par Beudels, Marie 
Président du jury Cantillon, Estelle
Promoteur Slautsky, Emmanuel
Publication Non publié, 2026-06-26
Président du jury Cantillon, Estelle
Promoteur Slautsky, Emmanuel
Publication Non publié, 2026-06-26
Thèse de doctorat
| Résumé : | This thesis examines how electricity network tariff regulation and grid infrastructure have mutually shaped one another since European electricity market liberalisation in the mid-1990s. Network tariffs are the primary financing mechanism for grid operators, yet remain under-theorised in legal scholarship with the material infrastructure largely invisible in regulatory analysis. Drawing on infrastructure studies, the thesis conceptualises the electricity grid as a socio-material infrastructure characterised by technical, social, and organisational features. It applies infrastructural inversion to make visible how infrastructural characteristics condition regulatory possibilities whilst regulation reshapes infrastructure.Through longitudinal doctrinal analysis of Belgian and European legislation, regulatory methodologies, decisions, and judicial review (1996-2025), the thesis demonstrates that electricity infrastructure and network tariff regulation evolve through recursive mutual shaping: infrastructure constrains regulatory design; regulation adapts whilst driving infrastructural change; new infrastructure enables new regulatory approaches; regulation attempts to prevent future strain. These dynamics intensify in the energy transition context, which generates new patterns of grid use, increases reverses flow directions, and renders infrastructure visible through persistent strain. Most significantly, the thesis shows that tariff regulation is transforming from a mechanism for recovering past costs into an instrument for preventing future costs through behavioural steering. This transformation raises important questions about how to balance economic efficiency, distributional equity, and democratic governance in the regulation of energy infrastructure. |
