A Changing Climate and a Smarter Grid: Critical Linkages - Smart Grid (R) Evolution: Electric Power Struggles - page 205

more centralized or a more decentralized electricity system; (2) whether smart grid should
entail incremental, evolutionary change or more radical, revolutionary change ( Figure 8.1 ) .
Figure 8.1. Different visions of the potential of Smart Grid can be characterized by
perceptions of the possibility and need for enhanced centralization or decentralization and
the perceptions of the possibility and need for radical versus incremental change. Source:
Stephens et al. 2013
8.4.1 Centralization Versus Decentralization
Whether smart grid is good for the climate depends on many factors, including if smart
grid systems are designed to facilitate a more centralized or more decentralized electricity
system. Many sustainability advocates would argue that decentralization and localization
of all systems, whether food systems or energy systems, should be a guiding principle
for both climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation (Lovins 1977 ; Rifkin
2011 ) . But this principal conflicts with others who call for the need to consider scaling up,
intensification, and efficiency in all systems to effectively meet the needs of all the people