Governance design for household participation in the energy system

Governance design for household participation in the energy system

Pelka, S. (TU Delft Energy and Industry)

De Vries, Laurens (promotor)
Chappin, E.J.L. (promotor)

Delft University of Technology

2024-05-03

The potential of households to adapt their energy use to the conditions of the energy system remains largely untapped due to shortcomings in consumer governance (i.e., the organization of household energy use). A lack of price signals and services leads to uncoordinated household energy use. Various proposals exist for updating consumer governance (e.g., virtual power plants, variable tariffs, energy communities). A research gap arises from the fact that a single governance design cannot meet all household needs and that the priorities of household needs are ambiguous.

The empirical research in this dissertation demonstrates that a governance design should focus on enabling households to achieve energy cost savings, convincing them to participate by safeguarding their control needs and keeping them involved by limiting their operational burden. These priorities speak for virtual power plants as consumer governance design. If intermediaries could anticipate latent, upcoming household needs in the design, make tradeoffs transparent for households, and create dedicated points for decision-making, then they would support households in making more informed decisions and taking on an active role in the energy system.

Demand response
Transaction Cost Economics
Prosumer
Smart charging
Energy Communities
Virtual Power Plant
Dynamic tariffs
governance
Smart Meter Data
Difference-in-differences models
vignettes
Prospect Theory
Agent-based modeling

https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:4e8c2ded-bd08-452b-ac97-e6691dac228f

Institutional Repository

doctoral thesis

© 2024 S. Pelka