Metropolitan and rural areas fighting for the control of electricity networks in France. A local geopolitics approach to energy transition

Abstract

This article discusses political struggles between metropolitan and rural areas in France over the past 10 or so years, with regard to the control of public electricity distribution networks. In the context of energy transition, this infrastructure involves major stakes for local governments – stakes which are both financial (around 37 billion euros in assets, combined with several hundred million euros in royalties and various taxes) and related to public policy (planning, development of renewable energy sources and electro-mobility, smart cities, etc.). Its control is therefore a cause for many rivalries, as local authorities become more important players in the regulation of the energy sector. This paper presents these local geopolitical battles and shows how the action of metropolises is currently being obstructed by a very powerful rural lobby at local and national levels.

A TERRITORIAL PERSPECTIVE ON URBAN AND REGIONAL ENERGY TRANSITIONS: Shifting Power Densities in the Berlin‐Brandenburg Region

“…Whereas authors from all four branches of literature argue that the territorial character of these entities shapes energy transitions (e.g. Woods, 2003; Rutherford and Coutard, 2014; Gailing et al ., 2020), only Poupeau (2020) and Gailing et al . (2020) explicitly explain the analytical purpose of territoriality.…”

“…The literature on urban and regional energy transitions highlights the importance of four types of subnational territories: the city or metropolitan area (see special issues edited by Rutherford and Coutard, 2014;Rutherford and Jaglin, 2015); the energy landscape (see special issues edited by Nadaï and Van der Horst, 2010a;2010b); rural municipalities (Zografos and Martínez-Alier, 2009;Poupeau, 2020); and the region that encloses all of them (Gailing et al, 2020;Bahers et al, 2020;Poupeau, 2020).…”

“…Whereas authors from all four branches of literature argue that the territorial character of these entities shapes energy transitions (e.g. Woods, 2003;Rutherford and Coutard, 2014;Gailing et al, 2020), only Poupeau (2020) and Gailing et al (2020) explicitly explain the analytical purpose of territoriality. In the next section I offer theoretical reflections on the characteristics of the four types of territories in relation to energy transitions and, in the section thereafter, identify how the governance of these territories changes.…”

“…They distinguish ‘material elements such as land, functional elements like the control of space, and symbolic dimensions like social identity’ (Paasi, 2003: 109). More specifically, material elements refer to physical qualities of territories as well as economic activities, functional elements to political organizations and administrations, and symbolic dimensions to visual and cultural aspects (Paasi, 2003; Poupeau, 2020).…”

“…In their seminal contribution to the field, Hodson and Marvin (2010) explored the question of how and to what extent urban governance networks can shape energy transitions according to their territorial priorities. Nevertheless, the literature on urban and regional energy transitions rarely makes explicit the analytical value of territory and territoriality (exceptions include Gailing et al ., 2020; Poupeau, 2020), even though researchers regularly refer to the concepts (e.g. Hodson and Marvin, 2010; Rutherford and Coutard, 2014; Bahers et al ., 2020) and use territorial methodologies (Castán Broto, 2019: 28).…”