
INTERVENTION STUDY: PEOPLE-CONTROLLED ENERGY KIOSK

14. Rampur (Total Households: 200)
Study Participants: 28 households
(1 energy-giver and 27 energy-receivers)
Manpur (Total Households: 350)
Study Participants: 37 households
(1 energy-giver and 36 energy-receivers)
Image Source: Google Maps
TWO OFF-GRID VILLAGES: RAMPUR & MANPUR

15. COMPONENTS OF ‘PEOPLE-CONTROLLED’ ENERGY KIOSKS

16. WORKING OF ENERGY KIOSKS

17. USES OF SOLAR-ITEMS

18. RESEARCH METHODS

19. THREE TYPES OF P2P RETURNS
In-cash Return Intangible ReturnIn-kind Return
A return in the form of
fiat money (currency notes
and coins)
A return in the form of a thing or
work of economic value, such
as access to irrigation pump-set;
food items (potatoes, milk)
A return in the form of
social gestures and
actions such as goodwill,
social support, favor
Singh et al. (2018) Exploring peer-to-peer returns in off-grid renewable energy systems in rural India: An anthropological perspective on local energy
sharing and trading. Energy Research & Social Science 46, 194-213.

20. ‘BEYOND RATIONAL ENERGY MARKET’: AN INTERACTIVE VISUALIZATION
Singh & Herrera (2019) EthnoVis: An interactive visualization as a designerly product and process of mixed data analysis and communication,
Research through Design (RtD2019) conference, March 19-22, Delft, The Netherlands

21. SOCIAL RELATIONS & VALUES IN ENERGY EXCHANGES
Singh et al. (2017) Towards an ethnography of electrification in rural India: Social relations and values in household energy
exchanges.

22. ‘RETURN-CONTINUUM’
Singh et al. (2018) Exploring peer-to-peer returns in off-grid renewable energy systems in rural India: An anthropological perspective on local energy
sharing and trading. Energy Research & Social Science 46, 194-213.

23. …IN DUTCH CONTEXT
“neighbours don’t sell surplus of apples or
vegetables to each others”
“instead of getting 5-10 euros in a month for
selling my energy, I will prefer if someone
works with me in my garden for a hour in
a month”
“my son charges his e-car at my place and I would
not ask him to pay me”

24. FIVE RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Pluralize local energy exchange economy by moving beyond ‘energy-for-money’ thinking
2. Interconnect energy economy with economy of in-kind things (goods, services, labour…)
3. Consider various types of social relations and associated values to design for energy exchanges
4. Study how people live life in neighbourhoods to design energy services
5. Remember an energy exchange is not only an economic event but also a complex sociocultural process

25. THANK YOU!
E-mail: a.singh@tudelft.nl
Twitter: _AGSingh

26. Unseam
Karin Vlug | Unseam

28. 28

29. Photo J. Dietz

32. UNSEAM x
Enschede
Textielstad

33. partners

34. www.unseam.nl
info@unseam.nl
Bas: +31 6 53 50 42 35 / bas@unseam.nl
Karin: +31 6 81 78 78 05 / karin@unseam.nl

35. Bottom up urban development for
sustainable neighbourhoods
Christiaan Weiler | Cab54

52. ENERGY & SUSTAINABILITY
Designing Ecosystems
PANEL DISCUSSION
Moderator: Erik Roscam Abbing | Livework Studio

54. Until 17:00
DRIVE DO’s & DEMO’s BROET
16:45
TOUR to KLOKGEBOUW