“Cooperative is an Oxymoron”: The Polycentric Energy Transition of Midwestern Electric Cooperatives to Load Management Technologies, 1940s to Present

Abstract

Since the 1940s, Minnkota Power Cooperative, Great River Energy (then United Power Association and Cooperative Power), Dairyland Power Cooperative, and East River Electric Power Cooperative in the Midwestern United States have deployed nearly 600,000 load management devices with their more-than 1.2 million member-owners. Building upon technological innovation systems theory and using case studies of the co-ops, I show the importance of intermediaries such as contractors and distribution cooperative managers in facilitating the deployment of these distributed energy resources for the co-ops. I then use common pool resource rules to highlight the intermediary functions that helped drive the common pool resource of the co-ops’ innovations. This research has implications for future decarbonized distributed energy resource deployments and the electrification of formerly fossil-fueled technologies. More widely, this study shows the potential need for appropriate levels, connectedness, and locations of polycentric governance within a far-reaching, deep, and distributed energy resource transition.