An institutional perspective on residential battery storage systems in Germany

Abstract

The dissertation addresses the debate on sustainability transitions applying an institutional perspective and using the market for residential storage systems in Germany as an empirical case. In-depth expert interviews and more than 40 participant observation of industry associations’ events serve as empirical base for this predominantly qualitative case study. The project pursues three main research interests: • First, the research contributes to the debate on multi-system interactions. Drawing on institutional work activities to create regulative couplings, the paper proposes a framework on changing system boundaries in multi system contexts. Exploring the market for residential storage systems in Germany through the lens of this framework, the article investigates how system boundaries between the electricity and mobility systems change due to powerful incumbents leveraging their resources and engaging in institutional work in adjacent systems. While actors affiliated to the electricity system, such as electric utilities or storage manufacturers, initially were the key players, automobile companies are increasingly advancing into the electricity system by providing energy management systems, storage systems and green electricity along with electric vehicles. As regards creating regulative couplings between both systems, the findings highlight cross-sectoral networks and political advocacy carried out by established incumbents. Furthermore, particularly actors in the automotive industry are able to gain increasing access to political institutions in the electricity system and enhance intellectual and physical-material resources. • The second research interest focuses on the agentic dimension of rescaling. More concretely, the dissertation sheds light on, how and with which outcomes actors engage in socio-institutional rescaling through institutional work activities for fostering the diffusion of residential storage system in Germany and at a European level. Furthermore, the actors’ purposes and possibilities based on the scalar arrangement they are embedded in are taken into account. The findings reveal that in light of regulatory barriers for advancing business models, especially national industry associations and companies aim at socio-institutional rescaling by advocating a thorough implementation of storage friendly EU legislation as well as by spreading a positive narrative around residential storages, influencing legislative amendments and setting standards in terms of metering and communication at a European scale. By contrast, EU level agents, for example, industry associations or NGOs, are constrained by scalar structures, such as institutional semi-coherence or the expectation of reservations at a national scale. • Third, using the examples of the most relevant regulatory bodies in Germany, the BMWK and BNetzA, the dissertation introduces the concept of regulatory state capacity required for inducing regulatory changes (roles, resources, abilities), which respond to challenges unique to the acceleration phase of transitions. The findings point to the relevance of the challenges ‘whole system change’ and ‘expansion and contestation’. The former refers to the urgency of integrating residential storages into the electricity system for mitigating critical grid conditions due to expanding residential photovoltaics. In this context, learning and reflexivity resulted in a re-evaluation of storage systems. ‘Expansion and contestation’ is a cross-cutting challenge interacting with the coordination challenge of implementing EU legislation and multi-system interactions in terms of divergent interests and advocacy work arising from multiple systems. Consequently, the roles of gatekeeper and moderator as well as political abilities are highly relevant. As overarching findings, the dissertation, first, depicts a change in the configuration of relevant actors involved in inducing institutional changes, second, emphasizes the necessity to adopt a more nuanced perspective on incumbency (in the form of regulators), and, third, highlights the relevance of structural conditions for institutional work.