Struggle over Berlin energy transition: How can grassroots initiatives affect local energy policy?

International audienceThis study aims to investigate the growing influence played by grassroots initiatives on the governance of urban energy transitions in Germany. In the dual context of national energetic turn (Energiewende) and a renewal of municipal energy concession contracts, Germany experiences an upsurge of local actors in local energy governance (local authorities, municipal utilities). Among them, grassroots initiatives increasingly strive to take part in designing the future energy system. Up to now however, little is known about the emergence and impact of energy grassroots initiatives on urban energy governance. Why do citizen initiatives get involved in energy governance and how can they influence the local energy policy in an urban context?This paper focuses on Berlin electricity governance, where two grassroots initiatives have attempted to influence the local electricity policy. While the first initiative, Berliner Energietisch, aims to force Berlin local authorities to remunicipalize the energy grid and to create a public corporation for the electricity distribution, the second initiative, a citizens’ cooperative called Bürger Energie Berlin, strives to directly buy the electricity grid. Relying on a strategic analysis approach (Crozier and Friedberg, 1977; Fligstein and McAdam, 2012), this paper analyzes the specific strategies and interests of these two initiatives, and their interactions with other local actors, such as the municipal authorities or the current network operator Vattenfall. Furthermore, this paper enlightens the central role played by the energy distribution grids in the debates on contrasting local energy transitions