A Changing Climate and a Smarter Grid: Critical Linkages - Smart Grid (R) Evolution: Electric Power Struggles - page 204

of electricity could also end up negating efficiency gains, an example of the “rebound
effect” (Frondel and Vance 2013 ). The current situation in Germany, described in Chapter
6 , exemplifies the ironic potential and unanticipated consequences of multiple energy
system and smart grid policies increasing coal use. The German version of smart grid as
interpreted and defined within the national-level Energiewende involves giving priority to
renewable energy and phasing out nuclear, which has inadvertently resulted in increased
CO 2 emissions due to an increase in the use of coal - at least in the short term.
It is also possible to envision a future smart grid system that could lock in new
vulnerabilities. Smart grid infrastructure and related electricity production/consumption
patterns could diminish system robustness and adaptive capacity in the face of an altered
climate. For example, the advanced smart grid sensors and internet-based electronic
communication could create new system vulnerabilities, with unanticipated negative
impacts of these technologies during more extreme weather events, including storms
and floods. Efforts to manage electricity demand may also become more challenging
because of potentially fluctuating needs (in cold snaps, heatwaves, etc.) and production
disruptions (water shortages leading to reduced generation from hydro plants and a lack
of cooling water for thermal and nuclear plants). We do not offer these ironic possibilities
for the purpose of deterring development and implementation of smart grid, but rather
as a cautionary reminder that the technological potential of smart grid could contribute
to both climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in multiple ways. Given the
current uncertainty of smart grid development, these scenarios remain a possibility. Their
realization requires conscious awareness of the complex interconnections between
materiality and symbolicity, between geophysical and sociopolitical dimensions. As
Jasanoff and Kim remind us, the socio-technical imaginaries we invoked in Chapter 2
“are associated with … the selection of development priorities, the allocation of funds,
the investment in material infrastructures, and the acceptance or suppression of political
dissent” (Jasanoff and Kim 2009 p. 123).
8.4 Key Tensions in Smart Grid and Climate Change
The inspiring and optimistic smart grid visions described in Chapter 2 have been invoked
widely, particularly by smart grid proponents in industrialized countries, who seek to
encourageinvestmentandmobilizeactionforelectricitysystemchange.Yetastheprevious
chapters in this topic illustrate, multiple challenges to advancing smart grid have emerged
across jurisdictions and among key societal actors. We see two fundamental tensions
that influence relationships between smart grid and climate change, and that provide a
framework to map divergent smart grid priorities: (1) whether smart grid should advance a