The coordinators of the Special issue section offer readers a series of additional contributions to shed light on a common topic. They combine rigor and readability in an effort to bring historical research to life, as well as to provide a wider audience with the keys needed to understand the past and through it—whether directly or indirectly—the present.
The goal of maintaining current levels of energy supply and demand whilst reducing their carbon intensity will require greater use of renewables. As a result, new forms of flexibility will be needed.
This paper examines the linked concepts of flexibility and control, focusing on how these are enacted in the operation of control rooms in Distribution Network Organisations.
Heat-as-a-Service (HaaS) involves the provision of agreed room temperatures at certain times for a fixed fee, instead of charging for energy use on a per-unit basis.
Cet article analyse la transition énergétique du secteur sidérurgique suédois, entre 1800 et 1939.
This article introduces the concept of ‘Polyflexibility’ as a way of expressing the complexity of interacting forms of flexibility.
This paper provides an account of how past changes in energy demand have affected the balancing of the UK’s gas systems between the introduction of gaslight in 1795 and the present day.
Berlin’s modern history provides an instructive window on the evolution of energy flexibility in an urban context.
Reducing energy use is a key imperative for Western societies. However, it is hard to envision how this might come about and what changes are entailed. This article proposes that studying energy history helps understand flexibility in energy systems.
This article posits that the French conquest of Vietnam was undertook notably to appropriate its coal resources for the energy supply of the French Navy, and that French imperialism was in that case an ‘energy imperialism’.