The role of local players in energy transition

In France, inter-communal structures (“intercommunalities”) have acquired responsibilities regarding the fight against global warming.  For the largest of these, the responsible players are obliged to draft a climate plan.   How can the different players in civil society support the actions of these inter-communal structures?

The 2018 FTE Energy Transition Forum (Forum de la Transition Energétique), hosted by the French newspaper Les Echos, brought together representatives of the local civil society involved in energy transition, including companies (ENEDIS), territorial collectivities of France (the Paris region and Greater Lyon), energy syndicates (SyDev) and individual citizens (Jean-Baptiste Blondel). This made for an ideal “cocktail” to understand how energy transition is underpinned at the local level and get a better insight into future local energy trends.

The region’s role as leader

Vice-Chairman of the Paris region Jean-Philippe Dugoin-Clément, began by calling attention to the specific situation of his region, in that it is a world metropolis with wide disparities within his territory (Inner-Paris, as well as densely and sparsely populated zones).  The new Paris Climate Plan is currently being drafter and should notably be based on two strategic axes:  energy saving and the reduction of energy imports.  However, the role of the region is to be the leader, not the customer! Its role is therefore shared between supporting the common goals of the federation of local authorities and lobbying with the high state authorities.

The disparity between major cities’ positions

Not all French cities choose to assume the same role.  Contrary to the situation in the Paris region, Greater Lyon plays a major role with expertise in the gas and electricity networks, etc… This observation was shared by all of the round table participants!  Vice-Chairman of the Greater Lyon area, Roland Crimier explained that the right level of energy transition in the Rhône-Alpes region is determined by the Metropolis of Lyon which brings together energy management and the necessary skills.  Mr. Crimier also took this opportunity to reiterate the major axes of the Climate Plan voted in 2012, namely soft mobility and Ecorenov actions (relative to low-energy consumption renovation of existing buildings).

The 3rd players: the energy syndicates

Energy syndicates play a technical role (engineering and maintenance capacity) and provide skills that can serve regions and major cities alike.  Nevertheless, it is impossible to generalize the role of the syndicates.  In Greater Lyon, for example, the local energy syndicate, SIGERLy (Syndicat de gestion des énergies de la région lyonnaise) has been integrated into the Metropolis of Lyon.   Conversely, the energy syndicates in the Paris and Vendée regions play a role that makes them key energy transition players despite the obvious difference between the two territories.  These syndicates coordinate and unify the different public and private players in their territories so as to ensure consistency in the actions carried out, while respecting the specific requirements of each player.  In their role as experts they then lend their knowledge and expertise to help the inter-communal structures draw up their respective Climate Plans.  In addition, as initiators with a vision, they drive initiatives and uphold convictions. Vice-Chairwoman of SyDEV (Syndicat Départemental d’Energie et d’Equipement de la Vendée), Isabelle Doat explained that the energy syndicate has carried out a certain number of clean-energy transition actions (energy efficiency of buildings, development of electric cars and renewable energies, as well as the Vendée department’s Smart Grid project, etc.).

Companies lending support to territorial collectivities

In this context, and with the advent of the LINKY smart meter, ENEDIS has been entrusted to manage public electricity distribution data and share it with the territorial collectivities.  Accessibility to, and control of these data, are key assets in the drafting and monitoring of Climate Plans.  For example, in Brest, data control made it possible to identify high energy-consuming buildings and to provide for renovation plans accordingly.

How to place citizens back at the core of energy transition

Nicolas Hulot opened the 2018 Forum by reiterating his belief in the energy transition of the 21^st century¹, referring to it as a “great democratic moment”.  Nevertheless, it is clear that the French still seem little concerned by energy issues and only slightly understand the subject.  Senior Manager at Wavestone, Jean Baptiste Blondel, took advantage of the round table to propose three levers that could be used to place the citizen at the heart of energy transition.

Firstly, the installation of smart meters and connected objects in homes will allow citizens to control their electricity consumption and enable suppliers to provide new residential energy management solutions.  Secondly, in addition to being a clear transition driver towards renewable energies, self-consumption helps raise citizen awareness of energy efficiency.  Jean Baptiste Blondel emphasized very pragmatically that: “When we produce ourselves what we consume, there is no waste”.  Finally, the advent of local energy cooperatives run by citizens in partnership with local authorities is paving the way for new modes of decentralized energy production, complementary with the current model.  The surge in crowd-funding is a first step towards this type of locally financed production.

The round-table concluded with all of the participants recognizing that each territory has its own specific characteristics, constraints, history, and distribution of responsibilities. Nevertheless, they all express a common desire to co-construct so that they can collectively face the energy transition challenges. This objective can only be achieved if citizens are given a central role to play in the energy transition process.

[This study was realized with the help of Thomas Duvinage and Sylvain Masserot]

Find the summary made by les Echos here

You can also check out our article on the EnergyStream blog: Discours d’ouverture de N. Hulot à l’édition 2018 du Forum de la Transition Energétique