Centralisation or decentralisation? Policy narratives for the future European energy system

To meet its long-term climate targets, the European Union (EU) has decided to move away from fossil fuels to ‘Clean energy for all’. The decarbonisation of the energy system requires fundamental changes to the way we produce, transport, store, and consume energy. While there is a wide consensus that the energy systems must be decarbonised, it is less clear how the future design of the energy system will look like: What renewable energy infrastructure do we build and where? What degree of energy independence do we aim for and at which level (continental, national, local)? What visual and landscape impacts are socially acceptable? And who will ultimately own and control the energy assets? These questions often lead to political and scientific debates around the centralisation or decentralisation of the future energy system. However, the degree of (de)centralisation of the energy system is rarely a variable in research on policy visions and measures, and the policy narratives and potential narrative changes for a centralised vs a decentralised energy system have been underinvestigated. In this paper, we conceptually build on ideas from policy narratives and socio-technical transitions, and we perform a process tracing based on policy documents and interviews, to investigate policy narratives and potential narrative changes of centralisation/ decentralisation of the electricity system in the EU and three different Member States. We expect to find different co-existing elements or features of energy system centralisation and decentralisation. The three central research questions are: How have the centralisation and decentralisation narratives in the EU changed? Why have narratives changed, or in order words, what motivates those changes at EU and national level? Are there differences in narratives and narrative changes between the EU and studied MS, and what explains those differences? To answer this research question, we, first, analysed policy strategies and legislations to identify key elements or features of dominant centralisation or decentralisation narratives, and arguments supporting a rather central or decentral energy system design in the EU and three MS (Greece, Poland, and Spain). Furthermore, we conducted interviews with different actors in the policy arena to receive their perspectives and deeper insights on the dominant policy narratives to understand how specific narratives have changed and why specific policy directions have been taken. In this talk, we will provide important insights into current policy directions and discuss potential implications for the overall energy transition in Europe.