cover of episode Seth Blumsack on Power Grids: Network Topology & Governance

Seth Blumsack on Power Grids: Network Topology & Governance

2022/6/4
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COMPLEXITY

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We lead our lives largely unaware of the immense effort required to support them. All of us grew up inside the so-called “Grid” — actually one of many interconnected regional power grids that electrify our modern world. The physical infrastructure and the regulatory intricacies required to keep the lights on: both have grown organically, piecemeal, in complex networks that nobody seems to fully understand. And yet, we must. Compared to life 150 years ago, we are all utterly dependent on the power grid, and learning how it operates — how tiny failures cause cascading crises, and how tense webs of collaborators make decisions on the way that electricity is priced and served — matters now more than ever.

Welcome to COMPLEXITY, the official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. I’m your host, Michael Garfield), and every other week we’ll bring you with us for far-ranging conversations with our worldwide network of rigorous researchers developing new frameworks to explain the deepest mysteries of the universe.

This week on Complexity, we speak with SFI External Professor Seth Blumsack) (Google Scholar page)), Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics and International Affairs in EME and Director of the Center for Energy Law and Policy at Penn State. In this conversation we explore the arcane yet urgent systems that comprise the power grid and how it’s operated, reminding us that the mundane is ever a deep reservoir of questions.

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Mentions and additional resources:

Topological Models and Critical Slowing down: Two Approaches to Power System Blackout Risk Analysis)by Paul Hines, Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez, & Seth Blumsack

Do topological models provide good information about electricity infrastructure vulnerability?)by Paul Hines*, Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez,* & Seth Blumsack

Can capacity markets be designed by democracy?)by Kyungjin Yoo & Seth Blumsack

The Political Complexity of Regional Electricity Policy Formation)by Kyungjin Yoo & Seth Blumsack

The Energy Transition in New Mexico: Insights from a Santa Fe Institute Workshop)by Seth Blumsack, Paul Hines, Cristopher Moore, and Jessika E. Trancik

EBF 483: Introduction to Electricity Markets)by Seth Blumsack

What’s behind $15,000 electricity bills in Texas?)by Seth Blumsack

RTOGov: Exploring Links Between Market Decision-Making Processes and Outcomes)by Kate Konschnik

Ensuring Consideration of the Public Interest in the Governance and Accountability of Regional Transmission Organizations)by Michael H. Dworkin & Rachel Aslin Goldwasser

Electricity governance and the Western energy imbalance market in the United States: The necessity of interorganizational collaboration)by Stephanie Lenhart, Natalie Nelson-Marsh, Elizabeth J. Wilson, & David Solan

Untangling the Wires in Electricity Market Planning, with Kate Konschnik)by Resources Radio

Matthew Jackson on Social & Economic Networks)Complexity Podcast 12

Elizabeth Hobson on Animal Dominance Hierarchies)Complexity Podcast 78

The Collective Computation of Reality in Nature and Society)Jessica Flack’s 2019 SFI Community LectureTyler Marghetis on Breakdowns & Breakthroughs: Critical Transitions in Jazz & Mathematics)Complexity Podcast 67

Early-warning signals for critical transitions)by Marten Scheffer, Jordi Bascompte, William A. Brock, Victor Brovkin, Stephen R. Carpenter, Vasilis Dakos, Hermann Held, Egbert H. van Nes, Max Rietkerk & George Sugihara

Ricardo Hausmann & J. Doyne Farmer on Evolving Technologies & Market Ecologies (EPE 03))Complexity Podcast 84

Anjali Bhatt)

Tina Eliassi-Rad on Democracies as Complex Systems)Complexity Podcast 73

Mirta Galesic on Social Learning & Decision-making)Complexity Podcast 9

Jessika Trancik)

Signalling architectures can prevent cancer evolution)by Leonardo Oña & Michael Lachmann

The Ethics of Autonomous Vehicles with Bryant Walker Smith)Complexity Podcast 79

Image Credit: Paul Hines)