Hall, S orcid.org/0000-0002-1558-7081, Jonas, AEG, Shepherd, S orcid.org/0000-0002-4420-3382 et al. (1 more author) (2019) The smart grid as commons: exploring alternatives to infrastructure financialisation. Urban Studies, 56 (7). pp. 1386-1403. ISSN 0042-0980
Abstract
This paper explores a tension between financialisation of electricity infrastructures and efforts to bring critical urban systems into common ownership. Focusing on the emerging landscape of electricity regulation and e-mobility in the United Kingdom (UK), it examines how electricity grid ownership has become financialised, and why the economic assumptions that enabled this financialisation are being called into question. New technologies, such as smart electricity meters and electric vehicles, provide cities with new tools to tackle poor air quality and greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity grids are key enabling infrastructures but the companies that run them do not get rewarded for improving air quality or tackling climate change. UK government regulation of electricity grids both enables financialisation and forecloses opportunities to manage the infrastructure for wider environmental and public benefit. Nonetheless, the addition of smart devices to this network - the ‘smart grid’ – opens up an opportunity for common ownership of the infrastructure. Transforming the smart grid into commons necessitates deep structural reform to the entire architecture of infrastructure regulation in the UK.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018, Author(s). This is an author produced version of a paper published in Urban Studies. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Economic development; Environment/sustainability; Financialisation; Governance; Smart Grid |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemical & Process Engineering (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Transport Studies (Leeds) > ITS: Spatial Modelling and Dynamics (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC EP/N029488/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 06 Jun 2018 12:19 |
Last Modified: | 30 Apr 2019 14:46 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/0042098018784146 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:131542 |