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Electricity, Energy, Technology, Colonialism, Development, Modernity, Agency, Investment, and Nationalism

While the history of electrification has been studied for nearly forty years, beginning with Thomas Hughes’ Network of Power, studies on sub-Saharan Africa have been very few. This dissertation investigates the socioeconomic history of electrification in Southern Nigeria from 1898 to 1972. Using a variety of largely new qualitative and quantitative sources, this dissertation investigates the evolution and impact of electrification in Southern Nigeria from its inception in 1898, through independence (1960), the Civil War (1967-1970), and to the eve of the OPEC-led international oil boom in the early 1970s. In six substantive chapters, it makes three main contributions to the history of colonial infrastructure and the global historiography of electrification. First, it argues that the desire to improve the efficiency of resource extraction, as well as the need to promote socioeconomic development and colonial modernity in Southern Nigerian cities were simultaneous motives of investments in electrification since the 1890s. Second, it contributes to the global historiography by showing that the social processes initiated by the consumption of electricity in Western societies (which resulted in a new ‘techno-culture’) had parallels in Nigeria. Third, the dissertation argues that the combination of motives and the social processes initiated by electricity consumption were the result of Southern Nigerians’ participation in electricity production and consumption since the 1890s. Nigerians’ participation in production was achieved through their influence in the legislative processes, their activities in the colonial service, and, most importantly, through direct investments by Native Authorities. Regarding consumption, the desire of everyday urban dwellers for electricity can be explained through the lens of Ọ̀làjú, a Yoruba idea of ‘modernity’, while their capacity to afford electricity (dating back to the 1930s, which is as far as data is available) can be explained through government’s energy tariff policies and rising wages.

Electricity, Regulation, Energy Law, Competition Law, Antitrust, Governance, and Nigeria

The current failures of electricity regulation in Nigeria are resulting from neoliberal, market-oriented ideas. The policies promised a competitive electricity market that would work well for all stakeholders. However, several years after implementation, these promises are yet to be realised. This thesis investigates the factors and root causes of the problems of the sector post-privatisation and the role that sector-specific regulation (SSR) and antitrust/competition law can and should play to solve them. The thesis analyses the theoretical and conceptual basis for the neoliberal policies of electricity regulation, their assumptions, expectations, and outcomes in practice. It evaluates the shortcomings of the system and reveals how its theoretical ideas of free, unregulated and self-corrective markets devoid of state intervention could not work as expected by neoliberal theory. It discovers how the option translated into the practice of regulating electricity sectors using SSR and an interventionist antitrust law in advanced countries. Based on the experience and current practice in Britain and the EU lessons for legal transplantation by Nigeria are drawn. A qualitative approach consisting of qualitative document analysis and semi-structured expert interviews was used to reveal that the electricity sector in Nigeria under post-privatisation suffers from corruption, regulatory capture, weak institutions of governance, slow development of the renewable energy market and anticompetitive practices by private electricity companies. The study assesses the role of SSR and an interventionist antitrust law in improving the situation and argues for a strict and concurrent application of the two by a strong regulator and the pursuit of green energy investments and commitments as solutions to the market failures in the sector. As an in-depth case study on Nigeria as a developing country, it contributes to debates about electricity regulation under and beyond neoliberalism and about how SSR and the recent 2018 antitrust law in Nigeria will be concurrently applied and enforced to address market failures in the sector. It analyses how conflict can be resolved between the two. It is the first attempt to conduct an in-depth qualitative study and assessment of the post-privatisation problems in the electricity sector in Nigeria and the role of the new antitrust law in solving them.

cross-border interconnections, international electricity transmission, United States, Canada, European Union, legal principles, research methodology, qualitative research methods, energy law, siepac, electricity, transmission, electricity transmission integration, North American interconnections, European Union interconnections, trust and cooperation, sovereignty and electricity transmission, trading in international electricity transmission, and electricity interconnections arrangements

There is a need for cleaner sources for electricity generation that allow the global achievement of climate change mitigation while increasing security of supply, meaning a broader use of renewables as primary sources, requiring the availability of more and/or updated power transmission lines, considering the characteristics, locations, and costs of these generation projects. Hence, cross-border power interconnections help to maximise power produced from renewable resources, as they make their generation available to different jurisdictions, allowing savings when compared to national-based solutions. Cross border power interconnections are not new, and they have been used since the early 20th century, when the technology was available, albeit there was a certain lack of support. Currently, there are several worldwide attempts to interconnect different electricity markets, including Canada and the United States, the European Union's internal market, Australia's National Electricity Market, the Central American Electrical Interconnection System, and the Andean Electrical Interconnection System in South America, among others. Nonetheless, the development and operation of cross-border power interconnections raise several considerations, from both national and international points of view. Therefore, energy law might become a vehicle that allow to identify some common principles for the development and operation of cross-border power interconnections that address these considerations. The purpose of this research is to find an answer to whether it is possible to identify common legal principles to facilitate the development and operation of cross-border power interconnections, considering that the achievement of climate change mitigation goals requires the maximisation of renewable generation, while enhancing and guaranteeing security of supply at both national and international levels. The analysis is based on a doctrinal and non-doctrinal analysis complemented with comparative legal analysis in the form of two case studies: Canada - United States, and European Union. The research found that cross-border power interconnections are possible from a technical and an economic point of view, and established the main characteristics within different legal frameworks for the development of cross-border power interconnections. In addition, the research identified the requirements to be considered when planning and developing legal frameworks for cross-border interconnections, particularly six legal principles that are paramount in the studied cases and are applicable to any interconnection initiative around the world.

320.1, political geography, territoriality, electricity, Ghana, Tanzania, and core-periphery

Recent years have brought a resurgence of state-led plans to expand access to electricity over African polities. Nonetheless, and in line with deep-seated patterns of infrastructural and general abandonment by the centre, very few of those plans have seriously addressed poor, distant, sparse and scarcely endowed peripheral regions. Those rare instances have received scant attention in the literature, despite their precious value to single out key interactions between national electricity regimes and core-periphery political linkages. Addressing that gap, this thesis pays attention to schemes of peripheral electrification to better understand how African states govern their peripheries. To that end, it scrutinizes two schemes of electrification: northern Ghana from 1989 to 2012, and southeastern Tanzania from 2004 to 2015. The thesis argues that in northern Ghana central rulers embarked upon electrification against the odds of geographical determinism, guided as they were by political motivations, chief amongst them the extraction of narrow electoral rents. By contrast, in southeastern Tanzania central rulers endeavoured to tap into the abundance of gas, governed by a determination to advance business models inscribed in the national electricity regime. Ultimately though, the central rulers in Tanzania were forced to re-politicize electrification to appease the deep local resentment caused by the very extraction of gas flowing toward the capital. Both cases thus illuminate varying trajectories in the interplay between national electricity regimes and core-periphery political linkages, that shaped the territorial strategies of electrification. In addition, this thesis also offers two revelations. One first revelation is that sub-national units exert significant mediations in the linkages between core and periphery, via alterations of distributional settlements. This goes against a stream of literature that pays attention exclusively to vertical strategies engineered from political rulers in the centre. The second revelation is that over the long-term electrification alters the political linkages between core and periphery. This squares well with the predictions of theories about the infrastructural power of the state. All in all, this work affords an embryonic analytical elaboration on the strategies of territoriality in the electrification of regional peripheries in Africa. From a political geography perspective, this helps to illuminate how sub-national electrification can simultaneously redraw and reinforce long-entrenched political linkages between core and periphery.

Nuclear, Gen IV, efficiency, cycle, performance, simple, intercooled, recuperated, gas turbine, economics, electricity, and reactor

As a clean and non-greenhouse gas-emitting energy source, nuclear plants are not fully explored due to high costs, low efficiencies and complex designs of incumbent technologies. However, studies indicate high efficiencies and simpler designs are achievable if developed under the Generation IV (Gen IV) framework. The Gen IV framework offers sustainable energy that reduces and recycles the waste at a reduced cost, which is safer and reliable and improves the control in securing nuclear material through features that eliminate proliferation. The objective of this research work was to develop a Nuclear Techno-Economic and Risk Assessment (NuTERA) conceptual tool known as HYPERION under the Gen IV framework, based on constructed algorithms that enable better understanding of the technology for investment purposes. It concentrated on: component and cycle design, Design Point (DP) and Off-Design Point (ODP) performance, control systems, economics, risk assessment and the Levelised Unit Electric Cost (LUEC). The research focused on the Gen IV Gas-cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) and the Very High- Temperature Reactor (VHTR) using helium and considered 3 cycles: Simple Cycle Recuperated (SCR), Intercooled Cycle Recuperated (ICR) and the simplified and novel Intercooled Cycle without recuperation (IC). The HYPERION technical model quantified aspects that affected efficiency, whilst utilising a comprehensive calculation method to derive the ODPs. The HYPERION economic and risk models quantified the Specific Overnight Cost (SOC) including risks which were incorporated as contingencies into the LUEC. The economically optimised results showed that the ICR is the most efficient cycle (53%), followed by the SCR (50%) and then the IC which had an optimised efficiency of 41%; compared to 46% (DP). However, the IC has the best economics at US$5.57ct/kWh compared to the ICR (US$6.97ct/kWh) and the SCR (US$6.98ct/kWh). In fact, the IC is the cheapest clean energy solution in comparison to other generating sources such as solar and wind. It is the 2nd best option whilst coal without carbon capture is the cheapest option. It is important to note that this individual work resulted in 16 publications, comprising 11 journal papers, 4 conference proceedings and 1 book chapter.

550, Affordability, Governance, Energy, Domestic Consumer, Energy Efficiency, Tariff, Denmark, Danish, Fuel Poverty, Energy Policy, Electricity, Gas, Heat, Narrative, Income, Energy Bill, Price, Fuel Poor, and Energy Poverty

Affordability of energy in the domestic sector is the product of three interrelated factors - level of household income, level of energy bills (which are a product of prices and levels of energy demand, mediated by tariffs and the retail market), and the amount of energy that a household needs to maintain a healthy living environment. This thesis focusses on the factors of affordability which are most relevant to the energy policy which are energy bills and energy efficiency, both of which are considered in the context of household income. Affordability of energy in Great Britain is important for separate, but over-lapping reasons. Firstly, it has important political impacts - as energy prices continue to rise, energy is repeatedly highlighted as one of the biggest financial concerns for households (uSwitch, 2013; YouGov, 2015; DECC, 2014f), leading affordability of energy to become an increasingly political issue (Lockwood, 2016). Secondly, affordability of energy has social implications which stem from the fact that the impact of rising energy bills is felt particularly strongly by those on low incomes and in inefficient homes – the fuel poor. In spite of it being twenty-five years since Brenda Boardman published her first book defining the issue of fuel poverty (Boardman, 1991), millions of households in Great Britain today still cannot afford adequate amounts of energy. This is significant because being able to afford access to basic levels of energy services such as warmth and light is essential for maintaining physical and mental health (Harrington et al., 2005; Stockton and Campbell, 2011). Thirdly, affordability has important implications for design of the energy system –a system focussed on minimising long-term costs, both through micro-scale features such as efficient network revenue regulation which keep costs down on a year-by-year basis, and macro-scale aspects such as through the development of a low-demand, highly flexible energy system which has the potential to bring costs down in the long term (Sanders et al., 2016), is likely to differ from one which in which affordability is less of a focus, or only a focus over the short term. This thesis responds to a gap in the literature in relation to the role that governance plays in affecting levels of affordability of energy for domestic consumers in Great Britain. It examines the impact of governance on energy prices and tariffs, and the impact of governance on energy efficiency of the housing stock in Great Britain. Both of these are examined in the context of levels of household income. Greater insight is gained by examining the impact of the energy governance structure in Denmark on Danish domestic energy efficiency standards, which are widely accepted to be very good (IEA, 2011). 7 This thesis makes use of existing academic and policy literature in tandem with data from fifty-six interviews with individuals from across the energy sectors in Great Britain and Denmark. The governance structure of energy in Great Britain is shown to be, on balance, not supportive of delivering affordable energy to domestic consumers. A number of specific issues within the current governance structure in Great Britain are identified. These include the presence of a limiting narrative, whereby policymakers consider affordability to be achieved principally through delivery of low prices; insufficient institutional capacity within OFGEM to keep network prices low, and monitor suppliers’ costs and profits; lack of wholesale market transparency; an anti-interventionist ideology leading to weak energy efficiency requirements for new-build and private rental properties; suppliers as poor executors of energy efficiency policy; weak demand-side interests; tariffs designed around the needs of suppliers, not consumers; an over-reliance on an uncompetitive retail market; a lack of institutional capacity amongst policy makers regarding energy efficiency, and network regulation; and weak consumer representation. A number of recommendations are put forward, including the fostering of a new narrative centred on energy efficiency; the redesign of tariffs to better protect the interests of consumers; the reallocation of responsibility for energy efficiency to local authorities; the development of greater institutional capacity among policymakers; the support for a more interventionist ideology supporting use of regulation; financial support for energy efficiency retrofit; the fostering of greater policy stability; development of new tariff structures; and the formation of a new consumer representative. Overall this thesis demonstrates that affordability of energy in unlikely to be delivered to domestic consumers in Great Britain unless significant changes are made to the governance structure of the energy sector.

333.793, Political economy of markets and states, Public administration, Asia, Public policy, India, electricity, policy, government, energy, and economic reform

How has the Indian state changed with economic liberalization? While many scholars have explored the altered party politics and class basis of the liberalization-era state, few have studied its transforming internal organizational forms and functioning. This thesis aims to provide an empirically grounded answer to this question. To do this it uses the lens of electricity: the sector lies at the heart of contemporary capital accumulation, state power, and distributive politics, and has witnessed almost a quarter-century of institutional reforms since 1991. In the sector, new or reworked organizational forms—such as imported regulatory agencies, corporatized state-owned enterprises, and public-private partnerships—have been grafted onto the older statist system in a process of institutional layering. Favouring state-business collaboration and prioritizing rapid economic growth, this mode of state operation is distinct both from a liberal, market-oriented state and from India’s older state-led mode. It combines state intervention and selective adoption of parts of the Washington Consensus template to produce a reinvented mode of power governance that I term state capitalism 2.0. India’s new state-market hybrid is not a functional alternative to the older models, however. The layered process through which it has emerged means that it is distinctively dysfunctional. Organizations have emerged in an ad hoc fashion, each shaped and reshaped by multiple collective interests, while existing organizations are rarely destroyed. The resulting layered amalgam institutionalizes contradictory state strategies, co-optation by competing interest groups, and a dualistic system of services and subsidies. Consequently the sector’s performance remains poor. As a result, developments in the Indian power sector suggest that the state's 'pro-business' transition has been painful and incomplete. At least in this sector, the Indian state remains simultaneously more indispensable, more ambivalently pro-business, and more chaotic than much theory might suggest.

333.79, Financing, Rural Electrification, Nigeria, and Electricity

The recent awareness created by the UN Secretary General on the need to provide universal energy for all by 2030, which culminated in the declaration of 2012 as the “International Year of Sustainable Energy for All”, laid particular emphasis on the challenge of funding rural electrification in developing countries, and the need for innovative ways and financing options to be developed at national, regional and global levels towards achieving the ‘energy for all’ target of 2030. This research, as part of efforts towards remedying the rural electrification scourge of developing countries, particularly in Nigeria, provides financing options for rural electrification as far as the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) context is concerned. The study does this by first identifying appropriate least-cost electrification supply mode (Grid, Mini-grid and Off-grid), and estimating the financing requirement for providing universal energy access to rural Nigeria by 2030, using a spatial electricity planning model called the ‘Network Planner’. Results from this research shows that by the end of the seventeen year planning period (2013-2030), 98% of currently un-electrified communities will be viable for grid expansion, while only 2% will be mini-grid compatible. This is based on a proposed MV line extension of 12,193,060 metres or (12,193 kilometres), LV line length proposal of 711,954,700 metres or (711,954 kilometres), and an estimated total cost of US$34.5 billion investment within the planning period. More so, a total number of 28.5 million households are to be electrified by 2030, which is equivalent to an estimated 125million people to be provided electricity by 2030.The analysis was done for the 36 states of Nigeria and the entire country, using data from the 774 Local Government Areas of Nigeria. In addition to the Rural Electrification Fund (REF) of the FGN, which gets funding from yearly budgetary allocations from the FGN, fines obtained by NERC, surplus appropriation, interests accruing to the REF and donations from various sources, the following financing options were recommended for rural electrification in Nigeria: The establishment of a Renewable Energy Development Charge (REDC); The establishment of a Rural Electrification Fund Tax (REFT) Law; adopting rural electrification as part of Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) for oil and other companies; Exploring the option of Crowd-funding; and Establishing a Renewable Energy Private Equity Fund in Nigeria.

621.319, Mixed media modelling, Technological concepts, Electricity, and Learning styles

The overarching objective of this research is to recognize the learning styles of engineering and technology students and to propose pedagogical methods for the comprehension of technological concepts in electricity. The topic of electrical resistor-capacitor (RC) circuits has been chosen because it is fundamental to engineering and technology courses. There is substantial evidence to suggest that students find such a concept difficult to grasp. The focus of the research lies in explicating undergraduate students cognitive structures about RC circuits, and proposing a method related to students learning styles of how these cognitive structures may be enhanced. The main thesis argument claims that the transfer of knowledge from familiar RC circuit configurations to unfamiliar RC circuit configurations does not occur easily even if the problem-space is kept identical. The methodology used in this research is a mixed-method approach employing qualitative and quantitative data-gathering and analysis processes. This research concludes that the reasons for lack of transfer of knowledge stem from conceptual and perceptual constraints. Constraints involve: (a) which analogical models are employed in relation to the RC circuit, (b) how the circuit schematic diagram is drawn, and (c) relations between analogy, circuit schematic diagram, voltage-time graphs and verbal jargon used to describe circuit behaviour. The research presents a variety of novel, custom-designed learning aids which are employed within the research methodology to rectify the lack of transfer of knowledge for the RC circuits considered in the study. The design of these learning aids is based on the concept of embodied cognition and mainly makes use of visual and kinaesthetic means to appeal to students who may have different learning styles. The use of such learning aids is proposed as a complementary teaching strategy. The approach taken in this research and its outcomes are significant because they continue to inform the research and educational communities about how human development may be fostered through engineering and technology education (Barak and Hacker, 2011).

333.7932, Electricity, and Modernity

In 1927 the Central Electricity Board began to oversee the building of the national grid. In the early development of electricity, electrical power was consumed by those privileged enough to be able to afford their own generators. A small number of local undertakings were established in urban centres during the 1920s but it was the nationalisation of electricity supply that gradually made electric power available to the masses. The electrical supply industry marketed electrical appliances as economical, efficient and clean alternatives to gas and coal, and, as time and labour saving appliances to the housewife. This thesis employs an interdisciplinary approach to the consumption of electricity and electrical technologies within the domestic environment, drawing upon the methodology of social construction of technology, historical geography, material culture studies and oral histories. It aims to compare and contrast constructions of the ideal modern electric home and electrical appliances with the lived reality of experiences of electricity in different homes across Britain to draw out the tensions between the two and explore how they mutually constructed and shaped each other. Using case studies of electric cookers, refrigerators, electric irons, vacuum cleaners, electric toys, radios, electric razors and hairdryers, it explores how the electrical industry constructed modernity and the ideal modern home in advertising material, the construction of the ‘housewife consumer’ and other users in the home, and the fluid nature of domestic space and its relationship with electricity.

333.7916, heat, control, feed forward, CHP, and electricity

This investigation has analysed the impact on energy consumption for heating and cooling in UK housing stock, from the predicted future global warming effect, up to the 2080s. It was found that, up to the 2050s, it is likely that heating rather than cooling will remain the main source of energy use, in a pessimistic business-as-usual scenario. Micro-CHP (domestic scale combined heat and power plant) offers a medium term low carbon solution for the replacement of heating equipment. The operation of a micro-CHP unit in a time-of-use electricity tariff scenario for existing UK housing stock was simulated. The investigation analysed whether electrical export earnings could be increased by the use of feed forward control in comparison to a conventional control strategy of timed operation with optimised start, without serious compromise to fuel consumption. It has been found that the use of an auto-regressive model with exogenous input (ARX) model can adequately describe thermal characteristics of a typical house for a model based predictive controller. It was demonstrated that export earnings could be increased significantly without additional fuel consumption by accepting dynamic heating operation within a comfort range, rather than a static setpoint value. Compared to a conventional control strategy, overall CO2 emissions and peak network electricity demand were reduced. This approach increased electrical export earnings without additional fuel consumption during theoretical testing and has potential for further development. These finding confirm a positive case for utilising time-of-use electricity tariffs and could contribute significantly towards increasing the productivity of micro-CHP.

621.48, electricity, nuclear, UK energy policy, stakeholder engagement, sustainability, CCS, and scenario analysis

In the UK, the debate surrounding energy production lies at the forefront of the political agenda, with growing emphasis on achieving an increasingly sustainable energy mix into the future. The nuclear option is especially debatable - issues such as waste management and decommissioning receive much attention. In addition, the many stakeholders interested in nuclear power display very divergent views on its sustainability. Since the turn of the century, nuclear power has received much attention globally, with many nations’ governments taking consideration of the potential benefits of new nuclear adoption. Conversely, the Fukushima nuclear disaster has led to new nuclear resistance in other nations, such as Germany, where plans have been made to stop nuclear power generation completely. This research aims to help inform the debate on nuclear power and the future UK electricity mix. A multi-criteria decision support framework (developed by the SPRIng Project) has been used for these purposes, taking into account technical, economic, environmental and social criteria.The methodology used in this work has involved: stakeholder consultation; use of future electricity scenarios; sustainability assessment of current and future electricity options (Pressurised Water Reactor, European Pressurised Reactor, European Fast Rector, coal, gas, solar and wind power, and coal carbon capture and storage [CCS] power); assessment of future electricity scenarios based on both sustainability impacts and stakeholder (expert and public) preferences for the sustainability indicators and electricity technologies. The sustainability assessment of future nuclear power options and coal CCS power have been carried out here for the first time in a UK-specific context.Based on the public and expert opinions on the importance of different sustainability indicators, results of the scenario analysis suggest that the scenario with a high penetration of low-carbon technologies (nuclear [60%] and offshore wind power [40%]) is the most sustainable. For the sample considered in this study, this finding is not sensitive to different stakeholder and public opinions on the importance of the sustainability indicators. However, when the stakeholder preferences for individual technologies are considered, scenarios with high penetration of renewables (26-40% solar and 20-48% wind) become the preferred options. This is due to the favourable stakeholder opinion on solar and wind power. In that case, the scenario with high penetration of nuclear is never the preferred option due to the low to moderate stakeholder preference for nuclear power.Therefore, the results from this research suggest that the ‘sustainability’ of different electricity options and scenarios is highly dependent on stakeholder preferences and priorities. Thus, for successful future deployment of these options and implementation of energy policy measures, transparency of information on the impacts of electricity options is key in ensuring that stakeholder opinions are founded in the actual rather than the perceived impacts of these options.

550, feed-in tariff, renewable energy, electricity, energy policy, and socio-technical transition

Carbon reduction commitments and renewable energy targets have become legal drivers of electricity policy in the UK. Meeting those targets will require a transition in the way that electricity is generated, supplied and consumed. This thesis argues that small-­‐scale renewable electricity technologies (<5MW) could have an important role in driving that transition. The thesis evaluates the role of the feed-­‐in tariff -­‐ a policy mechanism designed to stimulate the deployment of small-­‐scale renewable electricity technologies -­‐ in electricity system transition in the UK. The research is based on empirical information generated from 37 industry interviews, observations of industry and government meetings and events, and secondary analysis of consultation responses, publications and statistics from government and the energy regulator, Ofgem. The analysis is structured with a framework that draws on transition theory and breaks down the findings into a niche (micro/developing) level, a regime (incumbent electricity system) level and a landscape (contextual) level. The thesis finds that the FIT has driven solar photovoltaic development and innovation at an unprecedented rate. The other renewable technologies supported under the FIT (wind, hydropower and anaerobic digestion) have not been as widely deployed. It is argued that additional policy support is required to overcome the non-­‐financial barriers that these technologies face. The thesis concludes that the role of the FIT in system transition has been to drive a level and pace of activity in the solar sector that has demonstrated the potential for alternative generation options. This has informed the politicised debate around electricity policy in the UK but it is argued that continued, broader, stable support is required if small-­‐scale renewable technologies are to have a positive role in electricity system transition. The research has relevance to both academic and policy circles focused on electricity policy, the decarbonisation of energy systems and socio-­‐technical system transitions.