A Call for an Energy Democracy

 

As we enter a time of increasing energy scarcity and mounting pressure on our overheated environment, it’s a good time to take a deep breath and ask the question: What do we hope to see in our energy future?

Most of us will cite renewable energies as the key, or reduced emissions of carbon dioxide, or perhaps we want greater independence from foreign oil. But these visions have recently given rise to some questionable efforts, such as the push to build giant transmission corridors to access distant wind resources. Recently we have even seen an increased willingness to take a fresh look at nuclear power.

But there’s another vision for our energy future that doesn’t lead to such bizarre results. Instead, it leads to stronger, more self-reliant communities. It reaffirms local sovereignty over energy resources, allowing communities to decide for themselves how they will meet their energy challenges.

The vision I’m speaking of is an energy democracy. In an energy democracy, the focus shifts away from technology, and towards people. Decisions about energy are made based on how they empower communities, and provide opportunities for civic participation. If this sounds too theoretical, consider all the ways that our current energy system has disempowered us. We say that we live in a democracy, yet we depend almost entirely on corporations located outside our communities to provide our energy needs. Can the people have power in such a system?

Democracy begins in our communities, so it is within them that we must re-empower ourselves by re-creating the ability to provide our energy needs. And there are practical ways to begin that process. Taking local ownership of the electric power system opens up the potential to use feed-in tariffs to favor local, independent generators of energy. District heating systems can similarly empower local thermal energy providers. And small-scale biofuel production can be done locally without putting the stress on food production that we have seen when biofuel experiments are attempted on an industrial scale.In a democracy, by definition, the power is held by the people. Until this is literally the case, I don't see how we can claim to have one.

Creating An Electric Power Internet

 

Regulating electric utility companies to ensure that they act in the public interest is a messy proposition at best. At worst, it’s a tangled web of corruption and political maneuvering, aimed more at calming a hungry beast than ensuring fair rates and reliable service.

Regulation of electric utilities began in recognition of the economic power utilities wield as providers of a service that is so central to our lives. In theory, regulation prevents them from exploiting that power for selfish purposes, but one-hundred years after utility regulation began, we still struggle and often fail, to maintain the upper hand.

Part of that struggle is the sheer enormity of the task at hand. U.S. investor-owned utilities hold more than a trillion dollars in assets on their books, and the real value of those assets to our economy is many times larger.

The real failure of electricity regulation in the United States is a failure of perspective. We still view our electric power system in one dimension, as if power can only flow from central power plants to the rest of society. The few, small allowances we’ve made for customers to install solar panels on their homes only hint at the potential the grid holds for interactivity.

It is time to begin transforming our electric power grid into a fully interactive system of two-way power flows – an energy internet, of sorts. Imagine a system in which tens or hundreds of thousands of small energy devices stood ready to provide whatever the grid asked for, whenever it asked for it.

Some early musings on this topic have given rise to buzzwords like “smart grid” or “grid wise” in the United States, but such efforts have amounted to thinly veiled attempts by utilities to increase their control over the grid.

The real promise of an internet-style power grid is in removing central control, just as the internet did, empowering all participants to contribute to the system when they have more than they need, and take from the system when they don’t.
This internet-style architecture for electric power is under development around the world, particularly in Denmark and the Netherlands, where they have deployed what they are calling “active” power grids. Their systems have enabled faster growth of small power systems, and with it, vast improvements in the efficiency of their electrical generation. More importantly, their system invites thousands of new participants into the field of electric power provision, ensuring a more democratic energy system than could ever be possible with central control.

If you are a tech-head like me, there's a good paper on active distribution grids here.