Heating up the debate: a distributive justice perspective on the pricing structure of heating grids in the Netherlands
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2025-12-12
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en
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This research looks into the debates around the pricing structure of heating grids through the distributive justice
tenet from the Energy Justice Framework. The aim is to explore the conflicts in the debate, explain why they
exist and make recommendations to improve the debate on the pricing structure of heating grids. The research
question is: How can the distributive justice framework help to structure, understand, and improve the debate
between stakeholders about the pricing structure of heating grids in the Netherlands? The five main conflicts in
the debates are identified with literature research and conceptualized into four main aspects with an inductive
analysis, based on a grounded-theory approach. Interviews with stakeholders are conducted and their opinions
are interpreted with political philosophical principles of distributive justice (utilitarianism, libertarianism and
egalitarianism), to unravel their underlying justice assumptions on each aspect. The results provide insight in the
alignment between stakeholder opinions and explain why the main conflicts in the debates exist.
Recommendations for praxis are given on how the distributive justice framework can help to improve the debate
around the pricing structure of heating grids.
Keywords: heating grids, pricing structure, distributive justice
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen