Climate Change Leadership - the case for Electrification

Abstract: This licentiate thesis presents a new way of understanding Electric Power. The new perspective on Electric Power highlights the similarities between our banking system and our power system. The two different systems share a common abstraction. In the case of the banking system this abstraction is fully accepted. In the case of the power system this abstraction is not yet fully accepted. This thesis aims to clarify this abstraction and show the parallelism between the two systems and the two abstractions.This thesis examines what the Product Electricity really is. What is it, in reality, we sign a power contract to buy and pay for, and how is this product transferred to us? This new understanding challenges the old, physical understanding of Electric Power. Understanding the similarity between our banking system and our power system becomes important when we examine our Power Markets, and it becomes absolutely vital to understand for those investing in new power generation.In no way does this new understanding of Electric Power question or challenge the physics behind power generation and power transfer. Maxwell’s equations holds true. The laws of Ohm and Kirchhoff are still the laws by which the electrical and power system engineers must abide. But when it comes to the Product Electricity, the product traded on our Power Markets, the product that we sign power contracts to buy and pay for, there is a major difference. The new understanding challenges the old quite dramatically. It does in fact show that the old, physical perspective on the Product Electricity is flawed and has been a misconception for over a century. My primary goal in this thesis is to thoroughly explain the new perspective and by so doing clarify and dissolve the old misconception of what the Product Electricity actually is.The scientific theory of the Greenhouse Effect now has over 195 years of published peer-reviewed science.[[i]] The threat of accelerating Climate Change is a scientifically solid fact. The Paris agreement must be met. My second goal with this thesis is to make credible that an electrification of our society is a possible and viable option. The possibility of a swift energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable electricity is made more likely, and more viable, thanks to the new understanding of what Electric Power really is, because now we have the de facto choice of not consuming any fossil power.© Per Ribbing, April 2019[i] Joseph Fourier, Remarques générales sur les températures du globe terrestre et des espaces planétaires”, Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 27, 1824, p. 136-167