Heterogeneous energy infrastructures in Europe : layering and orchestrating Positive Energy Districts
(2025) In Sustainability Science- Abstract
- Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) have rapidly emerged as a dominant policy instrument in Europe to accelerate urban climate transitions. PEDs target the district scale to optimise energy system performance through a combination of technical and social interventions. These activities are driven by an engineering logic that considers energy infrastructures to be rational, integrated, and governable. In practice, PED stakeholders engage with heterogeneous infrastructure configurations that are influenced by multiple historical, political, and social specificities. In this article, we use the notion of ‘sociotechnical dispositif’ to characterise the processes of reconstituting the heterogeneous infrastructures of three PEDs in Sweden, Belgium,... (More)
- Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) have rapidly emerged as a dominant policy instrument in Europe to accelerate urban climate transitions. PEDs target the district scale to optimise energy system performance through a combination of technical and social interventions. These activities are driven by an engineering logic that considers energy infrastructures to be rational, integrated, and governable. In practice, PED stakeholders engage with heterogeneous infrastructure configurations that are influenced by multiple historical, political, and social specificities. In this article, we use the notion of ‘sociotechnical dispositif’ to characterise the processes of reconstituting the heterogeneous infrastructures of three PEDs in Sweden, Belgium, and Austria. We compare and contrast processes of layering the components in each district as well as processes of orchestrating stakeholders towards shared end goals. The findings contribute to critical infrastructure studies by revealing how European policy ambitions for energy transformation collide with heterogeneous infrastructures and by identifying the situated, contingent, and emergent characteristics of reconfiguring infrastructures at the district scale. The study of layering and orchestrating also highlights opportunities for PED stakeholders to develop and practice new forms of decentralised governance within each district that have the potential to influence broader urban transformations. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/63478442-2665-4e51-940c-9e91b77f3af4
- author
- Karvonen, Andrew LU ; Bruggeman, Dieter ; Magnusson, Dick ; Ornetzeder, Michael and Rohracher, Harald
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-04-10
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- subject
- keywords
- Positive Energy Districts, Governance, Urban transformations, Heterogeneous infrastructures, Sociotechnical dispositif
- in
- Sustainability Science
- pages
- 16 pages
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105002322711
- ISSN
- 1862-4057
- DOI
- 10.1007/s11625-025-01676-w
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 63478442-2665-4e51-940c-9e91b77f3af4
- date added to LUP
- 2025-04-12 10:56:14
- date last changed
- 2025-04-21 04:01:09
@article{63478442-2665-4e51-940c-9e91b77f3af4,
abstract = {{Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) have rapidly emerged as a dominant policy instrument in Europe to accelerate urban climate transitions. PEDs target the district scale to optimise energy system performance through a combination of technical and social interventions. These activities are driven by an engineering logic that considers energy infrastructures to be rational, integrated, and governable. In practice, PED stakeholders engage with heterogeneous infrastructure configurations that are influenced by multiple historical, political, and social specificities. In this article, we use the notion of ‘sociotechnical dispositif’ to characterise the processes of reconstituting the heterogeneous infrastructures of three PEDs in Sweden, Belgium, and Austria. We compare and contrast processes of layering the components in each district as well as processes of orchestrating stakeholders towards shared end goals. The findings contribute to critical infrastructure studies by revealing how European policy ambitions for energy transformation collide with heterogeneous infrastructures and by identifying the situated, contingent, and emergent characteristics of reconfiguring infrastructures at the district scale. The study of layering and orchestrating also highlights opportunities for PED stakeholders to develop and practice new forms of decentralised governance within each district that have the potential to influence broader urban transformations.}},
author = {{Karvonen, Andrew and Bruggeman, Dieter and Magnusson, Dick and Ornetzeder, Michael and Rohracher, Harald}},
issn = {{1862-4057}},
keywords = {{Positive Energy Districts; Governance; Urban transformations; Heterogeneous infrastructures; Sociotechnical dispositif}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{04}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{Sustainability Science}},
title = {{Heterogeneous energy infrastructures in Europe : layering and orchestrating Positive Energy Districts}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11625-025-01676-w}},
doi = {{10.1007/s11625-025-01676-w}},
year = {{2025}},
}