IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v17y2024i9p2201-d1388217.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Empowering Sustainability: Understanding Determinants of Consumer Investment in Microgrid Technology in the UAE

Author

Listed:
  • Hussain Abdalla Sajwani

    (Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, University of Sharjah, Sharjah P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates)

  • Bassel Soudan

    (Department of Computer Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates)

  • Abdul Ghani Olabi

    (Sustainable Energy and Power Systems Research Centre, Research Institute of Sciences & Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates)

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the determinants that influence the consumers’ disposition to invest in microgrid technology in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This research offers valuable insights for policymakers on investors’ motivations to develop strategies to foster microgrid technology adoption through end-user investments leading to a reduction in microgrid high capital cost. The study employed descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression analyses to analyze the responses of a sample of property owners to a quantitative survey. The study examines such variables as strategic alignment, profitability, digitization, renewable energy utilization, CO 2 emission reduction, and disaster recovery readiness. The data collected reveal a moderate level of understanding and cost-awareness of microgrid technology among the respondents, with a mean of 2.46 out of 5. Notably, the data highlight the significant influence of strategic alignment with the UAE’s national energy goals on the respondents’ inclination to invest in microgrids, with a strong positive correlation of 0.942 at the 0.01 level (two-tailed). By comparison, profitability and disaster recovery have a comparatively weaker correlation. Furthermore, based on the data collected during this study, it has been determined that there is a strong value added by the microgrid initiatives considering the UAE’s strategic direction and the positive influence of reduced CO 2 . The regression models used were highly significant at F = 85.690. There is an acceptable level of multicollinearity with VIF values ranging from 1.087 to 2.155. UAE Strategy has low collinearity. UAE Strategy emerges as the only significant predictor of willingness to invest ( p < 0.001) in the stepwise regression analysis. The analysis shows that villa and townhouse owners are willing to invest in community microgrid given that it is aligned with UAE strategy and leads to CO 2 emissions reduction.

Suggested Citation

  • Hussain Abdalla Sajwani & Bassel Soudan & Abdul Ghani Olabi, 2024. "Empowering Sustainability: Understanding Determinants of Consumer Investment in Microgrid Technology in the UAE," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-28, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:9:p:2201-:d:1388217
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/9/2201/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/9/2201/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hirsch, Adam & Parag, Yael & Guerrero, Josep, 2018. "Microgrids: A review of technologies, key drivers, and outstanding issues," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 402-411.
    2. Sirr, Gordon & Power, Bernadette & Ryan, Geraldine & Eakins, John & O’Connor, Ellen & le Maitre, Julia, 2023. "An analysis of the factors affecting Irish citizens’ willingness to invest in wind energy projects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    3. Hussain, Akhtar & Bui, Van-Hai & Kim, Hak-Man, 2019. "Microgrids as a resilience resource and strategies used by microgrids for enhancing resilience," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 240(C), pages 56-72.
    4. Sunhee Baik & M. Granger Morgan & Alexander L. Davis, 2018. "Providing Limited Local Electric Service During a Major Grid Outage: A First Assessment Based on Customer Willingness to Pay," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(2), pages 272-282, February.
    5. Ahmed Hassan Almarzooqi & Ahmed H. Osman & Mostafa Shabaan & Mohammed Nassar, 2023. "An Exploratory Study of the Perception of Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading within the Power Distribution Network in the UAE," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-18, March.
    6. García-García, Jersson & Sarmiento-Ariza, Yennifer & Campos-Rodríguez, Lizeth & Rey-López, Juan & Osma-Pinto, German, 2023. "Evaluation of tax incentives on the financial viability of microgrids," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    7. Rafael Martínez-Peláez & Alberto Ochoa-Brust & Solange Rivera & Vanessa G. Félix & Rodolfo Ostos & Héctor Brito & Ramón A. Félix & Luis J. Mena, 2023. "Role of Digital Transformation for Achieving Sustainability: Mediated Role of Stakeholders, Key Capabilities, and Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-27, July.
    8. Rommel, Kai & Sagebiel, Julian, 2017. "Preferences for micro-cogeneration in Germany: Policy implications for grid expansion from a discrete choice experiment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 612-622.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hotaling, Chelsea & Bird, Stephen & Heintzelman, Martin D., 2021. "Willingness to pay for microgrids to enhance community resilience," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    2. Antoine Boche & Clément Foucher & Luiz Fernando Lavado Villa, 2022. "Understanding Microgrid Sustainability: A Systemic and Comprehensive Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-29, April.
    3. Soheil Mohseni & Alan C. Brent & Daniel Burmester, 2020. "Community Resilience-Oriented Optimal Micro-Grid Capacity Expansion Planning: The Case of Totarabank Eco-Village, New Zealand," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-29, August.
    4. Majid Ali & Juan C. Vasquez & Josep M. Guerrero & Yajuan Guan & Saeed Golestan & Jorge De La Cruz & Mohsin Ali Koondhar & Baseem Khan, 2023. "A Comparison of Grid-Connected Local Hospital Loads with Typical Backup Systems and Renewable Energy System Based Ad Hoc Microgrids for Enhancing the Resilience of the System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-20, February.
    5. Kaczmarski, Jesse I., 2022. "Public support for community microgrid services," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    6. Lenhart, Stephanie & Araújo, Kathleen, 2021. "Microgrid decision-making by public power utilities in the United States: A critical assessment of adoption and technological profiles," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    7. Nelson, James & Johnson, Nathan G. & Fahy, Kelsey & Hansen, Timothy A., 2020. "Statistical development of microgrid resilience during islanding operations," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    8. Gonzalez-Reina, Antonio Enrique & Garcia-Torres, Felix & Girona-Garcia, Victor & Sanchez-Sanchez-de-Puerta, Alvaro & Jimenez-Romero, F.J. & Jimenez-Hornero, Jorge E., 2024. "Cooperative model predictive control for avoiding critical instants of energy resilience in networked microgrids," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 369(C).
    9. Amrutha Raju Battula & Sandeep Vuddanti & Surender Reddy Salkuti, 2021. "Review of Energy Management System Approaches in Microgrids," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-32, September.
    10. Nelson, James R. & Johnson, Nathan G., 2020. "Model predictive control of microgrids for real-time ancillary service market participation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    11. Michael H. Spiegel & Eric M. S. P. Veith & Thomas I. Strasser, 2020. "The Spectrum of Proactive, Resilient Multi-Microgrid Scheduling: A Systematic Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-37, September.
    12. Richard Wallsgrove & Jisuk Woo & Jae-Hyup Lee & Lorraine Akiba, 2021. "The Emerging Potential of Microgrids in the Transition to 100% Renewable Energy Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-28, March.
    13. Mehdi Dhifli & Abderezak Lashab & Josep M. Guerrero & Abdullah Abusorrah & Yusuf A. Al-Turki & Adnane Cherif, 2020. "Enhanced Intelligent Energy Management System for a Renewable Energy-Based AC Microgrid," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-18, June.
    14. Rosales-Asensio, Enrique & de Simón-Martín, Miguel & Borge-Diez, David & Blanes-Peiró, Jorge Juan & Colmenar-Santos, Antonio, 2019. "Microgrids with energy storage systems as a means to increase power resilience: An application to office buildings," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 1005-1015.
    15. Wang, Richard & Hsu, Shu-Chien & Zheng, Saina & Chen, Jieh-Haur & Li, Xuran Ivan, 2020. "Renewable energy microgrids: Economic evaluation and decision making for government policies to contribute to affordable and clean energy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 274(C).
    16. Villanueva-Rosario, Junior Alexis & Santos-García, Félix & Aybar-Mejía, Miguel Euclides & Mendoza-Araya, Patricio & Molina-García, Angel, 2022. "Coordinated ancillary services, market participation and communication of multi-microgrids: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    17. Bożena Gajdzik & Magdalena Jaciow & Radosław Wolniak & Robert Wolny & Wieslaw Wes Grebski, 2023. "Assessment of Energy and Heat Consumption Trends and Forecasting in the Small Consumer Sector in Poland Based on Historical Data," Resources, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-33, September.
    18. Farhat Afzah Samoon & Ikhlaq Hussain & Sheikh Javed Iqbal, 2023. "ILA Optimisation Based Control for Enhancing DC Link Voltage with Seamless and Adaptive VSC Control in a PV-BES Based AC Microgrid," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-23, October.
    19. Emrani-Rahaghi, Pouria & Hashemi-Dezaki, Hamed & Ketabi, Abbas, 2023. "Efficient voltage control of low voltage distribution networks using integrated optimized energy management of networked residential multi-energy microgrids," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 349(C).
    20. Deng Xu & Yong Long, 2019. "The Impact of Government Subsidy on Renewable Microgrid Investment Considering Double Externalities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-15, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:9:p:2201-:d:1388217. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.