The Disruptive Potential of Energy Digitalization: A Comparative Analysis of German and French Policy-Mixes

Sammanfattning: Decarbonization, digitalization and decentralisation are the most important factors presently influencing energy systems worldwide. Of those, digitalization is understudied and often only analysed from a technological perspective. Energy digitalization could however fulfil important monitoring and operational functions, in energy systems which will likely become more complex. This paper therefore chose to analyse to what extent energy digitalisation could implement itself in ongoing energy transitions, and the extent of its disruptive potential. To investigate this question, we used Kivimaa’s and Kern’s (2016) framework on ‘motors of innovation’, which analyses sustainable policy mixes in terms of their destructive and creative potential. Germany and France were picked as case studies. The findings showed that France and Germany policy mixes are presently not suited for a wider digital transformation of their respective energy systems. These results therefore question the feasibility of such a digital transformation. Consequently, it is likely that digital tools will likely play an incremental role.