Local government and energy infrastructure: Discourses of the state in city approaches to heat networks

Ms Jessica  Britton, University of Exeter, United Kingdom

There is currently a surge of interest in the role of heat networks in energy transitions across Europe. These systems are inherently local by nature and cities are recognised as playing a central role in their role out. Existing literature has established that many of the obstacles to heat networks relate to the institutions, regulation and structure of the energy system, however little work has explored the relationship between ideas and these institutional structures.

This research explores how differing ideas about the role of the local state in energy provision are realised in UK debates regarding heat networks. A discursive institutional (DI) approach is applied in the context of the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP), to consider how institutions and discourses influence processes of change in relation to local energy infrastructure.

It is evident that cities play widely varying roles in relation to their engagement in policy, the actor constellations developing heat networks and the ownership structures they adopt; often utilising very different storylines and approaches to central government. In particular many cities are adopting discourses of local growth and the ‘failure’ of alternatives in order to create a mandate for a renewed local government role in the operation of energy infrastructure.