Preface

Abbreviations

I. The Need for Power and the Grids That Deliver It
1. Les Jeux Sont Faits
Leapfrogging and Euthanasia
Beyond Decarbonization
2. The Future Is Electric
Deconstructing Electricity Growth
Long-Term Efficiency Trends
Enter Carbon
The AI Wild Card
Electricity’s Third Act
3. La Vida Local
Solar in the City, 2016
Solar in the City, 2050
Local Power versus the Grid, 2050
4. Why We Grid
The Case for Big
Aggregation and Trading
Grids and Geographic Diversity
Not Quite Case Closed
5. The Fragmented Future
How to Damage a Grid, Part 1: Summon Poseidon
Grid Vulnerabilities and the Climate
Grid Coping Skills
The Microgrid Revolution
How to Damage a Grid, Part 2: Hire a Hacker
New Architectural Paradigms
The Fragmented Future

II. The Grid and Its Challenges
6. Decarbonizing the Big Grid
The Old Design Paradigm
The New Paradigm
The Clean Power Toolkit
From Lab Bench to Toolkit
From Toolkit to Reality
7. Not in My Backyard-State-Region
Planning the No-Carbon Future
Not in My Backyard
Searching for Supergrids
The Future of Grid Expansion
8. The Big Grid Bucks Stop Here
A Power Plant’s Early Retirement Package
Power Markets and Plant Financing in a Carbon-Free Future
Pros, Cons, and Trade-Offs in Long-Term Markets
Fixing the Long-Term Markets
The Big Grid’s Future

III. Running and Regulating Post-Carbon Utilities
9. The New Utility Business in Three Dimensions
The Business Model Rainbow
Public Power and Cooperatives
New Products and Horizons
Toward Customer Love
10. The Really Smart Grid
The Prosumer ESCO Marketplace
Market Optimum and Public Interest
Grid Pricing and “Optimizing” the System
Retail Choice’s Next Act
Machine over Market
11. Governing a Really Smart Grid
Setting Regulation’s Goals
Pricing Grid Services
The Problem of Fixed Costs
Planning and Building the Distribution System
Of Elegance and Complexity
12. The Business and Regulation of Energy Service Utilities
The Case for ESUs
Changing Utilities’ Cultural Stripes
Regulating an ESU
Cross-Subsidies and the Space for Political Bargains
13. Forces and Fault Lines beyond the Industry
Big Tech and Monopoly Power
Privacy and the Smart Grid
Energy Democracy
Political Fault Lines
14. Money Talks
Wall Street and New Business Models
15. Power without Carbon
Appendix A: Summary of Policy Recommendations
Appendix B: The Challenges to Energy Spot Markets with Increased Wind and Solar Generation
Appendix C: Source Notes for Figure 2-2
Appendix D: Supplement to Table 6-1

Notes
References
Acknowledgments
Index