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Showing 9 Publications by L. Lynne Kiesling
Popular Media The impetus for change in monopoly electric systems has ebbed and flowed for over three decades. Over the past 15 years the interest in and . . .
The impetus for change in monopoly electric systems has ebbed and flowed for over three decades. Over the past 15 years the interest in and ability to update electricity system technologies has grown, due to the combination of changing policy objectives and widespread digital innovation. Whether you call it smart grid or grid modernization, digital technologies by now have long had the potential to transform electric systems, improving their operations, reducing waste and idleness, and (but I repeat myself) having more market-based systems. Separate but complementary improvements in the performance and production costs of distributed energy resources like solar PV, electric vehicles, and battery storage, along with the policy focus on decarbonization, have amplified interest in and work on digitalization. Digitalization has reduced transaction costs and created unforeseeable types and amounts of value in the rest of the economy. Shouldn’t it do so too in electricity?
Scholarship Abstract This Perspective applies a multidimensional, whole-systems energy justice lens to the electrical power grid, conceived of as the national electricity transmission and distribution network . . .
This Perspective applies a multidimensional, whole-systems energy justice lens to the electrical power grid, conceived of as the national electricity transmission and distribution network in the United States. The electrical power grid exists primarily to provide reliable and safe energy services to anyone and everyone, and at any time of the day. It represents a massive system of physical infrastructure that most scholars treat as agnostic and inherently void of equity dimensions. But underlying the poles and wires are a complicated set of challenges that have equity implications. For example, better power lines are installed in wealthier neighborhoods; lower-income neighborhoods experience blackouts significantly more often than higher-income neighborhoods; and the siting of transmission infrastructure infringes on local communities and ecosystems. In this Perspective, we discuss the philosophical underpinnings of justice and equity, define energy justice, and discuss how the grid can cause and perpetuate four different types of inequity: demographic within social groups and communities, spatial across urban and rural locations, temporal across time, and interspecies in terms of damaging the environment. We chart these four dimensions with twelve distinct examples and provide recommendations to create a more equitable and just future grid.
Popular Media In March 2023 I wrote a post reiterating my argument that grid reliability is not a public good, at least not according to the technical . . .
In March 2023 I wrote a post reiterating my argument that grid reliability is not a public good, at least not according to the technical definition of a public good as nonexcludable and nonrival. Instead I argued that grid reliability is a common-pool resource, potentially somewhat excludable or at least differentiable, and if not nonrival at least congestible. Given recent discussions in electricity policy about reliability in general and winter reliability in particular, I think it’s worth reconsidering now.
Read the full piece here.
Presentations & Interviews ICLE Academic Affiliate Lynne Kiesling was a guest on the The Answer Is Transaction Costs podcast to discuss distributed energy resources (DERs) and the complex . . .
ICLE Academic Affiliate Lynne Kiesling was a guest on the The Answer Is Transaction Costs podcast to discuss distributed energy resources (DERs) and the complex regulatory frameworks that shape smart-grid technologies. The full episode is embedded below.
Popular Media This is so vile, so disgusting that I am literally nauseated at my desk as I write. One of the ways that independent chefs, caterers . . .
This is so vile, so disgusting that I am literally nauseated at my desk as I write. One of the ways that independent chefs, caterers and confectioners economize on their substantial fixed costs is by sharing kitchens. In Chicago, the business license treatment of such kitchens from the Chicago Department of Public Health has been uncertain: does the kitchen owner have to be the one with the license, or does each user of the kitchen have to have a separate license?
Popular Media Price discrimination is the basic economics question in the current iPad-induced Amazon-Macmillan kerfuffle, even more basic than the DRM/property rights issues and the antitrust/resale price . . .
Price discrimination is the basic economics question in the current iPad-induced Amazon-Macmillan kerfuffle, even more basic than the DRM/property rights issues and the antitrust/resale price maintenance issues I discussed in my last post on the matter. Lots of people have weighed in on the subject in the past 36 hours, and I recommend some of them to your attention…
Popular Media Today David Henderson has penned the traditional Wall Street Journal commentary on yesterday’s Nobel award to Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson. He provides an excellent summary of . . .
Today David Henderson has penned the traditional Wall Street Journal commentary on yesterday’s Nobel award to Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson. He provides an excellent summary of the importance of their work, and I recommend it to you highly. In fact, David’s theme reconciles what some commenters have observed as a political or ideological contradiction. For example, Cheryl Morgan notes that both Henry Farrell and I are thrilled at the prize, and that…
Popular Media How much thought have you given to your electricity consumption? If it hasn’t gone beyond “I flip the switch and the light comes on,” you’re . . .
How much thought have you given to your electricity consumption? If it hasn’t gone beyond “I flip the switch and the light comes on,” you’re not alone, which is one of many reasons electricity usage in the United States is inefficient. But that’s beginning to change.
Popular Media On Thursday President-elect Obama named law professor Cass Sunstein to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, an executive-branch office with the mission of analyzing . . .
On Thursday President-elect Obama named law professor Cass Sunstein to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, an executive-branch office with the mission of analyzing and coordinating federal regulation. Most recently, Sunstein is known for his work with Richard Thaler on “choice architecture” and behavioral public policy, including their book Nudge.
