A discussion about public goods and what classifying services as common pool resources, congestible public goods, or club goods means for grid planning and market design.

Lynne Kiesling joins Ahlmahz Negash, Conleigh Byers, Farhad Billimoria, and Paul Dockery to discuss the classification system used in economics to distinguish public goods from private goods and what classifying some services as common pool resources means for grid planning and market design.

Lynne Kiesling is an economist focusing on regulation, market design, and the economics of digitization and smart grid technologies in the electricity industry. She is Director of the Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics in the Center on Law, Business, and Economics, and is an Adjunct Professor in the Master of Science in Energy and Sustainability program, both at Northwestern University. She is also a Research Professor at University of Colorado Denver, a member of the External Faculty of the Santa Fe Institute, and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

In addition to her academic research, she is currently a member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Committee, has served as a member of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Smart Grid Advisory Committee, and is an emerita member of the GridWise Architecture Council. Her academic background includes a B.S. in Economics from Miami University (Ohio) and a Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University.

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05:07 - 30 seconds of theory

• Ahlmahz: Public Good
• Farhad: Common Pool Resource
• Conleigh: Club good
• Lynne: The pacing problem
• Ahlmahz: The collective action problem
• Farhad: The tragedy of the commons
• Conleigh: Induced demand
• Lynne: The Knowledge Problem

39:02 - What is and what is not a public good in the electric system

Billimoria, F., Mancarella, P. and Poudineh, R., 2022. Market and regulatory frameworks for operational security in decarbonizing electricity systems: from physics to economics. Oxford Open Energy, 1, p.oiac007.

51:06 - Is transmission a Public Good?

1:16:22 - Implications for planning and market design

1:40:06 - National Treasure, Public Good, or Excludable - a Public Power Underground game

Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, it’s work to watch!

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