From Local Tool to National Platform: How TerriSTORY® Scales Local Energy Transition Through Digitalisation and Open Digital Commons

Background

Local authorities across Europe are expected to plan, monitor and report on energy transition objectives, yet many lack the data infrastructure and analytical capacity to do so effectively. TerriSTORY® was developed in 2018 by AURA-EE, the Regional Energy and Environment Agency of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, to address this challenge. It has since then progressively evolved into a shared digital platform co-developed by a consortium bringing together AURA-EE, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, the Occitanie Region, the Pays de la Loire Region, the Bretagne Region, the Corse Region, the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME) and other public partners.

The platform aggregates, visualises and models territorial energy and climate data down to the municipal scale. Today, it supports more than 11,500 users across six French regions, helping local authorities build evidence-based transition strategies, monitor their progress and comply with national and European planning requirements.

A Collaborative Digital Common

Collaboration has shaped TerriSTORY® since its creation. The platform was designed from the outset as a collective project, making the transition to open source a natural step in its development. However, the consortium deliberately waited until the software had reached sufficient technical maturity before releasing its source code. This transition was further reinforced by the growing national momentum around digital commons, notably through ADEME’s “Appel à Communs Sobriété et Résilience des Territoires” launched in 2021, which supported the emergence and development of open-source resources and digital commons contributing to the ecological transition.

TerriSTORY® is distributed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3 (AGPLv3), a strong copyleft licence requiring anyone who modifies and deploys the software to make those modifications available under the same licence while preserving attribution to the original project. Rather than allowing developments to remain proprietary, this model ensures that improvements continuously feed back into the common platform, enabling the software to evolve collectively over time.

The benefits of this approach are already visible. TerriSTORY®’s code has been reused in several initiatives, including the CERVINO project developed within the Interreg Alpine Space Programme. Other initiatives, such as GéoDip and MobiSTORY, have also reused components of the platform’s architecture, illustrating how open source facilitates the emergence of new digital services while strengthening the original common

Supporting Territorial Decision-Making

TerriSTORY® serves both territorial decision-makers and technical experts. Local authorities use the platform to access harmonised territorial indicators, monitor climate and energy objectives and communicate priorities to elected officials. Regional energy agencies and consultancies rely on it to support municipalities in developing local energy and climate strategies.

The platform covers several interconnected themes, including energy production and consumption, buildings, mobility, employment and circular economy. It also includes scenario simulation tools that have been available since the early versions of the platform. These simulations enable users to explore the consequences of different policy choices using predefined modelling assumptions and shared indicators. They provide valuable support for strategic decision-making by allowing territories to compare scenarios and assess their potential impacts before implementation.

As territorial needs evolve, the consortium is also working to find the right balance between increasingly detailed analyses and a platform that remains intuitive and accessible for non-specialist users.

Scaling Up Through Cooperation

TerriSTORY® has progressively evolved from a regional initiative into a nationally recognised platform, while preparing its expansion at European level. Initially driven by a strong regional identity, with partner regions jointly defining priorities, indicators and functionalities, the platform’s scaling highlighted the need for greater harmonisation of methodologies, indicators and support practices.

This transition was reinforced by its selection for support through the Digital and Data Investment Fund for Ecological Planning (FINDPE), backed by the National Agency for Territorial Cohesion (ANCT), the Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM) and the General Secretariat for Ecological Planning (SGPE), providing both financial resources and institutional recognition for its national rollout. A major milestone will be reached in September 2026 with the launch of the first fully national version of the platform, integrating existing functionalities at nationwide scale.

In parallel, TerriSTORY® is expanding its European dimension through projects such as PLANtoACT, where it will benefit from advanced territorial energy planning methodologies while serving as a dissemination and capacity-building tool for local and regional authorities across Europe.

Alongside these developments, the consortium is also modernising the platform’s interface and user experience. Built on the original technical foundations developed in 2018, this work aims to progressively improve ergonomics, simplify navigation and provide a more intuitive experience for both technical experts and local decision-makers.

Conclusion

TerriSTORY® demonstrates how digitalisation can strengthen local energy transition through open governance, collaborative development and shared digital infrastructure. Its evolution shows that open-source software, strong regional partnerships and progressively harmonised methodologies can transform a local initiative into a scalable national platform. More importantly, it illustrates how a digital tool can progressively evolve into a genuine digital common, continuously enriched by the contributions of its community while remaining focused on the needs of territories.