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" The power of networks : "
Amin, Amal-Lee.
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1094261
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| Doc. No
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TLets324224
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| Main Entry
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Amin, Amal-Lee.
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| Title & Author
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The power of networks :\ Amin, Amal-Lee.
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| College
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University of Sussex
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| Date
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2000
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| student score
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2000
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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Electricity supply industries (ESI) around the world are subject to structural and regulatorychange. The environmental implications of these changes will depend, largely, on futureinvestment within cleaner technologies. As developing countries (Des) increase levels ofelectricity supply, the incentives for investment in clean technologies is particularly important.Policy-makers wishing to promote renewable electricity technologies (RETs) in Des need tounderstand the nature of technological change in large technical systems (LTS). Broadly thisthesis adopts the view that technological change is the outcome of the complex interaction oftechnical, economic and political factors. Initially technological change in LTS is shaped bysocial and political factors. As the system increases in both size and complexity driven byeconomies of scale and scope, and through co-evolution of technical and institutional features, itexhibits 'momentum,' whereupon technological change tends to be 'incremental' andautonomous. Through problem-solving activities to address 'reverse salients' the system evolveson a 'technological trajectory,' its path confined by technological and economic boundariesdefined by the prevailing 'techno-economic' paradigm. Subsequently new technologies such asRETs, with characteristics different to those of the 'Traditional Electricity System Trajectory'(TEST) are unlikely to be favoured.Restructuring the electricity system provides a discontinuity in its momentum, allowing thedrivers and interactions of different stakeholders to be more transparent. During such periods ofinstability there are important opportunities for systemic change through meaningful policy input.The socio-economic importance of electricity supply in Des further increases the 'technoinstitutionalcomplexity' within the electricity system, and so resistance to restructuring.The thesis argues that restructuring of the ESI is a necessary, but not sufficient requirement forcommercialisation of RETs. Rather policies supported by legislation should ensure thatconservative techno-institutional mechanisms are replaced by ones that encourage a 'BalancedElectricity System Trajectory.' The BEST framework incorporates 'economies of the system' as adriver and is characterised by distributed technologies including small-scale and modulargeneration and sophisticated control technologies. As well as being characterised by flexiblecontrol in the technical sense, the BEST model is also characterised by flexible institutionalarrangements.
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| Subject
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ESI; Electricity supply industries
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| Added Entry
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University of Sussex
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