[Themaintainers] {Ideas for Varun} Themaintainers Digest, Vol 74, Issue 9
Ewy, Lindsay
lindsay.ewy.21 at ucl.ac.uk
Tue Apr 26 10:33:12 EDT 2022
Hi Varun,
Your team’s research project sounds interesting and I look forward to reading it once its available. I’m working on my masters at University College London at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose<https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/> where we talk a lot about a systems-approach to change (economic, political, and cultural). One of the key research themes for the institute is directing finance for the green economy. You can find all of the papers here<https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications?collection=drupal-bartlett-publications&meta_UclOrgUnit=%22UCL+Institute+for+Innovation+and+Public+Purpose%22&>, but to give you a flavor of the research some papers specific to energy include:
* Equinor and Ørsted<https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2021/mar/equinor-and-orsted-how-industrial-policy-shaped-scandinavian-energy-giants>: How industrial policy shaped the Scandinavian energy giants
* Governing finance to support the net-zero transition<https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2022/jan/governing-finance-support-net-zero-transition-lessons-successful>: Lessons from successful industrialisations
* How can South Africa advance a new energy paradigm?<https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2022/mar/how-can-south-africa-advance-new-energy-paradigm-mission-oriented-approach> A mission-oriented approach to megaprojects
I feel Germany is also highlighted as an example of how to do more regional / community-based energy projects, so it might be worth looking into the KfW, which has financed a lot of those projects. If you’re looking for consensus-building mechanisms agencies or groups doing strategic design or futures work have a lot of ideas about how to do that in the less data focused way. Some well-known examples are the Helsinki Design Lab, Finland’s Innovation Fund (Sitra), and the Greater Good Studio in Chicago. The institute also works with a number of organizations, which may be a place to identify individuals to connect with in the U.S. You can find the full list of organizations here<https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/moin-participating-members>, but a few U.S. based ones include:
* NYSERDA
* Office of Investment and Innovation @ SBIR
* New Energy Nexus
A few other organizations I’ve come across which you might find helpful are:
* RE-AMP<https://www.reamp.org/>, climate solution collaborative in the Midwest
* Democracy Collaborative<https://democracycollaborative.org/>, focused on building more just systems
* REScoop<https://www.rescoop.eu/>, European federation of energy cooperatives
Whew, this is longer than I planned! I hope this helps.
All the best,
Lindsay
Date: Monday, April 25, 2022 at 7:42 PM
Subject: Fwd: Themaintainers Digest, Vol 74, Issue 9
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Date: April 24, 2022 at 12:00:16 GMT+1
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Today's Topics:
1. Rethinking Infrastructure capital planning for resilient
decarbonization (Varun Adibhatla)
2. Rethinking Infrastructure capital planning for resilient
decarbonization (Varun Adibhatla)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 11:26:40 -0400
From: Varun Adibhatla <varun.adibhatla at gmail.com>
To: themaintainers <themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu>
Subject: [Themaintainers] Rethinking Infrastructure capital planning
for resilient decarbonization
Message-ID:
<CACQpXG6M7CBh-8Sn5p2G=rGiCy+=EnvRUhGFS60PuNWpTzb9tQ at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Hello folks,
It's been a while since I've posted here. I hope all are well.
Happy belated Earth Day as well!
I come here today to ask for guidance, feedback, and connections from
yourselves or your networks.
For the past year, I've been working on a grant funded research project on
grid resilience.
Our focus is to help communities (cities, utilities, regulators) make
better capital planning decisions in service of fair & resilient
decarbonization.
Over the past year, we've swimmed through vast amounts of research and
jargon that often involve utility hegemony, regulatory capture, and
activism.
Today, decarbonization policies at the generation and transmission side
are making optimistic strides. We are on our way towards bringing online
many thousands terawatts of renewable energy.
However, the picture at the local / distribution level where most of
the end use is concentrated is limited for the following reasons:
*The risk of unequal outcomes*
Distributed energy generation, community solar and microgrids are inspiring
signals but hard to scale. We think they result in a form of decarbonized
inequality that serves communities with capital, networks, and time to
create their own decarbonized enclaves.
*The risk of fragile outcomes*
Building electrification plans are often blind to utility-level grid
resiliency.
A street that ends up having all electric end-uses
(heating/cooling/cooking/transport) but served by wires on poles is an
incredibly fragile state to be in.
*They risk being unfair to low and middle income residents*
An individualized approach to decarbonization also puts low & moderate
income residents on the hook for paying for stranded assets (i.e.) the gas
utility, who's trade associations have adopted adversarial stances
<https://www.energyandpolicy.org/gas-utilities-greenwashing-to-expand-fossil-fuels-rng-hydrogen/aga-uses-millions-of-dollars-from-utility-customers-to-promote-a-fossil-fuel-agenda/>
to citywide electrification while also engaging in rate hikes and
disinformation campaigns that affect the energy-vulnerable.
*The choices that Palo Alto, CA makes*
I find it especially remarkable that even a city like Palo Alto, CA, a
community on the backyard of the venerable Stanford University, that
supposedly represents the vanguard of liberal values AND having the rare
privilege of owning most of its horizontal infrastructure
(roads, water/sewer, energy) has chosen to commit upto $30 Million to
*maintain* its gas distribution network.
Palo Alto could instead plan to be the first truly decarbonized city in
America but their capital plans paint a different picture.
This is why our focus is to improve the ecosystem around capital planning
decisions
towards ensuring that infrastructure capital is planned in a manner that
distributes decarbonization benefits in a manner that is more equal,
resilient, and fair.
At the moment, we are focussed on municipal utilities by creating
resources, tools, data, and consensus-building mechanisms that have not
existed before.
Our barriers are less technical and more political, economic, and cultural.
We would love to talk to anyone who could help us with advice, get
connected to experts, decision-makers, or funders.
--
Thanks,
Varun
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Message: 2
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 11:59:20 -0400
From: Varun Adibhatla <varun.adibhatla at gmail.com>
To: themaintainers <themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu>
Subject: [Themaintainers] Rethinking Infrastructure capital planning
for resilient decarbonization
Message-ID:
<CACQpXG43+jj+1ditm1z4+GcRXV-yoAFFK6-fANgH9koLtAZxsA at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Hello folks,
It's been a while since I've posted here. I hope all are well.
Happy belated Earth Day as well!
I come here today to ask for guidance, feedback, and connections from
yourselves or your networks.
For the past year, I've been working on a grant funded research project on
grid resilience.
Our focus is to help communities (cities, utilities, regulators) make
better capital planning decisions in service of fair & resilient
decarbonization.
Over the past year, we've swimmed through vast amounts of research and
jargon that often involve utility hegemony, regulatory capture, and
activism.
Today, decarbonization policies at the generation and transmission side
are making optimistic strides. We are on our way towards bringing online
many thousands terawatts of renewable energy.
However, the picture at the local / distribution level where most of
the end use is concentrated is limited for the following reasons:
*The risk of unequal outcomes*
Distributed energy generation, community solar and microgrids are inspiring
signals but hard to scale. We think they result in a form of decarbonized
inequality that serves communities with capital, networks, and time to
create their own decarbonized enclaves.
*The risk of fragile outcomes*
Building electrification plans are often blind to utility-level grid
resiliency.
A street that ends up having all electric end-uses
(heating/cooling/cooking/transport) but served by wires on poles is an
incredibly fragile state to be in.
*They risk being unfair to low and middle income residents*
An individualized approach to decarbonization also puts low & moderate
income residents on the hook for paying for stranded assets (i.e.) the gas
utility, who's trade associations have adopted adversarial stances
<https://www.energyandpolicy.org/gas-utilities-greenwashing-to-expand-fossil-fuels-rng-hydrogen/aga-uses-millions-of-dollars-from-utility-customers-to-promote-a-fossil-fuel-agenda/>
to
citywide electrification while also engaging in rate hikes and
disinformation campaigns that affect the energy-vulnerable.
*The choices that Palo Alto, CA makes*
I find it especially remarkable that even a city like Palo Alto, CA, a
community on the backyard of the venerable Stanford University, that
supposedly represents the vanguard of liberal values AND having the rare
privilege of owning most of its horizontal infrastructure
(roads, water/sewer, energy) has chosen to commit upto $30 Million to
*maintain* its gas distribution network.
Palo Alto could instead plan to be the first truly decarbonized city in
America but their capital plans paint a different picture.
This is why our focus is to improve the ecosystem around capital planning
decisions
towards ensuring that infrastructure capital is planned in a manner that
distributes decarbonization benefits in a manner that is more equal,
resilient, and fair.
At the moment, we are focussed on municipal utilities by creating
resources, tools, data, and consensus-building mechanisms that have not
existed before.
Our barriers are less technical and more political, economic, and cultural.
We would love to talk to anyone who could help us with advice, get
connected to experts, decision-makers, or funders.
Thank you!
--
Varun Adibhatla
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