Consumer viewpoint on a new kind of energy market

Abstract

Energy markets are currently evolving due to the rapid digitalization, increasing amount of renewable energy sources, and rapid technology development. Market actors are being forced to adapt their business models to these changes or find new business opportunities. In our earlier work, new change scenarios were identified that reflect the future business potential of Finnish companies in energy domain particularly with respect to demand flexibility, new actor roles, new consumer services and novel activities in a new kind of energy market. The purpose of this paper is to examine the energy consumer viewpoint on these new scenarios. As consumers are becoming more central actors in the energy markets via demand flexibility and new type of services, it is critical to design the solutions in a user-centric way. A consumer survey was conducted to identify consumers’ opinions and attitudes and determine their willingness to participate in the new energy market scenarios. The survey reached a large number of consumers representing a considerable portion of the Finnish population. According to the results, a half of consumers consider the forecasted scenarios as positive changes, but a lot of communication must still be done in order to win the majority support of consumers.