Multiple dimensions of disruption, energy transitions and industrial policy

Abstract

In this perspective article, we critically explore 'disruption' in relation to sustainability transitions in the energy sector. Recognising significant ambiguity associated with the term, we seek to answer the question: What use has 'disruption' for understanding and promoting change towards low carbon energy futures. First, we outline that different understandings and dimensions of 'system disruption' exist with different linkages to institutional and policy change. This variety points out a need to research in more detail the particular effects of differing low-carbon innovations in terms of their disruptive consequences for whole socio-technical systems. Thus, disruption can be utilised as a useful conceptual tool for interrogating in more detail the ways in which energy systems are changing in particular contexts. Second, we reflect on the relationship between 'green industrial policy' and disruption. In some contexts 'energy disruption' has been facilitated by green industrial policy, and it would seem that the profound changes said to be on the horizon in terms of disruption are also a motivator of green industrial policy. New industrial policy can be an important way in which the negative consequences of disruptive change, such as job losses, can be managed and facilitated. 1. The 'Disruption' of everything: just another buzzword? Discussions of 'disruption' have gained increasing traction in policy (European Commission, 2014; Innovate UK, 2017) and academia (e.g Nagy et al., 2015; Sioshani, 2017) alike. The term 'disruptive technology' was initially coined in 1995 (Bower and Christensen, 1995; Christensen and Rosenbloom, 1995) and mainly used in the subsequent years to discuss the renewal of firms in the context of business and organisational studies. However, recently the term has become more prolific than ever, spurred on by apparent momentous changes in a range of sectors. These often interconnected developments include automation in transport, 3D printing, digitalisation, the 'gig economy' and 'smart' energy. Definitions have been used further afield to discuss changes in education and health care (Horn and Staker, 2015; Hwang and Christensen, 2008). In an important online article for the New Yorker, Lepore (2014) cynically observed that today "everyone is either disrupting or being disrupted" and argued that "every era has a theory of rising and falling, of growth and decay…our era has disruption". The ubiquity of the term is seen by many as being problematic, with suggestions that the theory of disruption may be "dead wrong" (Kitroeff, 2015) due to its vagueness and lack of definitional clarity, and that it is time to "retire" disruption, "Silicon valley's emptiest buzzword" (Alexander, 2016). King and Baatartogtokh, (2015) inquire 'how useful is a theory of disruption'?

The whole systems energy injustice of four European low-carbon transitions

“…Although half of renewable energy is citizen-owned in Germany (Johnstone & Kivimaa 2018), one stream of economic injustices that respondents drew attention to was the potentially uneven access among German citizens to solar resources and financing, with a focus group respondent noting plainly that: "If you don't have the money you can't invest in the solar revolution." Considering that the consumers who have been able to benefit from generous subsidies are the ones who have been wealthy enough to afford the panel set-ups, in this light, the German solar transition could be seen as an example of the poor crosssubsidizing the wealthy, good for community halls in wealthy areas (see Figure 6) but not accessible for those on low incomes.…”

Asset management in grid companies using integrated diagnostic devices

“…International experience shows that the digital transformation of grids results in lower power losses, higher reliability and accessibility of power supply and creates a number of additional services for customers [5][6][7]. The adoption of digital technologies entails savings in the course of the implementation of investment programs and opens up opportunities for the accelerated expansion of power distribution infrastructure, ensuring higher profitability of the energy business and reducing SAIDI/SAIFI and preparing energy companies for new technological challenges [8][9][10][11].…”

Advance Management Education for Power-Engineering and Industry of the Future

“…It is important to emphasize that the segments of the new industry demonstrate the convergence of the electric power industry and advanced scientific and technological achievements (smart cities and green technologies, the Internet of things, digital health care and telemedicine, intelligent transport and logistics systems) [12]. The industry is likely to undergo a systemic change in the next 10 years-a transition from "generator-network-consumer" models, with a clearly defined technological and commercial infrastructure with insurmountable barriers to changing the role of a market agent, to the "atomic" distributed energy model [13,14], when a consumer can simultaneously become a generator and owner of grids, and, owing to new technologies, be a part of the technological and commercial infrastructure [15,16].…”