Abstract
New business models and digital infrastructures, in the form of ‘energy platforms’, are emerging as part of a transition towards decarbonised, decentralised, and digitised energy systems. These energy platforms offer new ways for householders to trade or exchange energy with other households or with energy system actors, but also bring along challenges. This paper examines how householders engage with potential environmental, social, and economic opportunities and risks of energy platforms. We convened two serious-game style workshops in which Dutch frontrunner householders assumed the role of platform members and were challenged to deliberate about different scenarios and issues. The workshop results, while explorative in nature, are indicative of a willingness to pursue energy system integration rather than autarky or grid defection. The idea of energy platforms as vehicles for energy justice appealed less to the householders, although the participants were moderately interested in sharing surplus renewable energy. Finally, environmental motivations were of key importance in householders’ evaluation of different platform types. This shows that in the role of energy platform members, householders can engage with both the community and the grid in new and different ways, leading to a diversity of possible outcomes for householder engagement.
Highlights
With the emergence of new renewable energy technologies at a household level, such as solar panels, smart meters, and home batteries, householders have taken on new roles in the energy system
This section reports on the general themes which emerged in householders’ discussions during workshops, in which the participants were confronted with three diverse socio-technical configurations of energy platforms: commercial, balancing, and climate platforms
The commercial platform scenario confronted participants with the concept of individual households acting as traders on energy markets to sell their renewable energy, to generate income for themselves or the community
Summary
With the emergence of new renewable energy technologies at a household level, such as solar panels, smart meters, and home batteries, householders have taken on new roles in the energy system. With the roll-out of smart meters and the introduction of smart grids, households have started to monitor their household energy consumption and production, and responding to this information by shifting their energy use in time, or taking energy-saving measures. Their involvement in so-called demand response programs makes them co-managers of the grid [2]. The term ‘prosumager’ [3,4] has been coined to refer to grid-connected households who have, next to solar panels, installed residential batteries
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