Lecture 9: A governance perspective on planning the energy transition / Tennet

Question 1

What is electricity grid?

Answer 1

A network of connections and nodes over which large amounts of electrical energy can be trransported over long distances with high efficiency.

Question 2

What is Tennet?

Answer 2

A Transimission System Operator of the biggest Voltage lines.

Question 3

What needs to be balanced?

Answer 3

Balance between reliable supply of electricity and demand, we have to do that in sustainable way. And we have to keep it affordable.

Question 4

What is the energy transition?

Answer 4

Reducing the cartbon footprint by moving away from non-renewable energy sources like oil, gas and coal to renewable sources like, solar, wind hydropower.

Question 5

What is target grid?

Answer 5

What do we need in 2050: put this in projects. Electricity grid in 2045. A robust and realistic vision of the future, based on all available knowledge. Dot on the horizon becomes a plan for the future.

Question 6

What is grid congestion?

Answer 6

The grid is full. Too much electricity to handle. Supply and demand increase every year.

Question 7

What are causes of the grid congestion?

Answer 7

Ukrainian war and huge increase in gas prices are drivers for this.

Increased climate ambitions by industry, companies and governments.

Question 8

What is a big bottleneck with the net congestion?

Answer 8

It takes 7 - 10 years to build new energy infrastructure.

Question 9

Wjhat solutions does Tennet deploy?

Answer 9

1 Building and expanding the grid
2 Better utilisation of the existing grid
3 Flexibility solutions & market redesign

Question 10

Explain why the energy transition is a spatial challenge?

Answer 10

Energy stations take up A LOT of space.

Question 11

What dilemmas did sis mention?

Answer 11

Procuring rights and ownership
* Energy grid expansion vs peoples own ground and houses etc…
* Public interest vs individual interest

Technique or spatial?
* Looking inward: technical pricniples
* Outward: all stakeholders, where is space?

Increase of electromagnetic fields:
* more houses are effected by them
* effects of them: how harmful is it?

Careful decision-making vs decision-making speed?

Eemshaven vs Oostpolder
*Landing offshore wind at Oospolder
* wind inclusive impasse with Tennet
* New political scene
* No more support for indfustry
* No support for overhead lines

Question 12

Explain the first generation of energy landscapes

Answer 12

Clear, wide and visible impact: deforestation, peat, watermills, windmills

Question 13

2nd generation

Answer 13

Centralized, limited nr of powerful actors
standardized
Highly regulated production

Space is of no issue. easy to trasnport. Underground. Energy density: little space needed

Increasing liberazation and privatization:
* Of legislation
* depends on private sector investments

Question 14

3rd energy landscapes

Answer 14

visible and vloser to people
mix of small and large scale
focus on energy efficiency

Space is decisive:
* decentralization
Involves of fsocietal actors
* increasing role for local and regional governm,ents

Question 15

The energy system is embedded in the physical landscape and also the socio-economic landscape. Explain how.

Answer 15

Physical: what is there now. What infrastructure is there now. Transformation maybe?

SOcio economic: who lives there, what are they doing. what functions occupy this space.

Question 16

What is security of supply?

Answer 16

The uninterrupted availability of energy for an affordable price.

Question 17

What are consequences of blackouts?

Answer 17

Economic damage
Transportation problems
Security
Health
Education

We are dependent on energy

Question 18

What are sacrifice zones?

Answer 18

Impacts worldwide. Specific places that get exhausted to generate energy.

Question 19

What then is the energy transition regarding to Dr. Spijkerbroek ofzo? She talked about ‘refurbishing a riding train’ What did she mean with this?

Answer 19

Maintaining security of supply while changing the technological, economic, social and institutional aspects of the energy system without reproducing inequalities. Build in a system that exists and is continuing to ecist.

Question 20

How to solve the transition?

Answer 20

Socio technical transitions / multi level perspective
Transitions as emergent processes

Question 21

Transitions as emergent processes. What is meant by this?

Answer 21

Creating conditions for transitions to happen. Bc not one party knows how it all works and what has to happen. You need to do it together with other actors.

Complex web of interrelated actors and networks.

Question 21

Explain multi level perspective model:

Answer 21

Landscape system relates to regime. Climate change gained traction this puts pressure on regime. Niches can be located in a place. but can also be technological developments. Not necessarily to geographical scale.

Transitions that can be guided and steered by for example regulations, instruments and policies that incentivize or force action.

Question 22

What is Multilevel governance?

Answer 22

coordination between different levels of governments. Between secrtors/departments and between actors = key.

Question 23

What was her research focused on?

Answer 23

Larger structural forms of collaboration between actors from different organization. Focused on to join forces. Energy transition as happening in a network of interdependent stakeholders that can deploy capacitites within this network to make the energy transition possible

Also: PV panels along Rijksroads and North Sea Dialogues (about offshore windmills)

Question 24

What are Agency-oriented institutional theories?

Answer 24

She looked at how actors change institutions (endogeneous insititutional change).

Question 25

Internal and external harmonization difference

Answer 25

Internal: what is our role?
External: talking to the other people.

Question 26

What is institutional harmonization?

Answer 26

improving alignment and coordination between competing or alternative frameworks across sectors and scales.

We don’t know how the transition can be done, experiments should be done.

Not always say incremental change is bad. Can also lead to progression

Question 27

What are the three tenets approach that relates to energy justice?

Answer 27

Distribution injustice: Costs and burdens distribution

uneven allocation of benefits and impacts over time and space.

Recognition injustice: How well people can still live in this area where it’s happening. How much impact it has on social networks of these people.

not recognizing parts of society that suffer from the impacts of energy systems in the sphere of law, status order and ability to build loving relationships.

Procedural injustice: Are people involved? Lack of equal access to decision-making processes and full disclosure of info.

Question 28

Explain the four factors of solutions?

Answer 28

Factor 1: ‘ The sharing solution’
* further
growth of geothermal energy, where geographical
concentration is inevitable. But involving local people.

Factor 2 ‘There is no solution’
* there
is no room for further development of geothermal energy
in the regions that have experienced most growth so far.

Factor 3 ’The technocratic solution’
* pride in the quick
development of the geothermal sector and considers it a
big success.

Factor 4 ‘ The regulatory solution’
* high potential of
geothermal energy in Turkey, but considers the regulatory
system underdeveloped.

Question 29

Which factor relates to which form of justice?

Answer 29

F1 sharing solution: further growth geogthermal energy. Relates to distribution justice: investors need to be held accountable

F2: There is not solution relates to recognition injustice: actors in the area feel like they are not taken seriously. Plants can make environmental massacres.

F3: Technocratic solution - no call for justice

F4 regulatory soluiton relates to procedural justice: correct rules it will be fine.

Question 30

Explain what is the difference between formal and informal institutions

Answer 30

Formal: clear and direct. Legal framework
Informal: more vague. how people interact among parties, how they act along organizational cultures and how people can interact.

Question 31

Difference between supply oriented and demand oriented policy isntruments?

Answer 31

 supply-oriented policy instruments: stimulate the supply side of innovation, for
example by providing subsidies to private firms to support their R&D activities
 demand-oriented policy instruments: stimulate the market for innovative products
and services, for example by public procurement or mandatory standards

Question 32

What types of capacities are mentionted in the article?

Answer 32

Delivery capacity: an authority’s capability to make things happen; it consists of the
resources that governments use to perform their primary tasks at the policy frontline (Lodge
and Wegrich, 2014). → relates to its treasure; it includes for example grants and loans and,
in modern times, research funding
- Analytical capacity: based on the information that authorities have at their disposal and use
to make policy choices; it is the knowledge that informs decision making. It addresses
demands on forecasting and intelligence that informs policy making under conditions of
uncertainty (Lodge and Wegrich, 2014) → relates to the governing resource nodality and
stems for example from the state’s access to networks of expertise
- Coordination capacity: the capacity to ‘bring the necessary actors together to achieve
problem-solving (Lodge and Wegrich, 2014). Besides being one of the participants in
collaborative governance, government can act as the organizer or facilitator of the process,
bringing participants together and aligning organisations from different backgrounds under
often tricky conditions
- Regulatory capacity: the modern state’s capacity to prohibit or permit and refers to the
government’s power to constrain economic and social activities. It is based on the governing
resource, authority; associated policy instruments are regulations and licences, and in
modern states, labelling, treaties and political agreements → governments can stimulate
innovation by using their regulatory capacity to abolish or adjust rules or draft new ones

Question 33

Most important conclusions from Spijkerboer et al. (2019)

Answer 33

• results show that institutional barriers experienced by various actors are often interrelated.
• internal harmonization within the respective policy domainsisacrucial firststep
• Agency component is crucial for succesful harmonization because actors are dealing with a lack of knowledge and experience here.
• institutional harmonization becomes dependent on organizational cultures and individual characteristics.