Between isolation and connectedness: understanding energy islands through the island-ness lens
Prof Yael Parag
- Start Monday 09 Mar 2026 12:30pm
- Finish Monday 09 Mar 2026 1:30pm
- Venue Oxford Martin School, Lecture Theatre
- Postcode OX2 6GG
- Register for event
Energy systems are often defined by physical boundaries and framed as either connected (interconnected grids) or isolated (energy islands), yet this binary view obscures how they actually operate and are governed. To move beyond this limitation, the concept of “island-ness” is introduced as a socio-technical analytical lens capturing varying degrees of isolation and connectedness across systems — from spacecraft, energy communities, and microgrids to geographically bounded islands and nation-states. Rather than treating islands as fixed categories, this lens shows how infrastructure design, governance arrangements, operational practices, resource dependencies, and collective perceptions combine to produce different forms of island-ness.
Prof Parag’s talk will conclude with the case of Montserrat, a Caribbean island where recognising island-ness helps clarify vulnerabilities and opportunities.