ALBERT

Description: After two decades of privatization and outsourcing being the dominant trends across public services, an inclination towards founding new municipal power utilities can be observed. In this article, the authors examine the preservation strategies of the German energy regime following the transition approach developed by Geels. From the multi-level perspective, it can be stated that innovations take place in niches and have to overcome the obstacles and persistence of the conventional fossil-nuclear energy regime. Through an empirical analysis, it can be concluded that the established regime significantly delays the decentralization process required for a transformation of energy structures on local electricity grids. Furthermore, it is shown that municipal utilities (Stadtwerke) are important key actors for the German Energiewende (energy transition) as they function as local energy distributors and they meet a variety of requirements to promote fundamental structural change. The trend towards re-municipalization and the re-establishment of municipal utilities reveal the desire to further strengthen the scope of local politics.

Description: Since the majority of network concession contracts in Germany were set to expire some time between 2005 and 2016, a window of opportunity arose in which to rebuild and remunicipalise the local energy supply. As a result, 72 new local power companies were established in Germany within the space of just seven years (between early 2005 and late 2012). This paper provides an introduction to the topic of establishing municipal utilities in Germany. The findings were identified on the basis of the comprehensive screening of all newly established municipal utilities in Germany. Our analysis provides information about regional concentration, the size of municipalities, the legal forms of the newly founded municipal public utilities and the role of strategic partnerships. The key findings are that remunicipalisation is not a question of size and that knowledge gaps may be closed by entering into close strategic partnerships.

Description: The general conditions for local authorities in Germany have changed fundamentally during the last decades. Not only do municipalities compete with each other for employment, prestige and competitive advantages, they also face increasingly higher demands by their citizens, for instance in the area of climate protection. Therefore, every municipality has to consider various economic, social and ecological determinants in its decision-making processes. With respect to public buildings, an economically-oriented cost-benefit-analysis alone is not adequate due to a municipality's role as "consumer and role model". To identify measures with a broader benefit, a multicriteria analysis (MCA) has been used to analyze energy efficiency measures in public buildings for the city of Dortmund. For several years Dortmund has committed itself to implement energy efficiency measures and improve the energy performance of its building stock. Nevertheless, a benchmark analysis still shows a high energy saving potential that cannot be tapped with the existing measures and instruments. Therefore, a package of measures has been developed in close cooperation with the city of Dortmund, ranging broadly from measures of energetic retrofitting and green IT to behavioral change of building occupants. In the MCA these measures have been assessed according to ten different criteria such as innovativeness, cost effectiveness, external costs, CO2 reduction potential, local value or effort of implementation. Three different scenarios ("City as Role Model", "City as Homo Oeconomicus", "City as Climate Protector") show different municipal perspectives. The analysis has shown that the greatest benefit for municipalities, regardless of the municipal perspective, is yielded by measures such as voluntarily enhanced minimum standards for new or for energetic retrofitting of public buildings, the procurement of energy-efficient office equipment, the expansion of heat generation from renewable energies and the usage of private capital in participatory projects like "Solar&Save".

Description: On September 17, 2019, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager allowed the electricity company Eon to take over and break up RWE subsidiary Innogy under lenientconditions. But there are numerous experts who have a different opinion and argue that the EU Commission approval is a "decision of enormous importance" that will "fundamentally change the entire sector". The result of this decision is that this mega-deal creates two monolithic giants in the German energy sector with unprecedented market power. If one compares the situation with the purchase of the electricity supplier Nuon by Vattenfall in 2009, questions arise. Back then, the competition authorities forced Vattenfall to divest parts of Nuon's business in individual cities, which resulted in the supplier "lekker energie". Following this example, the competition authorities should have consistently forced Eon to sell parts of the business, such as larger distribution companies. A transaction of this magnitude should always be viewed critically in competition law. The legitimate question therefore arises as to why the German and European competition authorities (the Federal Cartel Office, the Federal Network Agency, the Monopolies Commission and the European Competition Commission) faced this deal with barely audible criticism and why they did not react with far-reaching prohibition requirements. "Competition doubts are certainly justified". Because if the two largest German energy groups completely eliminate each other's competition and completely divide up their business areas among themselves, this will have far-reaching consequences for the energy sector. Especially against the background that the energy transition in Germany has so far been characterised by decentralised structures and civic participation (especially in the case of electricity generation from renewable energies). In this paper, the authors will demonstrate what this Eon/RWE deal means for competition and the energy transition.

Description: Bad Hersfeld is a small city with about 30.000 inhabitants situated in the middle of Germany. Climate Protection has been on the political agenda in Bad Hersfeld since quite a while. In 1997 the Wuppertal Institute elaborated a first energy and CO2 balance for the city, which was updated in 2007. With the compilation of the CO2 balance it was shown that the emissions in Bad Hersfeld almost stayed at a constant level between 1997 and 2006. The result was sobering for the local authority. Although some single measures had been implemented, there was no improvement of the CO2-balance. It was concluded that a successful climate protection strategy needs a comprehensive concept comprising all sectors and a periodic monitoring. Bad Hersfeld commissioned the Wuppertal Institute to develop feasible measures to reduce the CO2 emissions drastically and instruments to overcome existing barriers. In a close cooperation with the City Council and the local municipal utility a climate protection concept was compiled that is rather ambitious for a city of this size. In consideration of the regional peculiarities12 concrete measures and 7 accompanying measures build the core of the concept with a main focus on energy efficiency (final energy), combined heat and power (CHP) and renewable energies. Another important part of the concept is a municipal support programme to develop the endogenous efficiency potentials and renewable energies in the region. Further to these planning instruments, information and networking activities are compiled as well as a variety of suggestions for a climate protection marketing (Wagner 2008). Some of these measures that were developed in an iterative and cooperative process between the responsible actors in Bad Hersfeld and the Wuppertal Institute are transferable to other cities and towns. The impeding factors in Bad Hersfeld like the user-investor dilemma, the low capital of small housing associations or the large stock of listed historical buildings, are typical for cities of this size.

Description: This article explores recent developments in the field of remunicipalisation in the German electricity market. Actually, the established socio-technical regime of the electricity market generates considerable inertia and impedes fundamental change. But regarding the energy transition (German Energiewende) a fundamental change is needed; it is essential to promote a broader range of actors and institutions to overcome the existing regime resistance. Many local policy-makers and municipalities in Germany discover chances and possibilities for local action which arise from remunicipalisation. The establishment of municipal power utilities offers the opportunity of implementing an independent energy policy at local level which is critical in creating a transformation to a sustainable energy system based on renewable energies and energy efficiency. The municipal ownership allows a strong governance towards more political influence on the local energy market but the current court decisions regarding the takeover of electricity grids taken by the former concession holder of municipal utilities (Stadtwerke) in Germany make it difficult to realise the full potential of energy policy at a local level. The requirements for a legitimate process are still very high and far too complex to be fulfilled by the local authorities without the help of specialised legal advice.

Description: After a wave of privatizations in the end of the 1990s, the electrical power supply of many municipalities in Germany has been returned into public hands. Many municipalities discover chances and possibilities for local action, which arise with remunicipalisation. The local policy-makers realize that remunicipalisation offers the opportunity of implementing an independent energy policy at local level which is critical in creating a transformation to a sustainable energy system based on energy efficiency and renewable energies. The municipal ownership allows a strong governance towards more political influence in the local energy market. In addition, there is a clear opinion of the population: 81 % of citizens surveyed say they trust their local municipal utility, compared to only 26 % who say they trust corporations (VKU-Survey, 2010). In summary, there are many good reasons for local politicians to establish their own municipal utilities. The payback for municipalities is tangible when the local utility focuses on reliably providing affordable energy rather than on increasing its returns. The new municipal power utilities stimulate competition and contribute to the renewal / restructuring of the traditional energy market. The founding of 72 municipal utilities since 2005 leads us to ask for the reasons. The study reviews the German trend towards municipal ownership of local utilities, assessing their performance based on 10 targets related to the energy transition, climate protection, and the local economic impact: 1. Achieving environmental objectives and organization of the local "Energiewende". 2. Higher local added value. 3. Harnessing tax regulations for improving municipal services. 4. Improving the income situation of the city. 5. Democratization of supply and stronger orientation towards the common good (public value). 6. Creating and protecting good jobs. 7. Acting in social responsibility in energy supply. 8. Expansion of eco-efficient energy services. 9. Harnessing customer relations and public image. 10. Materialising synergies with other sectors. Based on expert opinions, the study finds out that the likelihood of these targets being reached is "high to very high". The aim of this article is to provide a compact and basic understanding of the possible reasons for the phenomenon of remunicipalisation.

Description: More than 150 municipal utilities (so-called Stadtwerke) were established in Germany from the beginning of the millennium, bringing the total number of Stadtwerke currently established within the country to approximately 900. With responsibility for more than half of the supply of electricity, gas and heat in Germany, these Stadtwerke play a central role in the transformation of the energy sector, or Energiewende. In addition, due to their local and regional ties, Stadtwerke have a particular role to play in energy politics, the economy and across society. This article focuses on the motives behind, and grounds for, the current wave of newly established Stadtwerke. Further, it discusses the factors that were critical to the successful formation of new Stadtwerke in recent years. The results of our survey indicate that the establishment of municipal Stadtwerke is a suitable measure to implement the energy transition at the local level, whereby the concept of public value has a high level of importance for the local decision-makers. Collaboration and cooperation, as well as a resilience-oriented strategy, are important success factors for new Stadtwerke.