The requirement to decarbonise the GB electricity system, alongside the falling costs of renewable technologies and developments in IT capabilities, provides GB with an opportunity for systemic change in the way that electricity is produced and sold, with the potential to enable
flexibility markets at the local level given the correct regulatory conditions.
The report highlights a range of regulatory and policy barriers to the Local Energy Market (LEM) approach.

Large scale renewables raise new challenges and provide new opportunities across electricity systems. This paper considers the barriers faced by large scale renewables in electricity systems in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. We review the current state of knowledge in relation to grid-connected renewables. This paper then explores key issues in electricity system structure, the main challenges to the uptake of renewables, and the various existing fiscal and policy approaches to encouraging renewables. The authors also highlight possible ways moving forward to ensure more widespread renewables deployment.

This research was supported by the UK Department for International Development’s Energy and Economic Growth Applied Research Programme.

The UK has enviable renewable resources, both onshore (wind) and offshore (wind, wave and tidal) (The Offshore Valuation Group, 2010). The government has had policy mechanisms in place since 1990 to encourage these resources to be developed. The current mechanism, the Renewables Obligation (RO), was specifically designed to emphasise competition and therefore to fit in with the UK's overall strategic approach to energy policy. However, as yet, it has not delivered the capacity that it was designed to do, and as a result the UK faces a difficult challenge in attempting to meet European-wide renewable energy targets for 2020, as well as longer term decarbonisation targets. This paper explores some of the major reasons why the RO has performed so poorly to date and considers the prospects for improvement up to 2020. It concludes that the strategic emphasis on competition in the support mechanisms has played a key role in limiting renewables development, but that the mechanism has changed significantly since it was introduced. However, these changes, together with proposals for electricity market reform, still do not address important elements of risk in comparison with a standard Feed in Tariff. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Market-based, competitive bidding processes, i.e. auctions, are becoming a dominant policy instrument for securing future electricity production from renewable energy sources (RES) around the world. The rapid growth is striking: in 2005, only six countries employed RES auctions, and by 2017 at least 84 countries had adopted the mechanism. This article outlines the rationale for the shift, describes some of the key design characteristics of auctions, together with best practices and potential pitfalls, and briefly considers the future of auctions in the face of declining support needs.

The role of socio-political power is central to the development of policy, but systematic analyses of power associated with the development of energy policy are rare. Power is also an important yet somewhat under-researched aspect of socio-technical transitions research. The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) policy aims to increase deployment of low-carbon heat in Great Britain and begin a transformation to a low carbon GB heat system. This article analyses the socio-political power associated with the development of the RHI policy based on Lukes' 'dimensions of power' approach using a methodology based on triangulation. We identify a number of policy change episodes during the development of the RHI and describe the influence of key actors on the policy. Despite the common assumption of the power of incumbents, we show that those actors with niche technological expertise, close relationships with Government actors and actors within the administration have been the most powerful drivers of policy development and change. Niche actors sped up the introduction of the RHI scheme and have also had some success in increasing relative support for biomethane injection. The power of a civil servant to slow the introduction of the domestic element of the RHI has also been identified.

The selection and design of renewable electricity support instruments is an important part of EU energy policy and central to the governance of the Energy Union. In 2014, the European Commission published updated guidelines for state aid that effectively mandate the EU-wide implementation of auctions for allocating revenue support to commercial scale renewable electricity generation. This article argues that the RES auction’s rapid ascent towards dominance is explained by a coincidence of an activist interpretation of EU state aid law creating demand for knowledge about the instrument and the emergence of a ready source of supply from a burgeoning community of a RES auction specialists and experts. Knowledge gained through EU-wide implementation of auctions further adds to supply of auctions expertise among the community. The implications of positive feedback between instrument demand and the growing supply of knowledge about an instrument reinforces the importance of critical engagement between policymakers and policy experts.

The system for space and water heating in the UK must be transformed if policy goals are to be met. This transformation will require major technological and social changes including the renovation of homes and other buildings, the replacement of any appliances which combust fossil fuels with low carbon heat technologies and infrastructure changes. An effective Government strategy will need to drive these changes through policies, regulations and the development of a clear vision. The UK Government has already made a number of policy interventions associated with decarbonising heating.

Transformations of large systems, such as the UK heat system, have been increasingly considered from the perspective of ‘sustainability transitions’, a branch of theory which considers the transitions of large socio-technical systems from being ‘unsustainable’ to ‘sustainable’. The ‘multi-level perspective’ is a model which has emerged from the ‘sustainability transitions’ literature as potentially valuable. However, this model and wider approaches to ‘sustainability transitions’ have been accused of not paying enough attention to the complex social phenomenon of power. Greater insights around power and policy change associated with transitions could strengthen transitions theories by providing evidence of how power can affect socio-technical change.

Employing an approach to power called the ‘four faces of power’ and using a methodology called the ‘EAR instrument’ based on data triangulation which has never before been applied to UK energy policy issues, this inter-disciplinary research investigates the combined issues of power, transitions and the policies associated with UK’s heat system. Power in this thesis is understood as the ability of actors to affect policy and governance associated with the decarbonisation of heat. Therefore an actor is considered powerful or to have had power if their behaviour has successfully affected policy change.

The thesis examines if actors have had the power to affect historic UK heat policy and what approaches have been used to attempt to influence it. In doing so, the research provides original contributions to the literature on UK energy policy which has seen little focus on heat decarbonisation and similarly little focus on how politics and influence affect policy change. A Dutch case study has also been completed as the Netherlands has a similar, highly natural gas dependent heat system. Similarities and differences between the two countries have been investigated.

Numerous attempts to influence heat policy by various actors have been identified in both countries. Approaches used to have power over policy and the actors involved in attempts to have power have been considered in detail. Only some attempts to influence have been successful and contextual and institutional issues have also affected power struggles. The size of actor has not determined policy influencing success in this analysis.

The power associated with policy change is shown to be an important element of the UK’s heat transformation. As actors primarily attempt to influence policy based on their own interests and appear to have some success, a major issue for transitions may be that the speed and direction of transitions reflect politically active actors’ interests, rather than wider societal interests. However, in this study, actor power has operated to both constrain and emancipate the transformation showing that power is not, in this example, one directional.

'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.

The requirement to decarbonise the GB electricity system, alongside the falling costs of renewable technologies and developments in IT capabilities, provides GB with an opportunity for systemic change in the way that electricity is produced and sold, with the potential to enable
flexibility markets at the local level given the correct regulatory conditions.
The report highlights a range of regulatory and policy barriers to the Local Energy Market (LEM) approach.

This research explores the role of cities in energy transitions using heat networks as a case study. Drawing on both discursive institutional and socio-technical transitions literature the interaction of discourses, ideas and institutions are analysed in relation to heat networks in England and Germany. Heat networks are framed within this research as embedded within wider debates regarding scales of governance, scale of energy provision and the role of various forms of state, with the co-production of discourses and institutions reflecting the struggle between these competing ideas.
The thesis highlights the complex interactions between national and local scales in mediating material change to energy systems. At the local scale, in both countries, there was a growing narrative of the need for local governments to adopt more direct forms of governance in order to secure wider public good benefits of energy infrastructure. In developing heat networks all locations were adopting multiple roles but there was increased focus on ensuring modes of governing. These findings provide an empirical demonstration of the multiple modes of governing adopted by local governments, and suggests that previous assertions that England and Germany are converging on an ‘enabling’ model of climate change governance may no longer be the case.
Much discursive institutional literature presents ideas as influencing policy outcomes only when fully formed (Carstensen and Schmidt, 2016; Gillard, 2016), however this research suggests that the contestation of deeply held views can be constituted through not a single large-scale crisis but the amalgamation of several emerging challenges to existing ideas. A loss of confidence in the private sector to deliver the best outcomes, a financially constrained public sector, growing familiarity with sustainable energy projects in many local authorities and increasing recognition of the potential for heat networks to support whole system approaches to decarbonisation all led to ideas about the role of local government in the energy system to be challenged. This provides insight into how ideas can be influential, potentially at different scales, without necessarily being dominant nationally, or used consistently across local actor networks. At the same time obdurate existing storylines, such as the need to de-risk commercial finance, can act to marginalise other storylines. This highlights the complex interaction between dominant and emerging storylines with ideational bricolage at the local level leading to a reappraisal of the role of local government in energy system change. This was, to a degree, providing a route to resist embedded national norms and providing a platform for a stronger local governance role to be debated in relation to decarbonisation and energy system change.
Applying a discursive institutional approach is also demonstrated to add richness to explorations of regime politics within socio-technical change, particularly in relation to investigating processes of change at different scales. Socio-technical regimes are often characterised as stable with relatively short periods of change initiated by niche experimentation. Incorporating a discursive approach provides for a more diffuse and gradual explanation for change, enabling exploration of how individual experiments link to long-term debates at both the local and national scale.

Incumbency is frequently considered as a barrier to the transformation of unsustainable socio-technical systems such as energy systems. However, despite wide use of the term, ‘incumbency’ has never been fully or adequately defined within the sustainable transitions literature. This working paper considers the use and meaning of the term incumbency in relation to sustainable transformations, specifically in relation to the UK’s heat system. It takes ideas of incumbency from other disciplines including economics, politics and innovation. Synthesising these literatures, the paper proposes a number of characteristics of incumbency. Finally we propose a definition of incumbency in relation to sustainability transformations, which suggests that incumbents are actors already present in a specific socio-technical system, who are likely to be involved with unsustainable practices, and who possess the capacity to affect system change.

Large scale renewables raise new challenges and provide new opportunities across electricity systems. This paper considers the barriers faced by large scale renewables in electricity systems in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. We review the current state of knowledge in relation to grid-connected renewables. This paper then explores key issues in electricity system structure, the main challenges to the uptake of renewables, and the various existing fiscal and policy approaches to encouraging renewables. The authors also highlight possible ways moving forward to ensure more widespread renewables deployment.

This research was supported by the UK Department for International Development’s Energy and Economic Growth Applied Research Programme.

This webinar will give practitioners more hands-on information on the design of RES auctions, focusing on pre-qualification rules and penalties. The two elements are closely related in that they are, amongst other things, used to enhance the ‘seriousness’ of bids and improve realisation rates. We will present the different design alternatives and arguments for and against using each of the features. Furthermore, we will give an overview of current practices for both design elements implementations for RES support in Europe and the rest of the world.

Keynote speech to the Westminster Energy, Environment and Transport Forum, UK energy market: competition, regulation and customer engagement

This short Discussion Paper is intended to stimulate discussion about how governance of the energy system in Britain can better keep up with technological, economic and social change. We have set out a possible model for future governance and regulation – which moves from the ‘independent, CEO led’ model currently in Britain to one which is more ‘directed’ and which we argue is more legitimate, transparent and nimble; but which also better suits the characteristics of current technologies (whether supply, demand, storage and ICT integration). We would welcome comments on it by the end of June 2015. Whatever the optimum model for future energy system governance and regulation, though, the fundamental point remains: the current model of regulation in the UK’s gas and electricity systems is no longer fit for purpose.

Energy policy priorities for the new (post 2015) Government

The UK has enviable renewable resources, both onshore (wind) and offshore (wind, wave and tidal) (The Offshore Valuation Group, 2010). The government has had policy mechanisms in place since 1990 to encourage these resources to be developed. The current mechanism, the Renewables Obligation (RO), was specifically designed to emphasise competition and therefore to fit in with the UK's overall strategic approach to energy policy. However, as yet, it has not delivered the capacity that it was designed to do, and as a result the UK faces a difficult challenge in attempting to meet European-wide renewable energy targets for 2020, as well as longer term decarbonisation targets. This paper explores some of the major reasons why the RO has performed so poorly to date and considers the prospects for improvement up to 2020. It concludes that the strategic emphasis on competition in the support mechanisms has played a key role in limiting renewables development, but that the mechanism has changed significantly since it was introduced. However, these changes, together with proposals for electricity market reform, still do not address important elements of risk in comparison with a standard Feed in Tariff. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper reviews the current status of microgeneration technologies at the domestic scale. Overviews are given for nine such technologies, grouped into three sections: (a) low carbon heating: condensing boilers, biomass boilers and room heaters, air source and ground source heat pumps; (b) renewables: solar photovoltaic panels, flat plate and evacuated tube solar thermal panels and micro-wind; and (c) combined heat and power: Stirling engines, internal combustion engines and fuel cells. Reviews of the construction, operation and performance are given for the leading commercial products of each technology. Wherever possible, data are presented from the field, giving the actual prices paid by customers, efficiencies and energy yields experienced in real-world use, reliability and durability, and the problems faced by users. This information has a UK focus but is generally relevant in the international context. Two issues are found to be prevalent throughout the microgeneration industry. Total installed costs are a premium and vary substantially between technologies, between specific products (e.g. different models of solar panel), and between individual installations. Performance in the field is found in many cases to differ widely from manufacturers’ quotes and laboratory studies, often owing to installation and operational problems. Despite this, microgeneration has demonstrated substantial improvements over conventional generation in terms of fossil fuel consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and energy cost, provided that the appropriate technologies are employed, being installed and operated correctly according to the load requirements of the house and their physical location.

A critical review of the literature relating to government policy and behavioural aspects relevant to the uptake and application of microgeneration in the UK is presented. Given the current policy context aspiring to zero-carbon new homes by 2016 and a variety of minimum standards and financial policy instruments supporting microgeneration in existing dwellings, it appears that this class of technologies could make a significant contribution to UK energy supply and low-carbon buildings in the future. Indeed, achievement of a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 80% (the UK government’s 2050 target) for the residential sector may entail substantial deployment of microgeneration. Realisation of the large potential market for microgeneration relies on a variety of interrelated factors such as microeconomics, behavioural aspects, the structure of supporting policy instruments and well-informed technology development. This paper explores these issues in terms of current and proposed policy instruments in the UK. Behavioural aspects associated with both initial uptake of the technology and after purchase are also considered.

This paper considers aspects of the cut-rent regulatory frameworks for markets and infrastructure which can inhibit the deployment of decentralised energy. The government has stated that decentralised energy can make a positive contribution to reducing the UK's carbon emissions, but recognises that at the moment the technologies face market and regulatory barriers. If it is to become a viable alternative to centralised generation, energy market design and the regulation of energy infrastructure will have to evolve to ensure that decentralised options are no longer locked out. (C) 2008 Queen's Printer and Controller of HMSO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.