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Major maintenance projects are often regarded as maintenance activities regardless of the projects' complexity and scale. Consequently, very scarce research attention has hitherto been paid to the critical skills required when undertaking these projects. More specifically, the body of relevant knowledge is deprived of a study focusing on maintenance projects within the energy sector. In view of this shortcoming, this research aims to examine the critical project management (PM) skills required to deliver major maintenance projects within the energy sector.

Based on a quantitative research strategy, this study addressed the knowledge gap through a cross-sectional survey of professionals involved in the delivery of major maintenance projects in the United Kingdom's (UK) energy sector. Data obtained were analyzed via descriptive (e.g. frequencies, mean and standard deviation [SD]) and inferential statistical analyses (One sample t-test and exploratory factor analysis (EFA)).

Out of the 45 PM skills identified in the literature and examined by the respondents, the results obtained from the One sample t-test (based on p (1-tailed) = 0.05) showed that 37 were considered to be at least “important,” accounting for 80.4% of all the skills identified. EFA revealed a clustering of the PM skills items into seven components: “skills related to work scheduling and coordination”; “communication, risk, safety and stakeholder management skills”; “quality assurance skills”; “people management skills”; “skills related to forecasting scope and duration of outage”; “implementation of processes and time management skills” and “technical/engineering skills and experience pertaining to the outage and local site knowledge.”

This study has identified and contributed to the limited state-of-the-art skills project managers must possess to manage major maintenance projects in the energy sector successfully. The findings would be useful to organizations within the energy sector in ensuring that the organizations have suitable personnel in place to deliver major maintenance projects on the organizations' assets.

The need to address energy management as a significant innovation in the smart grid is emphasized to enable a more effective penetration of renewable energy to achieve energy savings and CO₂ emission reductions. The purpose of this study is to propose a holistic, flexible decision framework for energy management in a smart grid.

According to the situation actor process−learning action performance (SAP−LAP) model, the variables have been identified after a comprehensive analysis of the literature and consideration of the opinions of domain experts. However, the importance of each SAP−LAP variable is not the same in real practice. Hence, focus on these variables should be given based on their importance, and to measure this importance, an interpretive ranking process based ranking method is used in this study. This helps to allocate proportionate resource to each SAP−LAP variable to make a better decision for the energy management of the smart grid.

This study ranked five actors based on their priorities for energy management in a smart grid: top management, generator and retailor, consumers, government policy and regulation and technology vendors. Furthermore, actions are also prioritized with respect to performance.

The SAP−LAP model conveys information about the state of energy management in India to actors who may proceed or manage the flow of electricity. Additionally, this study aids in detecting vulnerabilities in the current energy generation, transmission and distribution technique. The synthesis of SAP results in LAP, which assists in recommending improvement actions learned from the current situation, actors and processes.

The SAP−LAP model is a revolutionary approach for examining the current state of energy management in a unified framework that can guide decision-making in conflicting situations, significantly the contradictory nature of India’s renewable energy and power sectors.

Considering environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors is vital in climate change mitigation. Energy companies must incorporate ESG into their business plans, although it unquestionably affects their corporate financial performance (CFP). This paper aims to investigate the effect of ESG on energy companies’ profitability through return on assets by analysing the combined score and individual dimensions of ESG.

The study examined a panel data sample of 911 firm-year observations for 85 European energy-sector companies during 1995–2020. Two distinct modelling specifications were applied to explore the impact of ESG components on the CFP of EU energy companies. The financial data and ESG scores were obtained from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database in July 2021.

The empirical findings revealed that energy companies’ profitability is marginally and negatively affected by their ESG performance. Whereas independent evaluation of the ESG subcomponents indicated that environmental responsibility has a significant negative effect. In contrast, corporate social and governance responsibilities are positively but not significantly associated with the company’s CFP.

This study fills a research gap in the ESG–CFP literature in the European energy sector, a pioneer in sustainable development. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study’s originality lies in its analysis of ESG factors’ role in profitability by considering different EU countries and energy sectors.

Studies on sustainability in energy transition in the electricity sector require a new approach of modifying the indicators from the energy trilemma index. The cocreation variable was used as a mediator to promote collaborative engagement of all stakeholders in the electricity sector to achieve energy transition sustainably. This study aims to investigate the arguments presented above.

This study adopted a quantitative method that combined structural equation modeling and partial least squares analysis. ADANCO was used to analyze the data gathered from power system expert engineers through an online questionnaire survey.

Power system expert engineers play an important role in collaborative stakeholder engagement and cocreation as mediators for achieving sustainability. The expert engineers were willing to collaborate with stakeholders, while ensuring an engaging learning experience. Notably, dialogue that provides mutual access and transparency in assuming risk strengthened the cocreation effect.

The mediating effect of cocreation becomes important when there are antecedents related to stakeholder collaboration. Studies that used data from expert engineers having more than ten years of experience used cocreation as an antecedent, either independently, through mediation or by depending on the sustainability goals.

This study has implications on the power sector in Indonesia, which relies on coal-fired power plants. This study proposes empowering expert engineers to collaborate with stakeholders to achieve energy decarbonization.

Aspects of the energy trilemma index were used to investigate the expert engineers’ perspective regarding energy security, energy equity and environmental sustainability, parameters which were modified to reflect their behavioral tendencies to achieve sustainability in the electricity sector.

This study aims to assess financial development and debt status impact on energy efficiency in Nigeria as a developing economy.

This study combined the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), fully modified ordinary least squares and canonical cointegration regression analytical methods to estimate the parameters for energy efficiency policy recommendations. Secondary data between 1990 and 2020 were used for the analysis.

The result confirms the long-run nexus between energy efficiency, financial development and total debt stock. Furthermore, the ARDL estimates for this study’s key variables show that financial development promotes energy efficiency in the short run but hinders long-run energy efficiency. Total debt stock limits energy efficiency in Nigeria in short- and long-run periods.

The limitation of this study is that the scope is limited to Nigeria as a developing economy. The need to support energy efficiency projects is a global call requiring cross-country analysis. Despite this study’s focus on Nigeria, it provides useful insights that can guide energy efficiency policy through the financial sector and debt management.

The financial sector must ensure the availability of long-term credit facilities to clean energy investors. The government must maintain a sustainable debt profile to pave the way for capital expenditure on clean energy projects that promote energy efficiency.

The environmental consequences of energy intensity are being felt globally, with the developing countries most vulnerable. The cheapest way to curb these consequences is to promote energy efficiency to reduce the disastrous effect. Driving energy efficiency requires investment in energy-efficient technology but the challenge for developing economies, i.e. Nigeria’s funding, remains challenging amid a blotted debt profile. This becomes crucial to investigate how financial sector development and debt management can accelerate energy-efficient investments in Nigeria.

This study aims to explore the underlying motivation of companies in the energy sector for publishing corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports; is it to inform about their strong corporate social performances (CSP) or to seem as committed to CSR matters although they are not?

The panel data of the energy and energy utility companies from the Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) countries were analysed by panel logistic and panel ordered logistic regression methods.

The main results based on the panel data analyses of the energy and energy utility companies from the BRIC countries reveal that publishing a CSR report as per an international framework, Global Reporting Initiative framework for this study, is a signal for a strong CSP. The results also show that the quality of CSR reports is positively associated with the CSP of the companies.

The positive correlation between the existence and quality of CSR reports and CSP identified in this study provides evidence for the credibility of CSR reports and hence forms the basis for the suggestion of the usage of CSR report as a reliable tool to assess the sustainability of the energy sector and emerging markets as well.

This study contributes to the limited literature on the nexus between CSR reporting and CSP for environmentally sensitive industries in emerging markets and enriches the knowledge by investigating overall CSP as well as its three pillars, namely, environmental, social and governance performance.

The desire for a sustainable environment has led to the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and increase renewable energy usage. Empirical evidence generally shows that financial development has a significant effect on these two variables. However, little is known about how the financial strength of financial institutions influences them in the fight against climate change. This study aims to assess the effect of the financial strength of listed financial institutions on renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in Ghana.

Regression analyses were used to estimate the effect of asset quality, credit management, return on equity/asset and firm size on renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions for data covering from 2009 to 2018.

The results revealed that return on equity reduces renewable energy consumption and increases carbon dioxide emissions. It is also found that credit risk management and asset quality positively influence renewable energy consumption but reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Ghana.

Policymakers need to identify profitable but less polluting ventures and draw the attention of financial institutions in the country. This may cause banks and other lending-giving institutions to desist from giving credits to support environmentally harmful ventures.

The paper assessed the effect that the financial strength of financial institutions has on renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

Energy systems are quickly in transition and their complexity has been dramatically increased. Although there are numerous studies and researches about future of energy in terms of technology or fuels, few studies have been done based on comprehensive socio-technical dimensions of energy systems’ futures. One key question to fill this gap is that how can we consider electricity as a sustainable common good/resource, beyond some conventional considerations related to public or private sector orientation? The purpose of this study is to find an acceptable answer for this question..

To achieve the purpose of this study, after reviewing some relevant studies, key effective factors on the future of energy have been recognized in an expert panel and structurally analyzed by Micmac software based on cross-impact analyze method. Thereafter, four scenarios for transforming the electricity distribution from a monopoly good to a common resource have been developed and described based on scenario workshops method..

Four scenarios for transforming the electricity distribution from a monopoly good to a common resource have been developed and described. These scenarios include “spider grid,” “local grid,” “intermediate grid” and “off-grid.” Furthermore, different dimensions of electricity as a common good/resource have been investigated. As a result, the authors find out that common resource is a creatable concept that can be referred to some goods depending on certain conditions.

Electricity, like any other resource with common characteristics, can be considered and treated as a common resource, depending on the way we generate, share and distribute it, ownership and property rights, management and decision-making mechanisms, social participation processes and governance criteria.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between top management commitment and energy management in small and medium manufacturing firms in a developing country context.

This study was executed through a survey of 66 manufacturing firms in Kampala, Uganda. The data collected were analysed using SPSS v.26.

The results show that top management commitment influences energy management. A further probe of its three dimensions of top management participation, top management support and top management beliefs reveals that all of them positively and significantly predict energy management in manufacturing firms.

The current study results were obtained from manufacturing small and medium firms in Kampala, Uganda. Therefore, caution should be taken prior to generalization. Furthermore, this study only focuses on top management participation, top management support and top management beliefs as the dimensions of top management commitment. This study thus provides the foundation for future studies to test other dimensions of top management commitment, particularly in other sectors.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the contribution of top management commitment dimensions top management participation, top management support and top management beliefs to energy management in a developing country context. Although all dimensions are significant, top management beliefs contribute more to energy management.

The demand for energy infrastructure projects has increased steadily over the last few decades and has come at a high cost. Disruptive technologies (DTs) have the inherent capability to affect the performance of energy infrastructure projects. Therefore, this research aims to explore the implications of DTs on the performance of energy infrastructure projects.

This research adopts a positivist philosophical position. A quantitative strategy and deductive approach (based on a survey design) guided this study. Sixty-six respondents participated in the study. The study’s population comprised of experts in energy infrastructure projects who possessed a high level of industrial experience including top- and middle-level management of power generation companies. Cochran’s formula was used to select a sufficient sample for the study. Linear regression, one sample test and Cronbach’s alpha were the analytical tools adopted.

This study established that there is an 18.4% increase in the performance of energy infrastructure projects in Ghana when DTs are applied. In order of importance, DTs improve speed of operations in energy projects; reduce operating cost and enhance efficiency of energy projects; drive sustainable economic development; enhance security in energy projects; and improve environmental sustainability of projects. The study also revealed that e-commerce technologies, renewable energy technologies, three-dimensional printing, bar code technology, photogrammetry, global positioning systems, geographic information systems and nanotechnologies were the topmost ranked DTs with the most impact on the performance of energy infrastructure projects.

This is a novel investigation on the implications of DTs on the performance of Ghanaian energy infrastructure projects. This study’s practical implication is evident in both policy and practice. Energy sector policymakers should endeavour to adopt DTs in their operations to enhance sustainability and performance.