From Public Service to Commodity: The Demunicipalization (or Remunicipalization) of Energy Provision in Germany, Italy, France, the UK and Norway

Defining infrastructure integration: Abstract aspirations and institutional variations

“…Each state exercises legislative and political powers over its local authorities, consisting of counties (Kreise) and municipalities (Gemeinden). The majority of legislation (including European legislation) is enforced by the local authorities that exist below the Lander -about 70 to 80 per cent -making Germany's local government one of the most politically and functionally strongest in Europe (Wollmann et al, 2010b;Monstadt and Scheiner, 2014).…”

“…EnBW, one of the 'Big Four' energy firms, is almost wholly owned by municipalities and the state of Baden-Wurttemberg. RWE and E.ON both have subsidiaries holding minority interests in around 100 stadtwerke (Wollmann et al, 2010b) while only 30 per cent of the stadtwerke are wholly owned by their cities -such as in Munich and Leipzig.…”

“…Until the 1980s the electricity market in Germany was a mixture of private interests and municipal providers. The large private providers generated around 80 per cent of electricity, owned most of the long-distance high-voltage transmission grids, and distributed about 70 per cent to the end consumer (Wollmann et al 2010b). The municipalities retained ownership of the 'last-mile' of the grid -the short-distance distribution networks that connect to the end-consumer.…”

Public Services Provision in European Countries: From Public/Municipal to Private Sector — and Back to Municipal?

“…This sequence of municipal companies being asset privatized was then seen foreboding "demise of the Stadtwerke" ("Stadtwerkesterben") (see Wollmann 2002, Wollmann, Baldersheim et al 2010.…”

“…Whereas, well unto the late 1990s, the Big Four private sector energy companies made significant advances on Germany's energy market the Stadtwerke have since remarkably regained ground for a number of reasons (see Wollmann/Baldersheim et al 2010. For one, when in 2005 the EC Acceleration Directive 2003/54 was transposed by amending the Federal Energy Act, most of Germany's Stadtwerke have been exempted from the unbundling rule.…”