Optimising shared renewable energy systems: An institutional approach

Abstract

The potential of shared renewable energy schemes to optimise outcomes for communities and the larger energy system has inspired a surge of collective action by diverse stakeholder groups. Existing evaluations of shared energy systems tend to focus on the performance of separate system components in isolation. This is at odds with the sociotechnical conceptualisation of energy systems that social energy research commonly draws on. This article posits that institutional arrangements, as the mechanisms both coordinating sociotechnical interactions and governing sharing, may offer an improved integrated understanding of optimal system performance. The Institutional Analysis and Development framework was applied to a three-part case study to identify the institutional arrangements used, and the conditions that enabled and inhibited optimal system performance. Analysis based on twenty-seven semi-structured interviews with a range of actors showed that a well-performing collective-choice process of designing the sharing arrangements is a prerequisite for optimal outcomes at the operational level. Moreover, the involvement of expert organisations for the operation of complex energy systems may lead to incentive mismatch, followed by suboptimal outcomes. The study demonstrates that institutional factors have a considerable effect on the performance of shared energy systems.