Emerging digital business models for energy communities

Abstract

Over the last years, the German energy transition has led to diversification and decentralization of the electricity market. Today, digitalization forms a key driver for innovation. Several established electricity suppliers and emerging start-ups have responded by offering novel business models (BMs) in “Digital Energy Communities” creating an intertwining network of actors. This analysis discusses the emergence of novel BMs and the end-users’ role in this market segment with regard to participation opportunities and provides a definition of digital energy community BMs. Out of the 106 relevant BMs in the German context, the authors selected 26 BMs with regard to actuality and representativeness. They were mapped against criteria that influence citizen engagement. Our findings suggest that 14 BMs represent emerging companies, while 12 BMs are products of established market players. Many of the novel BMs focus on providing online marketplaces. Surprisingly, only one of them allows citizens to participate in the BM financially. The findings suggest that while the digital energy community BMs provide opportunities for citizen participation in the energy transition, roles and responsibilities must be more clearly defined. Digital energy community BMs can only minorly contribute to citizen participation as citizen engagement is not fundamentally inherent in their value proposition.