IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v13y2020i5p1088-d327029.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Energy Transition: Democracy, Justice and Good Regulation of the Heat Market

Author

Listed:
  • Blanka Vitéz

    (Department of Law, Technology, Markets, and Society, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands)

  • Saskia Lavrijssen

    (Department of Law, Technology, Markets, and Society, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands)

Abstract

This paper discusses whether the concepts of energy democracy, energy justice and the principles of good market regulation could play a role in developing a more consistent approach towards the regulation of the energy sector. It is concluded that the principles of good regulation can provide a useful framework within which advantages and disadvantages can be weighed of regulatory choices to be made when modernizing the regulation of the energy markets. A case study of the Dutch heat market is used as an example, showing that a lot remains to be gained in terms of flexible regulation and supervision and the facilitation of citizen participation. Both energy democracy and energy justice call for this. The lack of flexibility in the current regulatory framework could lead to ineffective and disproportionate regulation, hindering a sustainable, reliable and affordable development of the heat market. A larger need for flexibility is justified because of the differences between the types of heat networks. Customized solutions regarding unbundling and third-party access, including the modernization of the heat market, also require sufficient discretionary powers for the independent regulator that do not hinder but in fact stimulate the development of the heat market. Furthermore, increased citizen-participation is important in light of energy justice and energy democracy, which are energy specific concepts that overarch the principles of good regulation in the energy sector. Both concepts are based on the awareness that the energy transition is a matter for all citizens of the European Union and should not be ignored by policymakers and independent regulators. Since it is likely that most heat consumers will remain locked in for a relatively long time in natural monopolies facilitated by older generation heat networks and a lack of alternatives, substantive citizen-participation could yield positive results regarding community engagement in heat network management and heat supply.

Suggested Citation

  • Blanka Vitéz & Saskia Lavrijssen, 2020. "The Energy Transition: Democracy, Justice and Good Regulation of the Heat Market," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-24, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:5:p:1088-:d:327029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/5/1088/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/5/1088/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heffron, Raphael J. & McCauley, Darren, 2017. "The concept of energy justice across the disciplines," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 658-667.
    2. LaBelle, Michael Carnegie, 2017. "In pursuit of energy justice," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 615-620.
    3. Marga Edens, 2017. "Public value tensions for Dutch DSOs in times of energy transition," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 18(1-2), pages 132-149, March.
    4. Lund, Henrik & Østergaard, Poul Alberg & Chang, Miguel & Werner, Sven & Svendsen, Svend & Sorknæs, Peter & Thorsen, Jan Eric & Hvelplund, Frede & Mortensen, Bent Ole Gram & Mathiesen, Brian Vad & Boje, 2018. "The status of 4th generation district heating: Research and results," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 147-159.
    5. Brange, Lisa & Englund, Jessica & Lauenburg, Patrick, 2016. "Prosumers in district heating networks – A Swedish case study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 492-500.
    6. Edens, Marga G. & Lavrijssen, Saskia A.C.M., 2019. "Balancing public values during the energy transition – How can German and Dutch DSOs safeguard sustainability?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 57-65.
    7. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Dworkin, Michael H., 2015. "Energy justice: Conceptual insights and practical applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 435-444.
    8. J.A. den Hertog, 2010. "Review of economic theories of regulation," Working Papers 10-18, Utrecht School of Economics.
    9. Yael Parag & Benjamin K. Sovacool, 2016. "Electricity market design for the prosumer era," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 1(4), pages 1-6, April.
    10. Saskia Lavrijssen & Arturo Carrillo Parra, 2017. "Radical Prosumer Innovations in the Electricity Sector and the Impact on Prosumer Regulation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-21, July.
    11. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Burke, Matthew & Baker, Lucy & Kotikalapudi, Chaitanya Kumar & Wlokas, Holle, 2017. "New frontiers and conceptual frameworks for energy justice," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 677-691.
    12. Lund, Henrik & Werner, Sven & Wiltshire, Robin & Svendsen, Svend & Thorsen, Jan Eric & Hvelplund, Frede & Mathiesen, Brian Vad, 2014. "4th Generation District Heating (4GDH)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 1-11.
    13. Buffa, Simone & Cozzini, Marco & D’Antoni, Matteo & Baratieri, Marco & Fedrizzi, Roberto, 2019. "5th generation district heating and cooling systems: A review of existing cases in Europe," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 504-522.
    14. Niesten, Eva, 2010. "Network investments and the integration of distributed generation: Regulatory recommendations for the Dutch electricity industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 4355-4362, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Barbara Kryk & Małgorzata Klaudia Guzowska, 2021. "Implementation of Climate/Energy Targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy by the EU Member States," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-18, May.
    2. Małgorzata K. Guzowska & Barbara Kryk & Dorota Michalak & Paulina Szyja, 2021. "R&D Spending in the Energy Sector and Achieving the Goal of Climate Neutrality," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-25, November.
    3. Fouladvand, Javanshir & Aranguren Rojas, Maria & Hoppe, Thomas & Ghorbani, Amineh, 2022. "Simulating thermal energy community formation: Institutional enablers outplaying technological choice," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PA).
    4. Merel Noorman & Brenda Espinosa Apráez & Saskia Lavrijssen, 2023. "AI and Energy Justice," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-16, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wirtz, Marco, 2023. "nPro: A web-based planning tool for designing district energy systems and thermal networks," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    2. Poncian, Japhace & Jose, Jim, 2019. "National resource ownership and community engagement in Tanzania's natural gas governance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    3. Wirtz, Marco & Kivilip, Lukas & Remmen, Peter & Müller, Dirk, 2020. "5th Generation District Heating: A novel design approach based on mathematical optimization," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    4. Stanislav Chicherin & Vladislav Mašatin & Andres Siirde & Anna Volkova, 2020. "Method for Assessing Heat Loss in A District Heating Network with A Focus on the State of Insulation and Actual Demand for Useful Energy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-15, September.
    5. Wheatcroft, Edward & Wynn, Henry P. & Lygnerud, Kristina & Bonvicini, Giorgio & Bonvicini, Giorgio & Lenote, Daniela, 2020. "The role of low temperature waste heat recovery in achieving 2050 goals: a policy positioning paper," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 104136, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Jayapalan, C. & Ganesh, L.S., 2019. "Environmentalists and their conflicts with Energy Justice – Concept of “Power-Environ” in the Athirappilly HEPP in Kerala," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 215-229.
    7. Nathan Wood & Katy Roelich, 2020. "Substantiating Energy Justice: Creating a Space to Understand Energy Dilemmas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-18, March.
    8. Edward Wheatcroft & Henry Wynn & Kristina Lygnerud & Giorgio Bonvicini & Daniela Leonte, 2020. "The Role of Low Temperature Waste Heat Recovery in Achieving 2050 Goals: A Policy Positioning Paper," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-19, April.
    9. David, Martin, 2018. "The role of organized publics in articulating the exnovation of fossil-fuel technologies for intra- and intergenerational energy justice in energy transitions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 339-350.
    10. Østergaard, Poul Alberg & Werner, Sven & Dyrelund, Anders & Lund, Henrik & Arabkoohsar, Ahmad & Sorknæs, Peter & Gudmundsson, Oddgeir & Thorsen, Jan Eric & Mathiesen, Brian Vad, 2022. "The four generations of district cooling - A categorization of the development in district cooling from origin to future prospect," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    11. Esther C. van der Waal & Alexandra M. Das & Tineke van der Schoor, 2020. "Participatory Experimentation with Energy Law: Digging in a ‘Regulatory Sandbox’ for Local Energy Initiatives in the Netherlands," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-21, January.
    12. Selva Calixto & Marco Cozzini & Giampaolo Manzolini, 2021. "Modelling of an Existing Neutral Temperature District Heating Network: Detailed and Approximate Approaches," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-16, January.
    13. Feenstra, Mariëlle & Özerol, Gül, 2021. "Energy justice as a search light for gender-energy nexus: Towards a conceptual framework," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    14. Pietro Catrini & Tancredi Testasecca & Alessandro Buscemi & Antonio Piacentino, 2022. "Exergoeconomics as a Cost-Accounting Method in Thermal Grids with the Presence of Renewable Energy Producers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-27, March.
    15. Lund, Henrik & Østergaard, Poul Alberg & Nielsen, Tore Bach & Werner, Sven & Thorsen, Jan Eric & Gudmundsson, Oddgeir & Arabkoohsar, Ahmad & Mathiesen, Brian Vad, 2021. "Perspectives on fourth and fifth generation district heating," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    16. Mitridati, Lesia & Kazempour, Jalal & Pinson, Pierre, 2021. "Design and game-Theoretic analysis of community-Based market mechanisms in heat and electricity systems," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    17. Edens, Marga G. & Lavrijssen, Saskia A.C.M., 2019. "Balancing public values during the energy transition – How can German and Dutch DSOs safeguard sustainability?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 57-65.
    18. Averfalk, Helge & Werner, Sven, 2020. "Economic benefits of fourth generation district heating," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    19. Alessandro Guzzini & Marco Pellegrini & Edoardo Pelliconi & Cesare Saccani, 2020. "Low Temperature District Heating: An Expert Opinion Survey," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-34, February.
    20. Reiners, Tobias & Gross, Michel & Altieri, Lisa & Wagner, Hermann-Josef & Bertsch, Valentin, 2021. "Heat pump efficiency in fifth generation ultra-low temperature district heating networks using a wastewater heat source," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:5:p:1088-:d:327029. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.