Seth Blumsack on Power Grids: Network Topology & Governance

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.If you value our research and communication efforts, please subscribe, rate and review us at Apple Podcasts, and consider making a donation — or finding other ways to engage with us — at santafe.edu/engage. You can find the complete show notes for every episode, with transcripts and links to cited works, at complexity.simplecast.com.Thank you for listening!Join our Facebook discussion group to meet like minds and talk about each episode.Podcast theme music by Mitch Mignano.Follow us on social media:Twitter • YouTube • Facebook • Instagram • LinkedInMentions and additional resources:Topological Models and Critical Slowing down: Two Approaches to Power System Blackout Risk Analysisby Paul Hines, Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez, & Seth BlumsackDo topological models provide good information about electricity infrastructure vulnerability?by Paul Hines, Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez, & Seth BlumsackCan capacity markets be designed by democracy?by Kyungjin Yoo & Seth BlumsackThe Political Complexity of Regional Electricity Policy Formationby Kyungjin Yoo & Seth BlumsackThe Energy Transition in New Mexico: Insights from a Santa Fe Institute Workshopby Seth Blumsack, Paul Hines, Cristopher Moore, and Jessika E. TrancikEBF 483: Introduction to Electricity Marketsby Seth BlumsackWhat’s behind $15,000 electricity bills in Texas?by Seth BlumsackRTOGov: Exploring Links Between Market Decision-Making Processes and Outcomesby Kate KonschnikEnsuring Consideration of the Public Interest in the Governance and Accountability of Regional Transmission Organizationsby Michael H. Dworkin & Rachel Aslin GoldwasserElectricity governance and the Western energy imbalance market in the United States: The necessity of interorganizational collaborationby Stephanie Lenhart, Natalie Nelson-Marsh, Elizabeth J. Wilson, & David SolanUntangling the Wires in Electricity Market Planning, with Kate Konschnikby Resources RadioMatthew Jackson on Social & Economic NetworksComplexity Podcast 12Elizabeth Hobson on Animal Dominance HierarchiesComplexity Podcast 78The Collective Computation of Reality in Nature and SocietyJessica Flack’s 2019 SFI Community LectureTyler Marghetis on Breakdowns & Breakthroughs: Critical Transitions in Jazz & MathematicsComplexity Podcast 67Early-warning signals for critical transitionsby Marten Scheffer, Jordi Bascompte, William A. Brock, Victor Brovkin, Stephen R. Carpenter, Vasilis Dakos, Hermann Held, Egbert H. van Nes, Max Rietkerk & George SugiharaRicardo Hausmann & J. Doyne Farmer on Evolving Technologies & Market Ecologies (EPE 03)Complexity Podcast 84Anjali BhattTina Eliassi-Rad on Democracies as Complex SystemsComplexity Podcast 73Mirta Galesic on Social Learning & Decision-makingComplexity Podcast 9Jessika TrancikSignalling architectures can prevent cancer evolutionby Leonardo Oña & Michael LachmannThe Ethics of Autonomous Vehicles with Bryant Walker SmithComplexity Podcast 79Image Credit: Paul Hines