Electricity security and contingency planning in hierarchy and network - examples from Sweden

• This article discusses the emergency management strategies of municipal authorities for securing the electricity supply, according to a networked, or “governance”, control and direction structure, and how this influences the relationship between electricity companies and Swedish municipalities. The article also discusses the role how the households during outages, how they perceive their responsibility during an outage, but also how municipalities and grid companies understand the households’ responsibility. Since electricity market deregulation, the responsibility for electricity supply security has become unclear; field studies of Swedish municipalities indicate that all actors still seem to be seeking to find their proper roles in the deregulated market. Municipalities still expect to exercise influence over private energy company decisions regarding prioritization of emergency power deliveries. Energy companies vacillate between emphasizing their need to regard economic factors and their sense of responsibility for providing a secure electricity supply to vital municipal functions (even though municipalities may lack contracts specifying this). The households’ responsibility for being prepared for an outage was fuzzy for the actors. Both municipalities and grid companies expected the customers to have some preparedness. The household meant that they lacked any responsibility to be prepared for an outage even if they need to be prepared to survive.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

emergency management

electricity supply

governance

black out

outages

households

municipalities

grid company

INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AREAS

TVÄRVETENSKAPLIGA FORSKNINGSOMRÅDEN

Technology and social change

Teknik och social förändring

Publikations- och innehållstyp

pop (ämneskategori)

kap (ämneskategori)