EDRs: Electricity Distribution’s Revolutions

A decade ago, you knew that electricity distribution was changing because of new words popping up, such as ‘smart grids’ and ‘smart meters’. We invite you to forget what you knew, a few changes, and acknowledge what you do not know yet: several revolutions.

Do you remember the telecom industry disappearing under the push of the Internet ecosystem? You are getting closer to the coming disruption. In China, they already use the wording “Electricity Internet” meaning a digital revolution, a decentralization revolution, in a multi-layer electricity system with prosumers, peer-to-peer, flexsumers, aggregators, and local markets.

How are distribution grids really transforming, in technologies, usages, roles, tools, business models, and regulations? What has already come true? What is still only a dream? Where are the pioneers, the followers, the reactionaries?

We will discuss all that from the book “Electricity Networks in the Decentralization Era. Rethinking Economics & Regulation” (Palgrave, 2022), by R. Poudineh, C. Brandstätt, F. Billimoria.

The Host of the series, Jean-Michel Glachant loved that book and made an enthusiastic review of it for the journal “Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy”(EEEP). The authors, Christine Brandstätt and Fahrad Billimoria will join the event to share the key messages of their book.

The discussion will follow with Tim Schittekatte, an expert in distribution economics and regulation, formerly FSR and today working at MIT; and Jean-Michel Glachant, who pictures himself as “an old horse having seen the take-off of centralized wholesale electricity trade in the past century, and now amazed that electricity decentralized affairs are taking off today in front of my eyes”.