The centre cannot (always) hold:Examining pathways towards energy system de-centralisation

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this record'Energy decentralisation' means many things to many people. Among the confusion of definitions and practices that may be characterised as decentralisation, three broad causal narratives are commonly (implicitly or explicitly) invoked. These narratives imply that the process of decentralisation: i) will result in appropriate changes to rules and institutions, ii) will be more democratic and iii) is directly and causally linked to energy system decarbonisation. The principal aim of this paper is to critically examine these narratives. By conceptualising energy decentralisation as a distinct class of sociotechnical transition pathway, we present a comparative analysis of energy decentralisation in Cornwall, South West UK, the French island of Ushant and the National Electricity Market in Australia. We show that, while energy decentralisation is often strongly correlated with institutional change, increasing citizen agency in the energy system, and enhanced environmental performance, these trends cannot be assumed as given. Indeed, some decentralisation pathways may entrench incumbent actors' interests or block rapid decarbonisation. In particular, we show how institutional context is a key determinant of the link between energy decentralisation and normative goals such as democratisation and decarbonisation. While institutional theory suggests that changes in rules and institutions are often incremental and path-dependent, the dense legal and regulatory arrangements that develop around the electricity sector seem particularly resistant to adaptive change. Consequently, policymakers seeking to pursue normative goals such as democratisation or decarbonisation through energy decentralisation need to look beyond technology towards the rules, norms and laws that constitute the energy governance system.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)European Structural and Investment FundINTERREG V FC

State of the energy market 2009

This report provides an overview of Australia\u27s electricity and natural gas markets and an assessment by EnergyQuest of the state of the natural gas industry, focusing on the growing integration of Australian and global energy markets. This year’s edition provides increased coverage of energy policy and regulatory developments, including the AER’s recent activity. The market overview considers major issues across the energy sector over the past 12–18 months, including the implications of climate change policies and the global financial crisis

Benchmarking opex and capex in energy networks

The working paper Benchmarking Opex and Capex in Energy Networks reviews five alternative benchmarking methods – namely partial performance indicators, indexnumber-based total factor productivity, econometric method, stochastic frontier analysis, and data envelopment analysis – with a particular focus on their use in the benchmarking and regulation of energy networks. The search for better ways of regulating energy utilities has increasingly included ‘cost benchmarking’, where the reasonableness of costs proposed is assessed against those of other utilities or even against costs estimated in economic-engineering models. Benchmarking has been applied in a large and increasing number of countries across the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in relation to both operating expenditure (opex) and capital expenditure (capex); particularly for distribution service operators in both the electricity and gas sub-sectors. In Australia, there has long been interest in this approach, stretching back at the state level to the late 1990s. Currently the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) must have reference to the costs of an ‘efficient operator’ in a revenue or price determination. Further, interest in benchmarking has been heightened recently by two major inquiries; one by the Productivity Commission (PC) on benchmarking; and the other, by the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC), in relation to proposed rule changes