Decentralizing Energy Decisions

Decision making about energy has come to epitomize a larger struggle taking place in U.S. society--a struggle for control over individual destiny, economic resources, and the shaping of society itself. A host of ideologies has been spawned, new federalism and new populism among them. Many activist groups argue that making decisions about resources can be a first step in helping people gain control of their lives. Focusing on the issues surrounding the control of energy and discussing the limitations and advantages of dealing with the energy problem at the local level, the author examines the proposition that granting control over decision making to cities, states, or regions rather than to the federal government can positively affect public confidence, as well as result in more efficient energy planning. Mr. Cose discusses the various interpretations of decentralization; the relationship between decentralization and small-scale technologies; the overlapping and opposing interests of governments, consumers, and corporations; and the extent to which local governments and political structures are prepared to deal with an issue that is traditionally outside of their sphere. The author supports his analysis by looking at specific municipal governments and their attempts, successes, and failures to respond to the energy crisis. He also analyzes the particular problems of community projects. Throughout the book he comments on the effect that Reagan administration policies have had on decision making about energy at all levels of government nationwide.

The question of decentralization of energy sources goes to the heart of the energy choices before the United States, but conflicting viewpoints have clouded the issue in recent years. This volume cuts through the rhetoric to address specific issues involving local control over energy sources and energy uses, including environmental aspects of decentralized and centralized energy supply systems; energy conservation and its relation to energy decentralization; behavior, values, and energy choices; institutional issues affecting the commercialization of solar energy, especially in cities; issues of decentralized and conventional energy supply choices in Sweden; and methods by which decentralized energy systems have been studied. Most importantly, each of the papers in this collection considers social and institutional concerns as well as technical and economic issues.

The energy system is undergoing a fundamental transformation – from fossil to renewable energy, from central power plants to distributed, decentralised generation facilities such as rooftop solar panels or wind parks, from utilities to private residents as producers of energy, and from analogue to digital. This book looks at the energy transformation from two complementary angles: governance and business model innovation. On the one side, governance is a decisive factor for the success of the transformation because it can act as an accelerator, or it can delay the process. On the other side, entrepreneurs and corporate decision-makers provide new business models for a decentralised energy world. Based on best practices, country studies and interviews with CEOs and founders of startups from all over the world, the “Global Game Changer” suggests eight key principles for political decision-makers to successfully implement the transformation, and six core competencies for corporate decision-makers to thrive in the new marketplace.

Decentralized Frameworks for Future Power Systems: Operation, Planning and Control Perspectives is the first book to consider the principles and applications of decentralized decision-making in future power networks. The work opens by defining the emerging power system network as a system-of-systems (SoS), exploring the guiding principles behind optimal solutions for operation and planning problems. Chapters emphasize the role of regulations, prosumption behaviors, and the implementation of transactive energy processes as key components in decentralizing power systems. Contributors explore local markets, distribution system operation and proactive load management. The role of cryptocurrencies in smoothing transactive distributional challenges are presented. Final sections cover energy system planning, particularly in terms of consumer smart meter technologies and distributed optimization methods, including artificial intelligence, meta-heuristic, heuristic, mathematical and hybrid approaches. The work closes by considering decentralization across the cybersecurity, distributed control, market design and power quality optimization vertices. Develops a novel framework for transactive energy management to enhance flexibility in future power systems Explores interactions between multiple entities in local power markets based on a distributed optimization approach Focuses on practical optimization, planning and control of smart grid systems towards decentralized decision-making

Sustainable Energy Democracy and the Law offers a legal account of the concept of sustainable energy democracy. The book explains what the concept means in a legal context and how it can be translated into concrete legal instruments.

The global energy system stands at the verge of a far-reaching paradigm shift. The established model of centralized supply services will be challenged by new, decentralized technologies, with Germany being an international role model for energy efficiency and renewable energy generation.

This open access book gathers the results of an interdisciplinary research project led by the Swiss Competence Centers for Energy Research (SCCER CREST) and jointly implemented by several universities. It identifies political, economic and legal challenges and opportunities in the energy transition from a governance perspective by exploring a variety of tools that allow state, non-state and transnational actors to manage the transition of the energy industry toward less fossil-fuel reliance. When analyzing the roles of these actors, the authors examine not only formal procedures such as political and democratic processes, but also market behavior and societal practices. In other words, the handbook focuses on both the behavior and the positive and normative frameworks of political actors, bureaucracies, courts, international organizations, lobby groups, civil society, economic actors and individuals. The authors subsequently use their findings to formulate specific guidelines for lawmakers and other rule-makers, as well as private and public actors. To do so, they draw on approaches stemming from the legal, political and management sciences.