Does the availability of alternative energy choices lead to more environmentally friendly outcomes? The case of thermal energy communities and natural gas consumption

Individual households, responsible for 25% of total energy consumption in Europe, are crucial actors in the energy transition. Although various policies and energy choices are available for such actors (e.g., individual solar photovoltaic or community energy systems), they are usually restricted to municipal governance, and public opinion towards national energy policy is not strongly presented. This study explores and describes the influence of the availability of alternative energy choices on different levels of governance to facilitate households' energy transition. An agent-based model is conceptualised through multi-level governance, the institutional analysis and development framework and the social value theory. To also address the ongoing energy crisis, the study focuses on the Dutch thermal energy transition and the thermal energy communities as a collective action for generating, distributing, and consuming renewable thermal energy and, therefore, three layers of energy choice alternatives are provided for households: national level (i.e., sources of natural gas), municipal/ community level (i.e., collective renewable energy technologies), and individual level. The results delineated the importance of the availability of alternative energy choices in the suggested multi-level governance collective action system. Such systems consumed only 12% natural gas, while they covered their thermal demand by increasing the capacity of collective thermal energy systems (83% on average) and adopting more individual thermal energy systems (heat pump, approximately 85%). Although the performances on voluntary blackouts/ discomfort (2.7% on average) and CO₂ emissions (85% reduction approximately) were also positive, this was reflected in a significant price increase.