This article analyzes ‘rules of the game’ that influence decision-making concerning the introduction of smart energy systems. Smart energy systems are considered as a solution to optimize and make energy systems ‘future-proof’. Their introduction, however, is challenged by a complex multi-stakeholder configuration, and by ‘rules of the game’ (institutional conditions) which are essential for the cooperation between stakeholders but perceived to be outdated. To address this issue, the central research question in this article is: ‘which institutional conditions enable or disable decision-making processes regarding the introduction of smart energy systems in selected city district development projects?’ We conducted in-depth interviews and collected secondary data for four case studies in the Netherlands. Data were analysed, and cases were compared using the Institutional Analysis and Development framework, and the method of causal process tracing. The results reveal that only stakeholders in the position of project leader were actively pursuing the projects’ goals (position rules), legal barriers as well as path dependency of previous decisions limited the available choices (choice rules), and agreement was lacking on sharing costs and benefits (aggregation rules). As ‘rules of the game’ for decision-making continue to present a challenge for the introduction of smart energy systems, future research and policy-making should pay attention to the creation and adequate orchestration of such rules.

Due to the liberalisation of the European Union's (EU) electricity sector, stakeholders' roles and responsibilities in local energy planning and implementation are not well-defined in legislation anymore. To investigate what local energy planning and implementation processes look like in the post-liberalisation era we conduct a systematic literature review by addressing the question 'which institutional settings of local renewable energy planning and implementation in the EU's post-liberalisation area has prior empirical research identified?' For this systematic analysis we conceptualised the analytic concept 'action situation' (as developed by Elinor Ostrom), from an energy governance and energy policy perspective. The literature review was conducted in two cycles: A systematic database search and snowballing. Four clusters of search terms were used to search two databases. The selected articles were coded using Atlas.ti. Our in-depth qualitative analysis revealed the institutional arrangements used in the reported local energy planning processes were found to not be ideal for the introduction of renewable energy technologies. No type of actor group seems actively to support the realisation of renewable energy projects. Moreover, a high dependence on financial subsidies was found. These results are useful for practitioners and policy-makers as they show which possibilities and limitations stakeholders encounter in the changed level playing field of local energy planning. The article also presents propositions for future research.