Social Innovation and “Surprises” in the Electricity Grid

We are dependent on infrastructures. They are vital to our survival. We are dependent on energy and information. Most of us are not aware of the fact that these vital infrastructures function so well, which enhances dependency and thus makes us vulnerable. In this contribution we focus on the electricity grid as a vital infrastructure which is presently in transition, causing surprises. In this contribution we point out how “surprises” are an indicator for shifting patterns that signal a demise of resilience of vital infrastructures that we are dependent on. Surprises become an indicator for possible tipping points in our systems. The energy system is not a closed system but an open system. Systems thinking helps us to understand where the surprises find their origin: why and when our models of planning and control, based on simplification, no longer work and why and when the occurrence or absence of a breakdown of system resilience becomes a question of luck. Coping with challenges, indicated by the surprises, in new ways asks for innovation and creativity, especially in situations when the systems are under pressure in a complex context. We are in need of systems that can handle unpredictability. Social innovation experiments hint how these could arise on the one hand from using technology in a counterintuitive way: technologies that make it tougher to harvest value from vital infrastructures and ensure that vital infrastructures keep functioning also under unexpected circumstances. On the other hand, we need to create new organizations and co-creation alignment of (unlikely) entities that predominantly focus on the resilience of vital infrastructures, beneficial for society, to come to working solutions that can deal with unpredictability. With these two elements we point out examples of fueled creativity that will benefit us all.