Storylines of (de)centralisation: Exploring infrastructure dimensions in the German electricity system

Abstract

The Energiewende (energy transition) in Germany is a major challenge from a technological and socio-political perspective. Among the contested issues is whether the transition should follow a more centralised or decentralised pathway. This contribution sets out to answer the question which storylines are propagated by three discourse coalitions concerning the centralisation or decentralisation of the German electricity infrastructure. For this, the storylines are defined with a focus on four infrastructure dimensions: (1) connectivity (grid level of power plants), (2) proximity (geographical distribution of generation), (3) flexibility (technologies for balancing supply and demand), and (4) controllability (control and coordination of generation and consumption). The coalition economic efficiency emphasises cost-efficient infrastructure and tends to support centralised solutions. The second coalition, renewables first, points towards the need for a rapid uptake of renewable energies to mitigate climate change and supports centralised as well as decentralised options towards that goal. The third coalition, citizen energy, supports a decentralised approach and also highlights non-technical issues like the involvement of citizens or regional economic effects. This research shows that while technological decentralisation is taking place to a certain degree and has received significant attention in practice as well as in scientific research, the support for it in storylines by discourse coalitions is limited. While the first two coalitions connect well to the existing electricity system and the issue of mitigating climate change, proponents of decentralised approaches have difficulties implementing their views on the federal level and in policy-making processes.