We lead our lives largely unaware of the immense effort required to support them. All of us grew up inside the so-called “Grid” — actually one of many interconnected regional power grids that electrify our modern world. The physical infrastructure and the regulatory intricacies required to keep the lights on: both have grown organically, piecemeal, in complex networks that nobody seems to fully understand. And yet, we must. Compared to life 150 years ago, we are all utterly dependent on the power grid, and learning how it operates — how tiny failures cause cascading crises, and how tense webs of collaborators make decisions on the way that electricity is priced and served — matters now more than ever.

Welcome to COMPLEXITY, the official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. I’m your host, Michael Garfield, and every other week we’ll bring you with us for far-ranging conversations with our worldwide network of rigorous researchers developing new frameworks to explain the deepest mysteries of the universe.

This week on Complexity, we speak with SFI External Professor Seth Blumsack (Google Scholar page), Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics and International Affairs in EME and Director of the Center for Energy Law and Policy at Penn State. In this conversation we explore the arcane yet urgent systems that comprise the power grid and how it’s operated, reminding us that the mundane is ever a deep reservoir of questions.

If you value our research and communication efforts, please subscribe, rate and review us at Apple Podcasts, and consider making a donation — or finding other ways to engage with us — at santafe.edu/engage. You can find the complete show notes for every episode, with transcripts and links to cited works, at complexity.simplecast.com.

Thank you for listening!

Join our Facebook discussion group to meet like minds and talk about each episode.

Podcast theme music by Mitch Mignano.

Follow us on social media:
Twitter • YouTube • Facebook • Instagram • LinkedIn

Mentions and additional resources:

Topological Models and Critical Slowing down: Two Approaches to Power System Blackout Risk Analysis
by Paul Hines, Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez, & Seth Blumsack

Do topological models provide good information about electricity infrastructure vulnerability?
by Paul Hines, Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez, & Seth Blumsack

Can capacity markets be designed by democracy?
by Kyungjin Yoo & Seth Blumsack

The Political Complexity of Regional Electricity Policy Formation
by Kyungjin Yoo & Seth Blumsack

The Energy Transition in New Mexico: Insights from a Santa Fe Institute Workshop
by Seth Blumsack, Paul Hines, Cristopher Moore, and Jessika E. Trancik

EBF 483: Introduction to Electricity Markets
by Seth Blumsack

What’s behind $15,000 electricity bills in Texas?
by Seth Blumsack

RTOGov: Exploring Links Between Market Decision-Making Processes and Outcomes
by Kate Konschnik

Ensuring Consideration of the Public Interest in the Governance and Accountability of Regional Transmission Organizations
by Michael H. Dworkin & Rachel Aslin Goldwasser

Electricity governance and the Western energy imbalance market in the United States: The necessity of interorganizational collaboration
by Stephanie Lenhart, Natalie Nelson-Marsh, Elizabeth J. Wilson, & David Solan

Untangling the Wires in Electricity Market Planning, with Kate Konschnik
by Resources Radio

Matthew Jackson on Social & Economic Networks
Complexity Podcast 12

Elizabeth Hobson on Animal Dominance Hierarchies
Complexity Podcast 78

The Collective Computation of Reality in Nature and Society
Jessica Flack’s 2019 SFI Community Lecture

Tyler Marghetis on Breakdowns & Breakthroughs: Critical Transitions in Jazz & Mathematics
Complexity Podcast 67

Early-warning signals for critical transitions
by Marten Scheffer, Jordi Bascompte, William A. Brock, Victor Brovkin, Stephen R. Carpenter, Vasilis Dakos, Hermann Held, Egbert H. van Nes, Max Rietkerk & George Sugihara

Ricardo Hausmann & J. Doyne Farmer on Evolving Technologies & Market Ecologies (EPE 03)
Complexity Podcast 84

Anjali Bhatt

Tina Eliassi-Rad on Democracies as Complex Systems
Complexity Podcast 73

Mirta Galesic on Social Learning & Decision-making
Complexity Podcast 9

Jessika Trancik

Signalling architectures can prevent cancer evolution
by Leonardo Oña & Michael Lachmann

The Ethics of Autonomous Vehicles with Bryant Walker Smith
Complexity Podcast 79

Image Credit: Paul Hines