Back to the future? An analysis of party influence on electricity grid remunicipalisation in Germany

Thorsten Reppert

Local Government Studies, 2025, vol. 51, issue 5, 1038-1064

Abstract: The literature on privatisation and nationalisation has presented conflicting results on partisan theory, echoed in studies on local public service ownership. Moreover, there is a notable quantitative research gap on Germany’s energy market, the sector most strongly affected by remunicipalisation. This study addresses this gap by investigating whether party strength impacts the remunicipalisation of local electricity grids in Germany. Using logistic regression on a novel dataset covering approximately 1,800 municipalities in the 2010s, the findings reveal that stronger left-wing or green party representation do not increase remunicipalisation likelihood. Instead, factors such as population size, the local political systems, and municipal finances play substantial roles. In doing so, it adds valuable insights on a hitherto understudied case and examines the role of partisan theory, whose application has yielded conflicting results. Electricity grids are critical infrastructure for the energy transition, with many contracts in Germany up for renewal in the early 2030s.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/03003930.2024.2424811

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