Harmony in policy? Stakeholder (dis)alignment in local heat planning in Germany

The fate of the energy transition hinges not only on having well-crafted policies in place but on their successful implementation as well. In some cases, such as heat planning, the implementation is highly localized and involves both public and private parties without clear hierarchies, as is typical of networked multi-stakeholder governance processes. Such processes are often characterized by difficult collective decision-making due to differing perceptions of challenges and priorities. Accordingly, mapping out the priorities and perceptual differences among stakeholders is an important prerequisite for maintaining effective governance. In this paper, we study the evaluation of challenges and success factors among municipalities and utilities in the context of heat planning in Germany, based on a survey of 267 participants. We identify an "inversion effect" when comparing the ratings of challenges and success factors: While municipalities perceive factors such as effective communication, clearly defined responsibilities and concrete measures and projects as more important than their utility counterparts, utilities see them as more challenging. We discuss the potential complications of such perceptual inversion for collective goal-setting and decision-making, and for the heat planning process more generally.