Functional economy and district heating: Towards an innovation at the territorial level?

District heatings are an essential tool for participating in the energy transition. From this perspective, the functional economy may represent a new opportunity. But it is based on the definition and implementation of logics of cooperation between the parties to co-design, co-produce and co-evaluate the service in a multi-criteria approach. So how can district heatings be managed according to the principles of the functional economy? To answer this question, we conducted twenty interviews with key players in district heating systems and focused on the case of Lucinges to illustrate how they integrated the four pillars of the functional economy. Our research thus makes it possible to propose a new economic model that allows implementing a functional economy based on innovative territorial governance going beyond institutional actors and enlarged to users and citizens.
JEL Codes: L30, O35