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Despite the potential benefits of smart grids, there is still considerable uncertainty regarding the benefits to the users and the conflicting narratives between the different actors involved in their implementation. The chapter emphasises the role of organised industry events as a critical arena for understanding the formative phases of the development of novel technological developments. This chapter draws upon insights from the literature on field-configuring events (FCEs) originating in organisation and management studies and the literature on business conferences and trade shows discussed within economic geography. I discuss the role of the event ‘India Smart Grid Week 2016’ as an industry conference, trade show and exhibition forum to discuss relevant policy and regulatory and technological trends related to smart grids in India during the earlier implementation phases. I explore two important narratives during the event, namely (i) ambiguity around the definition of smart grids; and (ii) cost impact on the consumers while implementing smart grids. Finally, the chapter focuses on how the event facilitates multiple debates on smart grids and discusses the potential impact on policy and developing strategic inputs for future smart grid events., Part of ISBN: 9781118641156, 9781118640661QC 20240926

The increasing deployment of renewable energy (RE) hinges on the development and upscaling of manufacturing and logistics capacities, offering industrial development opportunities for regions and countries. In this paper, we analyse how contextual factors pertaining to pre-existing regional assets and multi-scalar institutional environments influence RE-related industrial development at the regional scale. To this avail, we purposefully selected two contrasting regional case studies of offshore wind energy-related industry developments in Southern Denmark (a pioneering region) and Normandy (France, a latecomer region) and discuss developments until 2020. Our qualitative analysis is informed by theoretical and empirical insights from the economic geography and sustainability transitions research fields. The identified contrasting regional path creation processes reflect substantial differences in context conditions, providing insights into how regions can capture value in the ongoing energy transitions.

The rapidly expanding stream of path development studies recognises that translating observations from past paths to conscious path creation requires conceptually linking agency to path development frameworks. Actors frame issues about and for the future, coordinate their actions in the present and make sense of what may have transpired in the past. The main objective of the paper is to explore the roles that actors play in green path development by answering the following main research questions: (a) Who are the core actors in green path development in the Nordic regions, ie. in industrial development around products, solutions or technologies that make regional economies more sustainable? (b) What are their main roles in relation to other actors? (c) What are the differences and similarities between the regions in terms of agency? The paper explores whether similar actors take on different roles in different regions and whether different actors may assume similar roles. For the empirical analysis, we identified seven roles in change agency. The empirical results showed that institutional entrepreneurship was the core of change agency in conjunction with innovative entrepreneurship and place-based leadership. The other four roles supported path development efforts. The results also show that institutional entrepreneurship is not a solo activity but a collective form of agency and that well-functioning shared institutional entrepreneurship may have a chance to change institutions for green path development.

QC 20180416

QC 20180416

QC 20180416

Developing nations such China and Brazil have also started implementing smart grids with ambitious government programs but still face several challenges. The Indian government is also keen on development of smart grids to meet several challenges related to ongoing electricity demand and energy security, high transmission and distribution losses, electricity theft and improving energy access for vast disadvantaged population. Smart grids are being seen as promising solution for reducing India's energy problem by improving malperformance of the existing electricity sector and promise lot of advantages for all concerned stakeholders such as government, regulators, energy utilities and customers. The Indian government has also initiated (ISGF: Indian Smart Grid Forum i.e. public-private partnership for assisting the government and utilities on smart grid policy and regulatory activities) as well as the National Smart Grid Mission in order to develop and implement smart grids on a large scale in the coming years. The main focus of this paper is to explore the extent to which government organized forums and conferences such as ''Indian Smart Grid Week'' is useful for studying development of a smart grid niche in India. The other focus is also to study the extent to which it has the potential for creating more opportunities for collective learning and getting insights about contestation and conflict in form of discursive power plays between different, QC 20161219

KTH Higher seminar series, 24 th October, 2016, Division of History of Science,Technology and Environment, KTH Stockholm, Sweden. QC 20161219

QC 20170109