The Need for Teaching Place-Based Contextualization for Sustainable Power System Infrastructure Design

Abstract

In this paper, we make the case for an increased focus on teaching an understanding of societal context and the integral role it plays in energy infrastructure design. Power system design education is inadequate in terms of holistic understanding of the non-technical aspects of a client-society in the development of energy infrastructure solutions. These are reflected in many failed designs, primarily designed by student engineers as part of capstone projects, senior design projects, or extra-curricular work through humanitarian-oriented programs administered by NGOs. We are developing coursework that introduces students to the complexities involved in the practice of engineering in rural communities at the international level.

Contextual Challenges in using DERs to Advance Remote Electrification

“…Future work for this project involves field visits and ethnographic data collection to better develop an understanding of the community constraints based on cultural, political, economic, and educational influences. Some preliminary work on the process of incorporating contextual influences into the design process -albeit for a different community -has been presented in [31]. Knowledge of these influences can help in developing general frameworks that can be used to develop targeted technical and policy solutions for communities.…”