191 11 Sharing in Future Electric Energy Systems Michael Kane, Elizabeth Allen, Yutong Si, and Jennie C. Stephens 11.1 Introduction Engineering advances have been opening new possibilities for sharing electric energy. Technological and social innovations in the electric energy sector may allow consumers to become more actively engaged in producing and managing the generation, distribution, and use of their electricity, which could shift the locus of organizational decision making and control away from traditional utilities. These innovations also have potential to diversify and restructure who is included and excluded from energy sector benefits (Stephens, 2020). The transition toward a “sharing economy” in the transportation and lodging sec- tors, and in other emerging sharing economy systems, can be understood as a pro- cess of separating rights of use from the other rights of ownership for goods that had previously not been as easily divisible in this manner. For example, app-based short- term lease platforms have disrupted the lodging sector by enabling owners to create new value by more easily assigning the rights of use of their dwellings, and consum- ers now have new options of affordable unique rentals as an alternative to owning a vacation home. In the current traditional deregulated energy system, ownership of energy generation infrastructure is centralized along with allocation of rights of use. Generally, consumers did not own energy assets and had little power to consume the type (for example, traditional vs clean and renewable) or price (for example, fixed rate, time-of-use) of energy that aligned best with their economic and social motives. Sharing economy ideas combined with new technology promise to decen- tralize energy generation thus increasing ownership and opening broader markets (for example, demand response, community generation, and resilient microgrids). Sharing economy innovations in the electric grid, including community solar and energy blockchain systems, are expanding the role of assets owned by consumers. These innovations are transitioning the role of generation and management from large corporations and utilities to consumers. This restructuring has potential to democra- tize energy systems depending on how policy and regulations guide the development of a more distributed renewable-based society (Stephens, 2019). As households and https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108865630.015 Published online by Cambridge University Press