The Energiewende (energy transition) in Germany is a major challenge from a technological and socio-political perspective. Among the contested issues is whether the transition should follow a more centralised or decentralised pathway. This contribution sets out to answer the question which storylines are propagated by three discourse coalitions concerning the centralisation or decentralisation of the German electricity infrastructure. For this, the storylines are defined with a focus on four infrastructure dimensions: (1) connectivity (grid level of power plants), (2) proximity (geographical distribution of generation), (3) flexibility (technologies for balancing supply and demand), and (4) controllability (control and coordination of generation and consumption). The coalition economic efficiency emphasises cost-efficient infrastructure and tends to support centralised solutions. The second coalition, renewables first, points towards the need for a rapid uptake of renewable energies to mitigate climate change and supports centralised as well as decentralised options towards that goal. The third coalition, citizen energy, supports a decentralised approach and also highlights non-technical issues like the involvement of citizens or regional economic effects. This research shows that while technological decentralisation is taking place to a certain degree and has received significant attention in practice as well as in scientific research, the support for it in storylines by discourse coalitions is limited. While the first two coalitions connect well to the existing electricity system and the issue of mitigating climate change, proponents of decentralised approaches have difficulties implementing their views on the federal level and in policy-making processes.

该Energiewende德国（能量转换）是从技术和社会政治观点的一个重大挑战。在争论的问题中，是过渡应该遵循更集中还是分散的路径。该文稿旨在回答以下问题：三个话语联盟传播的故事情节涉及德国电力基础设施的集中化或分散化。为此，故事情节的定义着重于四个基础结构维度：（1）连接性（发电厂的电网水平），（2）邻近性（发电的地理分布），（3）灵活性（平衡供需的技术） ，以及（4）可控性（发电和消费的控制与协调）。联盟经济效率强调具有成本效益的基础架构，并倾向于支持集中式解决方案。第二个联盟，首先是可再生能源，指出需要迅速吸收可再生能源以缓解气候变化，并为实现该目标提供集中式和分散式选择。第三联盟，公民能源支持分散的方法，并强调非技术性问题，例如公民参与或区域经济影响。这项研究表明，尽管技术分权在一定程度上已经发生并且在实践和科学研究中都受到了极大的关注，但是话语联盟在故事情节中对它的支持是有限的。尽管前两个联盟与现有的电力系统以及缓解气候变化的问题紧密相连，但分散式方法的支持者在联邦一级和决策过程中难以落实其观点。