Defining energy security in the rural North—Historical and contemporary perspectives from Alaska

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the historical dimensions of energy in rural Alaska to argue that energy security in rural locations involves different considerations than in urban areas, and as such a definition of energy security needs to be downscaled to a place-based perspective, addressing individual and household needs as opposed to national issues of supply, consumption, and distribution. The definition of energy security for local communities that we propose is adapted from the food security literature: having sufficient access to energy generation or provisioning services to conduct a sustainable life. Also similar to the food security literature, the framework we propose includes four dimensions to energy security: availability, access, quality, and stability. This paper applies the proposed definition and framework to the example of rural Alaska. Alaska has an abundance of energy sources, from oil and gas to a host of renewables, however due to colonial legacies, lack of infrastructure, policies and social structure a number of communities in rural Alaska struggle with energy insecurity.

Definitions and dimensions of energy security: a literature review

“…This dimension deals with the spatial features of the energy system and its relation to energy security. Studies about energy security differ from local to global, from urban to rural, and from national to international, based on the different needs of each study . Haghighi argues that energy security is not only about internal national but also about the regional security.…”

“…Resilience had a lot of discussion in recent years . Resilience means the ability to withstand diverse disruptions without experiencing a change in the energy security baseline, an adaptive capacity, or the capacity to tolerate disturbance and continue delivering services with the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks . Yergin refers to resilience as security margin because in general a more resilient energy system results in enhancing energy security as long as other dimensions are not worsened, e.g., significant unjustified cost .…”

“…In view of the importance of the topic, there is a need for a comprehensive understanding of the term ‘energy security.’ Only few works have attempted to clarify the nature of energy security, for example, Ang et al, but most studies have been regionally focused such as Hossain et al This review article attempts to address this gap by providing an overview of energy security definitions, presenting a chronological analysis of the definitions offered, and creating a dimensionalization of energy security.…”

“…These four sections attempt to identify the gaps in previous research, and address them with novel solutions. The gaps as mentioned before are the absence of a comprehensive term for energy security, the locality of previous studies, and the selective dimensionalization of energy security. The novel approach of this review paper is to follow the definitions of energy security in a chronological way, in order to identify the dimensions considered in literature.…”

“…The years since 2010 have witnessed different approaches to formulating a definition of energy security. In the beginning of this period, researchers tried to add as many different dimensions as possible, which was a continuation of the previous trend. A feature of this approach is that the definition of energy security became longer and longer, as researchers found more dimensions worthy of consideration.…”