IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v108y2017icp201-211.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unequal resilience: The duration of electricity outages

Author

Listed:
  • Liévanos, Raoul S.
  • Horne, Christine

Abstract

The resilience of social, biophysical, and technological systems is of increasing scholarly and practical import. Guided by scholarship on disaster resilience, environmental inequality, and urban service inequality, we advance the study of “unequal resilience” in a critical infrastructure – the electric grid. We analyze inequality in electricity outage duration at the census block group level using data from the U.S. Census, the U.S. Geological Survey, and a U.S. electrical utility's database of power outages from 2002 to 2004. Our intersectional approach identifies a factor variable of American Indian disadvantage as a correlate of average outage duration – suggesting possible support for an institutional bias hypothesis. However, spatial error regression models demonstrate that unequal resilience within our study area is most consistently explained by proximity to priority assets (i.e., hospitals), average downstream customers affected by outages, and environmental conditions (i.e., the seasonality of outages). These results are consistent with existing research on utilities' response to power outages, and more broadly with the bureaucratic decision rules perspective on service inequalities. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research and energy policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Liévanos, Raoul S. & Horne, Christine, 2017. "Unequal resilience: The duration of electricity outages," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 201-211.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:108:y:2017:i:c:p:201-211
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2017.05.058
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142151730349X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.05.058?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francis, Royce & Bekera, Behailu, 2014. "A metric and frameworks for resilience analysis of engineered and infrastructure systems," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 90-103.
    2. Jonathan Silver, 2015. "Disrupted Infrastructures: An Urban Political Ecology of Interrupted Electricity in Accra," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 984-1003, September.
    3. Boyle, John & Jacobs, David, 1982. "The Intracity Distribution of Services: A Multivariate Analysis," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 76(2), pages 371-379, June.
    4. Stram, Bruce N., 2016. "Key challenges to expanding renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 728-734.
    5. Perez, Richard & Zweibel, Ken & Hoff, Thomas E., 2011. "Solar power generation in the US: Too expensive, or a bargain?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 7290-7297.
    6. Heffron, Raphael J. & McCauley, Darren & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2015. "Resolving society's energy trilemma through the Energy Justice Metric," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 168-176.
    7. Lutzenhiser, Loren & Shove, Elizabeth, 1999. "Contracting knowledge: the organizational limits to interdisciplinary energy efficiency research and development in the US and the UK," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 217-227, April.
    8. Anthony G. Murray & Bradford F. Mills, 2014. "The Impact Of Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program Participation On Household Energy Insecurity," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 32(4), pages 811-825, October.
    9. Walker, Gordon & Day, Rosie, 2012. "Fuel poverty as injustice: Integrating distribution, recognition and procedure in the struggle for affordable warmth," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 69-75.
    10. Brookshire, Daniel & Kaza, Nikhil, 2013. "Planning for seven generations: Energy planning of American Indian tribes," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1506-1514.
    11. Ghanem, Dana Abi & Mander, Sarah & Gough, Clair, 2016. "“I think we need to get a better generator”: Household resilience to disruption to power supply during storm events," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 171-180.
    12. Reames, Tony Gerard, 2016. "Targeting energy justice: Exploring spatial, racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in urban residential heating energy efficiency," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 549-558.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mehmet Baran Ulak & Ayberk Kocatepe & Lalitha Madhavi Konila Sriram & Eren Erman Ozguven & Reza Arghandeh, 2018. "Assessment of the hurricane-induced power outages from a demographic, socioeconomic, and transportation perspective," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 92(3), pages 1489-1508, July.
    2. Paul Nduhuura & Matthias Garschagen & Abdellatif Zerga, 2020. "Mapping and Spatial Analysis of Electricity Load Shedding Experiences: A Case Study of Communities in Accra, Ghana," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-26, August.
    3. Jaime Pilatásig & Diego Carrión & Manuel Jaramillo, 2022. "Resilience Maximization in Electrical Power Systems through Switching of Power Transmission Lines," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-15, November.
    4. Elizabeth L. Budd & Raoul S. Liévanos & Brigette Amidon, 2020. "Open Campus Policies: How Built, Food, Social, and Organizational Environments Matter for Oregon’s Public High School Students’ Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-19, January.
    5. Csereklyei, Zsuzsanna & Qu, Songze & Ancev, Tihomir, 2021. "Are electricity system outages and the generation mix related? Evidence from NSW, Australia," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    6. Katerina Vichova & Martin Hromada & Martin Dzermansky & Lukas Snopek & Robert Pekaj, 2022. "Solving Power Outages in Healthcare Facilities: Algorithmisation and Assessment of Preparedness," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Dmitry Borisoglebsky & Liz Varga, 2019. "A Resilience Toolbox and Research Design for Black Sky Hazards to Power Grids," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2019, pages 1-15, June.
    8. Diana Mitsova & Ann-Margaret Esnard & Alka Sapat & Betty S. Lai, 2018. "Socioeconomic vulnerability and electric power restoration timelines in Florida: the case of Hurricane Irma," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 94(2), pages 689-709, November.
    9. Loni, Abdolah & Asadi, Somayeh, 2024. "A data-driven approach to quantify social vulnerability to power outages: California case study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 359(C).
    10. Chalaye, Pierrick & Sturmberg, Bjorn & Ransan-Cooper, Hedda & Lucas-Healey, Kathryn & Russell, A. Wendy & Hendriks, Johannes & Hansen, Paula & O'Neill, Matthew & Crowfoot, Warwick & Shorten, Phil, 2023. "Does site selection need to be democratized? A case study of grid-tied microgrids in Australia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    11. Sarid, Adi S. & Glynn, Peter W. & Tzur, Michal, 2024. "Power distribution in developing countries — Planning for effectiveness and equity," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    12. Farhad Billimoria & Filiberto Fele & Iacopo Savelli & Thomas Morstyn & Malcolm McCulloch, 2023. "An Insurance Paradigm for Improving Power System Resilience via Distributed Investment," Papers 2302.01456, arXiv.org.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lacey-Barnacle, M. & Bird, C.M., 2018. "Intermediating energy justice? The role of intermediaries in the civic energy sector in a time of austerity," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 71-81.
    2. Baik, Sosung & Hines, Jeffrey F. & Sim, Jaeung, 2023. "Racial disparities in the energy burden beyond socio-economic inequality," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    3. Gordon, Joel A. & Balta-Ozkan, Nazmiye & Nabavi, Seyed Ali, 2022. "Homes of the future: Unpacking public perceptions to power the domestic hydrogen transition," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    4. Lee, Heerae & Shon, Huijoo, 2024. "Spatial and temporal patterns of energy aid and poverty in four African countries: Focusing on distributive and recognition justice," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    5. Moore, David & Webb, Amanda L., 2022. "Evaluating energy burden at the urban scale: A spatial regression approach in Cincinnati, Ohio," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    6. Helmke-Long, Laura & Carley, Sanya & Konisky, David M., 2022. "Municipal government adaptive capacity programs for vulnerable populations during the U.S. energy transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    7. Graff, Michelle & Pirog, Maureen, 2019. "Red tape is not so hot: Asset tests impact participation in the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 749-764.
    8. Jenkins, Kirsten & McCauley, Darren & Warren, Charles R., 2017. "Attributing responsibility for energy justice: A case study of the Hinkley Point Nuclear Complex," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 836-843.
    9. Healy, Noel & Barry, John, 2017. "Politicizing energy justice and energy system transitions: Fossil fuel divestment and a “just transition”," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 451-459.
    10. Sinha, Avik & Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Zafar, Wasif & Saleem, Muhammad Mansoor, 2021. "Analyzing Global Inequality in Access to Energy: Developing Policy Framework by Inequality Decomposition," MPRA Paper 111061, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2021.
    11. LaBelle, Michael Carnegie, 2017. "In pursuit of energy justice," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 615-620.
    12. Menghwani, Vikas & Zerriffi, Hisham & Korkovelos, Alexandros & Khavari, Babak & Sahlberg, Andreas & Howells, Mark & Mentis, Dimitris, 2020. "Planning with justice: Using spatial modelling to incorporate justice in electricity pricing – The case of Tanzania," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    13. Buylova, Alexandra, 2020. "Spotlight on energy efficiency in Oregon: Investigating dynamics between energy use and socio-demographic characteristics in spatial modeling of residential energy consumption," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    14. Primc, Kaja & Slabe-Erker, Renata & Majcen, Boris, 2019. "Constructing energy poverty profiles for an effective energy policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 727-734.
    15. Sunikka-Blank, Minna & Galvin, Ray, 2021. "Single parents in cold homes in Europe: How intersecting personal and national characteristics drive up the numbers of these vulnerable households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    16. de Wildt, Tristan E. & Chappin, Emile J.L. & van de Kaa, Geerten & Herder, Paulien M., 2018. "A comprehensive approach to reviewing latent topics addressed by literature across multiple disciplines," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 2111-2128.
    17. McCauley, Darren & Brown, Antje & Rehner, Robert & Heffron, Raphael & van de Graaff, Shashi, 2018. "Energy justice and policy change: An historical political analysis of the German nuclear phase-out," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 317-323.
    18. Muinzer, Thomas L., 2020. "Conceptualising the Energy Constitution: Lessons from Northern Ireland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    19. Felipe Encinas & Ricardo Truffello & Carlos Aguirre-Nuñez & Isidro Puig & Francisco Vergara-Perucich & Carmen Freed & Blanca Rodríguez, 2022. "Mapping Energy Poverty: How Much Impact Do Socioeconomic, Urban and Climatic Variables Have at a Territorial Scale?," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-21, September.
    20. Márcio das Chagas Moura & Helder Henrique Lima Diniz & Enrique López Droguett & Beatriz Sales da Cunha & Isis Didier Lins & Vicente Ribeiro Simoni, 2017. "Embedding resilience in the design of the electricity supply for industrial clients," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(11), pages 1-33, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:108:y:2017:i:c:p:201-211. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.