Actor Coalitions in Changing Energy Policy Landscapes: The Case of the New Renewable Energy Directive and Electricity Market Directive

In the wake of the Paris Agreement, the EU must implement policies in order to fulfil their obligations as presented in their Intended Nationally Determined Contribution and EU’s 2030 Energy and Climate Framework. The strategy set out represents a continuation of hitherto climate and energy policy, resting on three main pillars; 1) reduction of GHG emissions, 2) RES deployment and 3) energy efficiency. This paper assesses the policy process for implementing the legislation associated with the first two pillars, exemplified by renewable energy deployment in the electricity sector. Despite EU’s ratification of the Paris Agreement, the policy process is highly contentious at many levels and in a multitude of related fields. The energy transition challenges current structures both with respect to new modes of generating and distributing electricity and in terms of who controls the assets. With increasing shares of renewable energy in the system, we need to understand how this influences key policy actors with high stakes in the process. We carry out an analysis of policy actors and link policy preferences of these actors to the latest development of electricity system policies and measures on the EU level. Policy actors include a sample of 40 key lobbyist actors with a high stake in the policy process (companies, associations, NGOs), the EU MSs and EU institutions. The theoretical framework applied is the Advocacy Coalition Framework. The dependent variable is the coalitions that evolve for promoting specific targets and elements in the revised electricity legislation. Our policy analysis is characterized by taking a technical systems approach, where we consider the main components of the electricity system including generation, transmission/distribution and system operation. Data for identifying the coalitionss consists of hearing responses to two consultations set out by the European Commission. These responses are used to assess the positions of influential lobbyist actors in the policy process. The positions of MSs and EU institutions are primarily captured through interviews and a review of official policy documents. We primarily assess both actor’s perception and the policies according to two main dimensions: A) The level of ambition for RES and B) centralization versus decentralization of the electricity system. The first dimension A) serves as an indicator for the ambition of the energy transition whereas B) illustrates the direction of the transition. Despite EU’s unified negotiation position to the UNFCCC and ratification of the Paris Agreement, we expect large disagreements among the actors as to how the targets should be achieved. However, since the EU already has agreed on a renewable energy target for 2030, we expect less variation around the level of ambition for RES (A) and higher variation as to the direction of the energy system development (B). The findings are highly relevant for increasing our understanding of the politics of the energy transition.