AbstractsEarth & Environmental Science

Our Power over Our Power

by Ning Liu




Institution: Uppsala University
Department:
Year: 2014
Keywords: sustainable development; deregulated electricity market; consumer power; paradigm shift; Natural Sciences; Naturvetenskap; Natural Sciences; Earth and Related Environmental Sciences; Naturvetenskap; Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap; Masterprogram i hållbar utveckling; Master Programme in Sustainable Development; Hållbar utveckling; Sustainable development
Record ID: 1334294
Full text PDF: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-235464


Abstract

A higher share of renewable energy in power generation is one of most ambitious goals for sustainable development under the increasing pressure of climate change. On the deregulated electricity market in Sweden, the consumers are able to choose their electricity from a specific supplier and a specific energy source, which gives them the opportunity to execute their consumer power to have positive impacts on increasing energy efficiency and renewable electricity generation by stopping buying electricity produced from fossil fuels. A new paradigm is thus proposed in this paper which provides a new perspective on purchase of the product electricity. The new paradigm makes electricity a specified product for a specific customer, the electricity audited is never mixed with that not audited, because all electricity which is audited can be traced. The aim of this study is to provide a greater understanding of the new paradigm on the deregulated electricity market. By conducting a willingness to pay survey and several deep interviews, it analyzed the main factors hindering the customers’understanding of the new market dynamics in terms of active choice in ‘green’ electricity and stopping buying fossil electricity. The results and discussions show that the new paradigm could facilitate shedding light on some important implications for strategic decision making in power companies, for policy-makers as well as customers.