Energy and communication access networks — Bridging the divide: Approaches for policy intervention

Energy and communication access networks have much in common. Both are essential infrastructures and both currently face fundamental challenges: Energy networks have to be enhanced to cope with decentralized generation of renewable energy, whereas communication networks will be upgraded to high speed broadband networks based on optical fibre. In both areas, the political stakes are high. Europe has issued a roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy by 2050. The Digital Agenda requires a high penetration with high speed broadband access by 2020. Furthermore, energy and communication access networks also share similarities in its architectures. Hence, synergetic enhancement of both networks seems to be possible but has not materialized so far. This article argues that to achieve synergies, besides entrepreneurial spirit policy intervention is required in order to promote shared infrastructure rollout as well as the creation of integrated services and smart markets.