Can energy utilities play a role in local political energy savings programs?

Danish municipalities are putting climate change high on the agenda with action plans and targets to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To reach these targets the municipalities need to engage citizens and the local business sector. In order to find new routes on how to engage and motivate local businesses to achieve GHG reductions, seven Danish municipalities (Copenhagen, Albertslund, Allerød, Ballerup, Herning, Kolding and Næstved) have joined forces in an EU LIFE project “Carbon 20”. A key element in the Carbon 20 project is to offer an energy screening free of charge for the participating companies. The Carbon 20 project has entered agreements with different energy consultants to provide these screenings for little or no cost - utilising a national scheme obligating the Danish energy utilities to reduce energy use among customers. However, the energy consultants are rather reluctant to offer the screening to small companies since the savings are rather limited in absolute terms. This article will focus on the appropriateness of using energy utilities (or consultants working on their behalf) in a local political context of engaging the local business sector in achieving energy savings and GHG emission reductions. It concludes that all the actors seem interested in continuing expanding the cooperation, however all also stresses that the current set-up needs to be improved to secure a clear win-win-win situation for all parties.