Local organization for promoting energy efficiency—reform of local energy advice service in Sweden

Abstract

Homeowners are identified as a group in society that could change their energy behaviour towards greater energy efficiency and use of non-fossil fuels. External local energy advisors, who provide knowledge, motivation and service, can influence their decisions and thereby increase energy efficiency and dissemination of non-fossil fuels. In Sweden, the energy advice system has recently been reformed and this paper investigates this reform and analyses its early effects. The aim is to analyse how energy advisors manage the reform and how they work as middle actors to increase energy efficiency and non-fossil fuel use among homeowners. We use the theoretical framework of middle actors in the middle-out perspective together with the theory of institutional logics to analyse the case of the energy advisor reform. This qualitative analysis contributes to the discussion of energy advisors by focusing on the relevance of organizational structures and logics for their possibilities to influence homeowners’ energy practices. The reform has introduced a governance and New Public Management logic that runs parallel with the former energy advice logic, guiding the advisors’ work practice. The results show that the reform potentially has increased the energy advisors’ ability to act as middle actors. However, there are organizational practices following the reform, which greatly constrain the advisors’ abilities as middle actors. One conclusion is that the advisors are in need of more guidance from the Energy Agency to be able to perform more successful work.