Relaunching the Italian energy transition: Are incumbent electric utilities moving from resistance to support?

Incumbents, such as major companies that dominate conventional electricity production, have traditionally been viewed as opponents of energy transition. However, recent scholarship suggests that a more nuanced understanding of their evolving role in energy systems transformation is needed. Drawing on this strand of research, as well as policy literature on business politics, organised interests and lobbying, the paper develops an original analytical framework to trace the changing strategies of these actors in the field of renewable energy policy. This framework highlights the multifaceted role incumbents play as both economic and political agents, and the various resources they can deploy to influence policy development through their business and instrumental activity. The paper applies this framework to the study of Italian renewable energy policy in the electricity sector over a two-decade period (1999–2024). It shows how the positioning of the major companies that dominate national conventional electricity production has changed over time, from resistance to support, and how they have mobilised their various resources to influence Italian renewable energy development. In particular, the paper explains the latest shift in their positioning after 2019 and reflects on the implications of this change for the recent relaunch of the Italian energy transition. This shift reveals a strategic ambivalence: while supporting renewable energy, incumbent electric utilities continue to advocate for maintaining a significant role for natural gas in the country's energy mix. • The role of incumbents in the energy transition has changed, they are no longer simply opponents of the process. • A distinction between the instrumental and business activities of incumbent electric utilities is introduced to map their changing strategies • Incumbent electric utilities have shifted their position on Italian renewable energy policy from opposition to support. • Incumbents' repositioning enhances renewable policy resilience but risks delaying gas reduction in electricity generation.