TY - JOUR
T1 - Credible and comprehensive? Comparing policy mixes for Local Energy systems in England, Scotland and Wales
AU - Wade, Faye
AU - Britton, Jess
AU - Webb, Janette
N1 - Funding Information:
In 2021 the managing organisation for the majority, 79 %, of policy instruments in England was a central government department. Some longer-term instruments, such as Salix Finance, have been overseen by non-departmental public bodies. However, central government funding was withdrawn from managing organisations like Energy Saving Trust England and Carbon Trust in 2012. Additionally, the Catapult Network was initially run by Energy Systems Catapult as a non-departmental public body; however, with reduced central government support this is now a not-for-profit company which raises funding from government grants, research & development bodies and commercial contracts. Complex management models have emerged for recent schemes. For example, there are five Net Zero Hubs in England covering multiple Local Enterprise Partnership regions. They were governed by public and private sector representatives, along with the BEIS Local Energy Team. 5 5 England also has the only instance of a policy with a private sector managing organisation: the Heat Networks Investment Project (HNIP; 2019–2022) provides loans and third party financing via Triple Point, an asset management company.
Funding Information:
The balance of instrument types in Wales stays relatively stable, moving from 0.86 to 0.85 over the analysis period; the average is the same as Scotland, but Wales draws on fewer instrument types. For example, there are no active Fiscal instruments in Wales until 2018's Non-domestic (business) Rates Support for Hydropower, and no active Public Investments until the UK Government's Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (2020–2025). There is also an increase in R,D&D and Grants and Subsidy during the period. These primarily reflect UK Government schemes, but include Welsh Government's Optimised Retrofit Programme (R,D&D; 2019 – Ongoing), Arbed (Grants and Subsidy; 2009–2021), and Ynni'r Fro (Grants and Subsidy; 2010–2015). However, Framework Policies increase from one in 2010 to nine in 2021; these are buoyed from 2015 with the Planning (Wales) Act (2015), Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act (2015), Environment (Wales) Act (2016) and, Local Renewables Ownership Target (2017). Growing use of Framework Policies may reflect increased devolved powers in the Wales Acts of 2014 and 2017.The authors would like to thank the external experts, Hywel Lloyd and Mike Colechin, who reviewed the instrument database compiled for this research, and Sterling Solutions who produced Figures 4-6 from the data the author team provided. The work was supported by UK Energy Research Centre [Grant Number EP/S029575/1].
Funding Information:
LCITP is funded through Scottish Government and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The current round of LCITP funding is due to end in 2021; it is unclear whether further funding will be allocated after this, or whether ERDF funding will be continued or replaced following the UK's departure from the European Union.
Funding Information:
Similar to England there is evidence of increasing emphasis on blending public and private sector funding sources to deliver LES. The 2017 Energy Strategy is explicit about the desire to commercialise local energy systems for private investment and the Local Energy Policy Statement (2021) re-iterates that Scottish Government is seeking to create commercially-viable solutions, and attract private investment [ 39 ]. This is supported by five policy instruments which draw on private, as well as public, investment: the Scottish National Investment Bank, the former Renewable Energy Investment Fund, 6 6 the District Heat Loan Fund, the Heat Network Partnership and the Energy Investment Fund. 7 7
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors
PY - 2024/4/1
Y1 - 2024/4/1
N2 - Integrated Local Energy Systems (LES) are being pursued internationally as a component of net zero, with additional benefits to regions and communities. This paper develops and tests a policy mixes approach to examine differential development of LES policies over 11 years in the three political jurisdictions (England, Scotland and Wales) which comprise Great Britain's (GB) single energy market. The analysis contributes to knowledge about the strengths and weaknesses of the policy mixes concept as an analytical tool for exploring divergence in devolved governments. It also considers the likely effectiveness of these policy mixes for stimulating LES developments in practice. Analysis of over 50 policy strategies and 105 policy instruments is used to evaluate the credibility of the policy mixes, ie. whether these are believable and reliable, and their comprehensiveness, ie. whether all market, system and institutional failures are addressed. The policy mix in England exhibits fluctuation and short-termism, making it the least credible. Strategies in Scotland and Wales demonstrate a more credible and ambitious policy mix for LES, including long term policies and new instruments added over time. However, limited political powers mean that the policy mixes in Scotland and Wales are less comprehensive than in England, making the realisation of LES uncertain. Further, none of the policies are designed to challenge systemic interdependencies of GB's liberalised and largely centralised energy system. This ultimately limits capacity to deliver LES and highlights the need for policy development, in GB and elsewhere, to encompass regulatory and institutional innovation to realise LES benefits.
AB - Integrated Local Energy Systems (LES) are being pursued internationally as a component of net zero, with additional benefits to regions and communities. This paper develops and tests a policy mixes approach to examine differential development of LES policies over 11 years in the three political jurisdictions (England, Scotland and Wales) which comprise Great Britain's (GB) single energy market. The analysis contributes to knowledge about the strengths and weaknesses of the policy mixes concept as an analytical tool for exploring divergence in devolved governments. It also considers the likely effectiveness of these policy mixes for stimulating LES developments in practice. Analysis of over 50 policy strategies and 105 policy instruments is used to evaluate the credibility of the policy mixes, ie. whether these are believable and reliable, and their comprehensiveness, ie. whether all market, system and institutional failures are addressed. The policy mix in England exhibits fluctuation and short-termism, making it the least credible. Strategies in Scotland and Wales demonstrate a more credible and ambitious policy mix for LES, including long term policies and new instruments added over time. However, limited political powers mean that the policy mixes in Scotland and Wales are less comprehensive than in England, making the realisation of LES uncertain. Further, none of the policies are designed to challenge systemic interdependencies of GB's liberalised and largely centralised energy system. This ultimately limits capacity to deliver LES and highlights the need for policy development, in GB and elsewhere, to encompass regulatory and institutional innovation to realise LES benefits.
KW - policy instruments
KW - local energy systems
KW - devolved government
KW - credibility
KW - comprehensiveness
U2 - 10.1016/j.erss.2024.103413
DO - 10.1016/j.erss.2024.103413
M3 - Article
SN - 2214-6296
VL - 110
SP - 1
EP - 15
JO - Energy Research & Social Science
JF - Energy Research & Social Science
M1 - 103413
ER -