Territorial and institutional obduracy in regional transition: politicising the case of Flanders’ energy distribution system

Abstract

This case study unravels the ambiguous position of public energy distributor Fluvius in dealing with strategic regional transition challenges. It enriches current understandings of spatial transition dimensions and of public regime actors’ role in transitions, by unravelling the territorial and institutional embeddedness of regional energy distribution systems. We disentangle three controversies in Flemish energy distribution, centred around the spatial concepts of density, spatial selectivity and socio-spatial redistribution. This spatial lens reveals the implicit spatial logics and inherently political character of transforming regional distribution systems. We conclude that a fundamental energy transition requires more inclusive governance, and an ambitious spatial transition vision.

Financialization, dependence, and state regulation: The accumulation strategies of German energy companies in Hungary

“…The final sample contains 178 articles. The coding process relied on predefined categories which were eventually refined; keywords relating to company strategies and company finances, descriptors of wider market processes, and geographical metaphors (for a similar approach, see Juwet and Deruytter, 2021; Parker et al, 2018).…”

“…Existing literature on energy companies and public utility firms has revealed three main scales and modes of accumulation. Research has explored how corporations extract value from local households, mediated by state regulation at the national level (Becker and Naumann, 2017; Furlong, 2020b; Harrison, 2022; Juwet and Deruytter, 2021). Scholarship has analyzed also the transnational scale of value appropriation through geographically uneven development and dependent structures of global capitalism, similar to the dependencies upon which extractive industries and manufacturing value chains are built (Parker et al, 2018; Pavlínek, 2022).…”

When do circular business models resolve barriers to residential solar PV adoption?

“…A lack of governmental trust also has been identified earlier as an important barrier for solar PV adoption (Petrovich et al, 2021). In Flanders, this can be explained because of a strong increase in popular distrust after major reforms including a withdrawal of earlier promises to safeguard net metering advantages for a long period of time (De Groote et al, 2022;Juwet and Deruytter, 2021;Stam, 2018). The latter example may have caused a shift in expectations on the financial advantages of PV adoption, triggering dynamics of loss aversion (Klein and Deissenroth, 2017).…”

“…Recent policy reforms include a fading out of tradeable green current certificates and net metering, and the introduction of a prosumer tariff. The combination of these reforms, combined with political commotion resulting in the dismissal of the minister of energy in 2016, and a ruling by the Belgian Constitutional Court in 2021 that caused the Flemish Government to revoke on earlier promises, resulted in popular distrust in solar PV (De Groote et al, 2022;Juwet and Deruytter, 2021;Stam, 2018). Yet, solar energy uptake in Flanders is high, with an installed power of 691 W/capita, and 103 installations per 1000 inhabitants in August 2022 (Flemish Government, 2022).…”