L’opérateur territorial de la transition énergétique ou la capacité d’intermédiation au service de la transition

The energy transition takes the form of a multitude of local initiatives and local public policies. Their capacity to transform trajectories of energy production and distribution raises questions. The embedding of these actions in a multi-level governance, makes intermediation operations necessary. These operations bring together within the project a set of individuals, knowledge, norms and values which are both internal and external to the territory. We propose to define the territorial operator of the transition as an organization, coordinating different actors of the territory. It generates different kind of intermediation operations, which allow the implementation of a local energy transition path and a transition from a territorial system to an another. In a research-action partnership with CLER-Réseau, this definition was tested on 10 european experiences involved in the energy transition. We identified three forms of intermediation: the first is about mobilized knowledge to carry out the transition project. The second is about the inclusion of the innovative project into a social local history. The third relates to the creation, integration or adaption of news norms in line with transition objectives. To conclude, we observe that the territorial operator of the transition is both inside energy and territorial systems and trying to transform them in successive stages.