Abstract

Defining the relevant stakeholders, their motivations, and roles is one of the first building blocks required when developing local governance strategies. Energy at community and/or urban areas is made possible due to Distributed Energy Systems (DES). The motivation for transition to (DES) evolved from concern about climate change to include financial profits, resiliency requirement, and other opportunities. The new opportunities attract new stakeholders, with a different set of motivations, and require careful attention when developing local governance strategies.

Municipalities, local or common-interest energy communities, and the consumers themselves, have joined now to traditional actors as power utilities as active stakeholders in the DES market. New services through new operational models continuously emerge and opens interesting opportunities. This evolving market reach beyond the energy sector, attracting new, sometimes unexpected actors to engage with the community or urban energy system. Such new actors may include Electric Vehicles (EV) market actors, Real estate developers, Facility management companies, Data-based service companies, Large retailers, and others.

Many studies have focused on the expected changes to the technical roles and responsibilities of existing actors in the energy system due to the migration to DES. Yet, not enough attention was given to the impact on local governance and policies imposed by new stakeholders entering the market.

Local governance strategies require a comprehensive understanding of the expected new stakeholders, their motivation, and perceived future roles in the emerging DES and related markets. This research addresses this a gap in studies exploring possible future actors in the fast-changing DES market. The research identifies and maps new potential stakeholders that are expected to become active actors in the DES markets, their envisioned roles, and their motivations to engage within this domain.

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Panels of

1. Energy consumption and wellbeing

2. Policy innovations to ensure, scale and sustain action

3. Policy, finance and governance

4. Monitoring and evaluation for a wise, just and inclusive transition

5. A smart new start for sustainable communities

6. Transport and mobility

7. Policies for a green recovery in the buildings sector

8. Buildings: technologies and systems beyond energy efficiency

9. Products, appliances, ICT