• Energy Research

In cities of the Global South, socio-technical heterogeneity in electricity provision is a reality that has partially shifted debates to the diversity of arrangements beyond the grid. Building on the case of Kingston in Jamaica, this article focuses on the relationship between the grid and such heterogeneous configurations and considers how heterogeneity transforms existing power relations. By analyzing the different strategies that actors (the government, the electricity provider, different types of consumers) have developed to address different challenges (energy transition, non-technical losses, affordability, etc.), the article shows how this heterogeneity entails a political process that reshapes possibilities and constraints for governing, and being governed by, the electricity grid. This analysis suggests taking solidarity as a central dimension when considering how to govern heterogeneous configurations, including the relationships between consumers, types of socio-technical systems and neighborhoods.

The important role of justice in energy transition technologies has been a topic of increasing interest in recent years. However, key questions remain about how inequities influence energy transition innovations (ETIs) from their design to their widespread use, which ETIs receive more funding, and who controls ETI research, prototyping and deployment. Here we propose a framework to centre justice in energy transition innovations (CJI) and examine how three tenets of justice (recognition, procedural and distributional justice) influence each level of ETI, including niche, regime and landscape levels. We examine wind energy in Mexico and multiple ETIs in Los Angeles as use cases to show how our CJI framework can help reveal the specific inequities undermining just energy transitions at crucial analytical levels of ETI in practice. Our CJI framework offers a path for promoters, practitioners and underserved communities to target the problems these groups face and create ETIs that better address their specific aspirations, needs and circumstances.