Change at Last? Dimensions of Disruption in the Swedish Electricity Market

Electricity systems are changing in response to three important trends: decarbonization, decentralization, and digitalization. However, these changes have done little to disrupt unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. Consumer electricity markets are still awaiting a fourth D: disruption. Digitalization has enabled disruptive business models in many other sectors, but there are reasons to critically examine promises that connect disruption and environmental sustainability. This article compares how decarbonization, decentralization, and digitalization are invoked in promises to disrupt unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. It conceptualizes disruption as value propositions that enact alternative consumer–retailer relationships. Empirically, it examines Sweden, where initial signs of disruption are coming from new entrants in the electricity retail market, and uses the websites of electricity retailers to compare their value propositions and identify disruption inductively. The comparison shows five dimensions of disruption, where no single value proposition is disruptive along all five dimensions. This inductive approach contributes to the theorization of disruption within and outside electricity markets through two insights: (1) that a value proposition is not necessarily sustainable or disruptive as a whole and (2) that a value proposition can be disruptive in some dimensions while lagging behind incumbents in others.