Negotiating stability and transformation through discourses of energy resilience

Abstract

Considering the urgent need for a low-carbon transition, increasing focus on ‘resilience’ in the energy context raises questions about the discursive function of resilience in the energy field. The resilience concept is characterised by internal contradictions, embracing notions of persistence as well as transformation. This article presents results of a critical discourse analysis, exploring the discursive role of resilience as applied by actors across the UK energy system. Publications from the EU, the UK Government, local authorities, community energy organisations and network/utility companies are analysed, with a focus on discourses across different organisational scales. Drawing on Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theoretical notions of floating signifiers, nodal points and chains of signification, the article identifies distinct hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses of resilience. Findings indicate substantial mixing of discourses, motivating reflection over the complexity and vitality of energy systems, as well as the commitment of political actors to an energy transition agenda.

Keywords:

• Energy system
• resilience
• low-carbon transition
• discourse analysis
• adaptation
• UK

Acknowledgements

This article is based on research conducted for a Masters thesis as part of an MSc programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Geography & Environment. I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Kelly Kay (Assistant Professor, UCLA, Department of Geography) for her support, and for kindly providing comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. Also thanks to two anonymous reviewers for comments and suggestions.

Notes

1. The European European Commission (2014a, p. 19) emphasise that the increase of resilience is reliant upon risk assessments and energy security stress tests, while the DECC (DECC & Ofgem, 2014, p. 40) conclude that UK infrastructure resilience is based on risk assessment. Furthermore, a new indicator has been developed to assess the resilience of the gas system: ‘N−1 is an indicator of infrastructure adequacy as it tests the resilience of the system ensuring that gas demand on extremely cold days can be covered even if the largest infrastructure fails’ (European Commission, 2015b).

2. ‘[N]ew guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure (TEN-E Guidelines) … include “climate resilience” as a parameter for the energy system-wide cost-benefit-analysis for projects of common interest in electricity transmission and storage and in gas’ (European Commission, 2013).

3. ‘Design successors’ refers to the addition of new components to overhead-lines, to improve the resilience of existing infrastructure (Department of Trade & Industry, 2007).