Challenges for electricity network governance in Energy transitions: Insights from Norway

Once transitions progress beyond the startup phase, niche technologies diffuse more widely to generate important knock-on effects in the focal sector. With this comes a need for moving beyond nurturing niches to embracing a 'whole system perspective'. In the case of the power sector, a whole systems view puts the role of electricity networks more central. This paper analyses how the governance of power networks is challenged by the pending renewable energy transitions. We integrate insights from network regulation studies and transition studies to propose a framework for understanding how energy transition challenges current regulatory thinking and practice. We use the framework for assessing recent attempts at regulatory innovation by the Norwegian network regulator. The paper shows how the established toolbox of network regulation can be amended to tackle innovation and transition. The Norwegian case shows that the network regulator does take up the challenges resulting from the energy transition. Yet it also shows the difficulties of making these new instruments effective. A key issue is the tension between a strong focus on cost-efficiency in the existing regulatory framework, on the one hand, and transformative change on the other.