What Characterizes a System Builder? The Role of Local Energy Companies in Energy System Transformation

Jenny Palm,Magdalena Fallde

doi:10.3390/su8030256

Abstract

This article focuses on the development of sustainable energy systems in the Swedish local context and, specifically, on the actors that have proved to be crucial for such transitions: municipally owned energy companies. With the theoretical lens inspired by LTS‘s (large technical systems), the concept of the system builder was analyzed for the purpose of further understanding what characterizes the system builder—a frequently used but seldom problematized concept. This paper originates from earlier studies based on interviews and official documents. In this article, the municipal energy company and its role throughout the processes is used to illustrate how system builders act and can influence the development of energy systems. Three examples are used to illustrate how system building has been enabled through controlling the objectives and visions of the local energy planning, through enrolling the city council, and finally through recognizing the opportunity to expand the market through the coordination of systems. In this case, the system builder was characterized by the ability to act as a collective, as one unit, despite the multitude of individuals representing the organization, by the use of skills and knowledge in different policy processes, and by the ability to recognize opportunities in combining different sociotechnical systems. The need for system builders to act on expanding as well as stagnating systems is also shown.

Highlights

Local-level change is often seen as crucial to developing sustainable energy systems
What resources do system builders need? To answer this question, we consider earlier studies of a Swedish municipality, a municipality that we have previously studied from a historical perspective, that owns an energy company to understand how and why local energy systems have developed as they have
Our case study is qualitative and the case is not expected to be representative of how all energy systems develop locally; certain analytical generalizations regarding system builders are generated from the study [29,30]

Summary

Introduction

Local-level change is often seen as crucial to developing sustainable energy systems. In the energy sector in Sweden, municipalities have traditionally played key roles as suppliers of gas, electricity, and district heating to the public sector and end-use consumers (i.e. business/industry and household consumers). These systems have usually been organized in the form of municipally owned energy companies. TVAB is subject to ordinary legislation governing private limited companies It has a board of directors, appointed by the municipality proportional to the number of members elected from various political parties, responsible for day-to-day operations. Once the directors assume their board seats, they no longer represent their political parties but rather the company and must act in the company’s best interests—a fact that often results in conflicts of interest and values [3,36,37]

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Conclusion