K6ET 2075 - Energy Network Governance

Energy Transition is at the heart of political decisions at the international, national and local level ; the citizens, which are more and more aware of the impact of energy use on climate change, ask the political circles, from the global COP conferences to the city mayor, to show that they plan to do something and are able to make it happen.

European Cities, sometimes through the concept of SmartCity, want to promote, at their level, concrete actions in terms of mobility, breathability and more generally energy change.

But if it’s easy to imagine all the levers for actions as to public transportations or the place of cars in the city, it’ s much more complex to define what can be done to have an impact on energy use (electricity, gas, heating).

Cities are basically consumption areas, relying on resources coming from the global system and, speaking of electricity, from the interconnected European network ; European Cities are bound to rely on energy resources that are located outside the city, in rural areas or even abroad.

A strong characteristic of energy, stronger than in other fields, is that it cannot be taken account 100% locally ; the impact is global and decisions have to include not only the consumption areas but also the generation areas.

So the first thing is to clearly see what is the starting point of this transition, what data are available to have the full picture of the city energy needs and providers today.

Secondly, a lot of European Cities plan to be carbon neutral by 2030/2040 or 2050 ; what does it mean ? Is it realistic ? Is it relevant ? how can it be achieved ?

It’s necessary to assess to what extent they can have the power to reach that goal, what are the appropriate incentives and partnerships.

So, through the workshops, students will have the opportunity to get key figures about energy (World/Europe/France), actions carried out in Paris.

Then, as a result, students should be able to select a large city in Europe (capital of a country) and propose, through a work by groups of 4, describe the ambition of this city (usually by 2050) in terms of Energy and how it plans to do it.

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3- 4 hour workshops.

By groups of 4, the students will give at the end of the courses an analysis of the energy use of a given european city and expose relevant and realistic proposals to improve its situation in terms of Energy Transition.