Pauline Gabillet: Urban energy governance. Are local energy companies a catalyst for urban energy policies?

Both public policy and academic research are showing a growing interest in the relationship between cities and energy. This thesis examines how energy network operators contribute to the development and implementation of local energy policies, and the ability of urban policy-makers to steer them in this direction. The issue is examined through the lens of alternative energy distribution actors in France: local distribution companies (LDCs). For over a century, these companies have been responsible for the distribution and supply of electricity, and in some cases gas and heat, within the municipalities that own them. Today, they are emerging as innovative levers of action available to cities for developing urban energy policies.

Focusing on urban operators, this thesis examines the cases of GEG in Grenoble and UEM in Metz. Despite their local presence, local electricity distribution companies (ELD) have only in recent years begun to give the urban level a prominent place in their business strategies. The sectoral and centralised organisation of the public electricity service has long held back the ELDs, hindering the emergence of a specific approach to their concession areas. However, the restructuring of the economic model brought about by liberalisation is leading the ELDs to seek new sources of growth. Seizing opportunities linked to the prioritisation of energy and climate policies, they are demonstrating a high degree of adaptability and developing new strategies that place greater emphasis on their urban roots.

Having long been dominated by sectoral approaches at national level, local energy companies are now increasingly involved in the development of urban energy initiatives. However, this urban focus does not automatically make local energy companies instruments of governance for urban energy policy, which would require municipal political actors to have the capacity to take the initiative and steer the process in line with their own objectives. Through an analysis of the examples of Grenoble and Metz, we demonstrate that the emergence of energy as a local political issue is both gradual and heterogeneous, challenging a previously predominantly economic and industrial approach to the management of ELDs. However, the ongoing politicisation is hampered by the municipalities’ limited expertise in energy matters; they are only able to integrate their energy and climate concerns into the strategic management of their local enterprises to a very limited extent.

The changes are, however, far more significant at the operational level, in projects involving partnerships centred on energy issues: local climate and energy plans, responses to national and European calls for tenders, coordination of distribution networks… The analysis of the alternative regional energy model for ELDs proposed in the thesis shows that the local status of operators is not sufficient for the development of urban energy governance, which also stems from the politicisation of energy issues and the development of appropriate expertise within urban political and administrative systems.

Members of the jury

• Cyria Emelianoff, Professor at the University of Maine, ESO Le Mans (rapporteur)
• Alain Faure, Research Director at the CNRS, PACTE (rapporteur)
• Sylvy Jaglin, Professor at the University of Paris-Est, LATTS (Director)
• Dominique Lorrain, Emeritus Research Director at the CNRS, LATTS
• Jochen Monstadt, Professor, Darmstadt University of Technology
• François-Mathieu Poupeau, Research Fellow at the CNRS, LATTS (co-supervisor)
• Livier Vennin, Grand Paris Project Manager, EDF