The Incumbents' Conservation Strategies in the German Energy Regime as an Impediment to Re-Municipalisation

After two decades of privatisation and outsourcing being the dominant trends across public services, an inclination towards founding new municipal power utilities can be observed. In this article, the authors Kurt Berlo, Oliver Wagner (both Wuppertal Institute) and Marisa Heenen (Philipps-University of Marburg) examine the preservation strategies of the German energy regime following the transition approach developed by Geels. From the multi-level perspective, it can be stated that innovations take place in niches and have to overcome the obstacles and persistence of the conventional fossil-nuclear energy regime. Through an empirical analysis, it can be concluded that the established regime significantly delays the decentralisation process required for a transformation of energy structures. Furthermore, it is shown that municipal utilities are important key actors for the German energy transition as they function as local energy distributors and they meet a variety of requirements to promote fundamental structural change. The trend towards re-municipalisation and the re-establishment of municipal utilities reveal the desire to further strengthen the scope of local politics.

The paper "The Incumbents' Conservation Strategies in the German Energy Regime as an Impediment to Re-Municipalization - An Analysis Guided by the Multi-Level Perspective" was published in Sustainability, volume 9, issue 1, and is available for download.