Local energy policy implementation – the Swedish experience

sustainability Setting the local energy policies has started in Sweden from more than 30 years. According to Swedish law, the municipali-ties are legally required to provide an Energy Plan (Munici-pal Energy Planning Act, Swedish parliament, SFS 1977:439). Based on the act, local authorities are obliged to promote the efficient use of energy in their planning and work for reliable and adequate energy supply. Moreover, every municipality must have an up to date plan for the supply, distribution and use of energy. The act is emphasizing on collaboration of the local authorities with the other municipalities and/or the other stakeholders in order to resolve the important issues on energy efficiency and energy supply. This study is focused on evaluating the effectiveness of the municipal energy policies in promoting the efficiency of local energy systems. For this purpose, the process of energy plan-ning in three energy plans of the city of Lund (1980, 1991 and 2001), as well as the achievement of the planned goals is ana-lyzed. The results indicate that the effectiveness of local energy policies has diminished over the time. It is discussed that how the local authorities can contribute in implementation of the Swedish future energy policy. The study is concluding that suf-ficient institutional measures and strategies are needed to sup-port the local and national energy policies