Bridging Energy Vulnerability: The Role of Intermediaries for Just Energy Transitions and PEDs for Underprivileged Neighbourhoods

Energy vulnerability is often an overlooked challenge in the processes of energy transitions, especially in underprivileged neighbourhoods. Poor housing quality, dense urban layouts, and a high percentage of social housing may limit access to renewable energy solutions, deepening energy poverty and excluding residents from sustainability solutions. Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) are an ambitious initiative to bring the focus of energy transition to the local scale, the block or the neighbourhood level, and lead towards advanced energy autonomy and decentralisation. However, far beyond the utopian concept of PEDs, their implementation usually struggles in taking into account important contextual factors and socio-spatial realities. Their implementation in dense urban contexts is, most of the time, linked to challenges, including urban renewal with “push factors” such as gentrification, social exclusion, and the marginalization of underprivileged populations. This article serves as a working paper and a foundation for future research, aiming to expand on exploring the roles, potentials and limitations of intermediaries and other concepts with intermediary-like functions towards inclusive energy transitions. We situate our discussion within the evolving theory of intermediaries, drawing on frameworks such as the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP), Strategic Niche Management (SNM), and Transition Management (TM). We highlight how concepts like boundary objects, boundary spaces, and middle actors contribute to understanding the roles of intermediaries in energy transitions. Additionally, we present Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as an analytical lens to examine the interplay between human and non- human actors, tracing how energy systems are co-constructed. Our aim is to investigate the roles, opportunities, and challenges of intermediaries and mediating spaces, focusing on how welfare and socio-cultural institutions can adopt intermediary functions to co-produce just energy transitions. Key questions include: How can these institutions align their agendas with energy transition goals? What projects and strategies can they pursue to promote social inclusion? What potential impact could mediating spaces have in amplifying the perspectives of frequently overlooked groups? By positioning intermediaries as dynamic and adaptable actors central to the implementation of energy transitions, this paper contributes to the growing discourse on inclusive energy transitions.