A Changing Climate and a Smarter Grid: Critical Linkages - Smart Grid (R) Evolution: Electric Power Struggles - page 208

Just as the centralization and decentralization dichotomy may require both, smart grid
may need to simultaneously offer a radical, long-term vision of change and more
immediately practical operational changes that represent a steady and incremental
“smartening” of existing systems. Perhaps both are possible and necessary. While some
actors - especially those interested in climate goals - emphasize the disruptive potential
of smart grid technologies to dramatically transform the way we make and use electricity,
others who are more involved in system operation emphasize smart grid as a series of
incremental step-changes to address multiple energy-related problems.
Our research has shown that established electricity system actors (especially utilities
and associated regulators) are more likely to define smart grid in terms of incremental
rather than radical change. An extensive set of focus groups with multiple electricity sector
stakeholders in multiple states and regions in the United States revealed that those whose
jobs and organizations focus on the day-to-day operations of electricity systems have a
more incremental perspective on the potential of smart grid, while those with a broader
societal view, including environmental groups and energy system researchers, tend to focus
more on the long-term transformative potential of smart grid to change the energy system.
Thoseinvolvedinday-to-daysystemoperationstendtobesuspiciousofgrandioseschemes
with uncertain risks and benefits and are often wary of upsetting customers with increased
bills. These incumbent actors also have the most at risk from rapid innovation associated
with the entry of new actors into the electricity system. Moreover, electricity system
engineersfocusedonmaintainingday-to-dayoperationsarecautiousaboutinnovationsthat
might compromise system reliability.
Environmental and climate advocates and energy researchers, on the other hand, often
focus on long-term issues and tend to emphasize the potential for radical change without
always anticipating the social and institutional obstacles to systemic sociotechnological
change. One example of this can be seen in the practical challenges associated with
implementation of the Cape Wind project. Although the development of offshore wind in
Nantucket Sound offers a climate-friendly way to provide carbon-free electricity to eastern
Massachusetts, the scale of the long, expensive, and jurisdictionally complex controversy
that has slowed down the Cape Wind project was not widely anticipated within energy
and climate communities. These tensions are typical of sociotechnical transitions wherein
change is resisted by multiple actors for an array of reasons. Unlike Bornholm, Denmark,
another picturesque tourist island where wind development was widely supported by
local residents, the political controversy over Cape Wind damaging wealthy resident
viewsheds does pose a certain environmental irony. Senator Edward Kennedy - a longtime
environmental advocate and crusader against pollution from Appalachian coal - was an
active opponent of Cape Wind.