Abstract
Energy communities (ECs) play a role in the transition towards a low-carbon economy by 2050 and receive increasing attention from stakeholders within the energy sector. To foster ECs, transition management (TM) is a promising managerial approach to steer and guide the transition towards more sustainable practices. However, TM lacks a consistent methodology that addresses the criticism of the current application. To investigate what a structured and replicable TM approach for ECs can look like, this paper applies the multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA), a participative multi-criteria decision method, to a case study EC in the Netherlands involving various stakeholders. The impact of the application on power relations, the political sphere, sustainability conceptualization, guidance of transitions, and representation was analyzed. MAMCA was found useful for multi-stakeholder settings seen in potential ECs, offering a unifying methodology for the practical application of TM. In the EC setting, the added value of MAMCA within TM lies more in the social representation, insight into stakeholder viewpoints, and communication rather than in final decision-making.
Highlights
Energy communities (ECs) have been legally defined by the EuropeanCommission in 2019, the concept remains widely unknown to authorities and energy endusers, and the transposition is still in the beginning [1]
If the multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) is used as a decision-making tool and one of the scenarios received overall consensus, the needed steps for its implementation are decided upon, and the criteria serve as a reference point to measure progress
The guidance of the MAMCA process was undertaken by academics who were experienced in the MAMCA application and the usage of the software application while not having a stake in the problem setting to prevent unexperienced or incumbent stakeholders taking over the transition process
Summary
Energy communities (ECs) have been legally defined by the EuropeanCommission in 2019, the concept remains widely unknown to authorities and energy endusers, and the transposition is still in the beginning [1]. ECs can be described as integrated community energy systems, which are entities “supplying a local community with its energy requirements from high-efficiency cogeneration or trigeneration energy sources and from renewable energy technologies, coupled with innovative energy storage solutions including the EV [electric vehicles] and energy efficiency demand-side measures” [4] To foster their development the EU has published two directives, namely the Directive (EU) 2018/2001 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and the directive (EU) 2019/944 on common rules for the internal market for electricity and amending Directive 2012/27/EU, in which the legal entities of Renewable Energy Community and Citizen Energy Community are created [5,6].
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