Empowerment in EU energy law: connecting legal and sustainability transition perspectives

The EU advances consumer empowerment as one of the pillars of energy legislation, aiming to transfer ownership of the energy transition to citizens. Rights and instruments have been introduced that offer citizens new ways of engaging with energy. However, EU energy legislation lacks a clear conceptual understanding of empowerment, which is required for crafting fit-for-purpose policy measures. We aim to provide a structured overview of current articulations of consumer empowerment in EU energy law by conducting a legislative analysis. To this end, we introduce a framework based on sustainability transitions theory that conceptualises empowerment according to four dimensions: 1) as identity-oriented or centred around resource-mobilisation, 2) more focused on autonomy or power-shift, 3) addressing the general public or specifically marginalised groups within society, and 4) more passive or more active. Application of the framework shows that EU energy legislation recognises consumer empowerment covering all four dimensions, and confirms the legislation’s ambition to provide a comprehensive empowerment agenda for citizens. Nonetheless, our findings also reveal limited reflection on the conceptual implications of such a broad empowerment agenda and the challenge of maintaining policies consistently. By drawing on insights from sustainability transitions we hope to encourage policy makers to strengthen conceptual clarity about the potential role and limitations of consumer empowerment in EU energy legislation. Conversely, we aim to raise awareness among transition scholars of the impacts of legislation on empowerment of actors in the energy transition by connecting legal and sustainability transition perspectives.