Re-communalise Electricity Distribution Grids

Wuppertal Report No. 14 published

  • News 19.12.2018

Since the mid-2000s, the majority of concession contracts for local electricity distribution networks in Germany have expired. This opened up the possibility for municipalities in many places to recommunalise their electricity distribution grids, which had previously been privately owned. In view of the energy turnaround and the associated conversion of the German energy landscape to decentralised supply structures, local authorities were thus given the opportunity to play an active role in the implementation of the federal government's energy policy goals at local level. 

An exploratory study carried out in 2013 by the Wuppertal Institute recorded numerous new municipal utilities for the period 2005 to 2016, which indicated a trend towards re-municipalisation in the field of energy supply. In addition, institutions such as the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) and the Association of Municipal Enterprises (Verband kommunaler Unternehmen e.V., VKU) are also trying to make a name for themselves. VKU have been trying for years to provide an overview of the development of recommunalisation. The advantages and potentials of re-municipalisation are discussed in the specialist literature. However, there are no official figures on how many municipalities have actually taken the path of re-municipalisation and are once again responsible for operating the electricity and distribution grids. 

Therefore, Sascha Heil examined in the context of his master thesis how many local power distribution grids, which were previously operated by private distribution grid operators, were taken over in the period from 2005 to 2016 already existing and/or newly founded city and/or municipality works. He carried out the study on a nationwide basis for the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The aim of the work was also to discuss the importance of acquiring concessions for local electricity distribution grids and their associated operation for municipal energy supply companies. His master thesis entitled "The municipal design task of a sustainable energy system transformation - Investigation of the concession awards for local electricity distribution networks in the period 2005-2016 using the example of NRW" was supervised by the Wuppertal Institute and Dr.-Ing. Mathias Kaiser, working at the Faculty of Spatial Planning at the Technical University of Dortmund. Sascha Heil worked out which challenges, success factors and obstacles accompany the municipal power grid takeovers. Against the background of the energy turnaround and the associated necessity to convert the German energy landscape to decentralized supply structures, the results of the Sascha Heil study show that the municipal economy is opening up new design possibilities in the field of the energy industry through recommunalized local electricity distribution networks. 

"Wuppertaler Studienarbeiten zur nachhaltigen Entwicklung" is a series which publishes scientific diploma and master theses. The theses have been supervised by the Wuppertal Institute in cooperation with the respective universities, accepted by the universities and given an excellent mark. The thesis No. 14 by Sascha Heil is available under the link below.


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