Governance design for household participation in the energy system

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.