‘Pro-savers’: the role of community in energy demand reduction

Conference item

Community energy provides a space for end-users and interest groups to engage with energy consumption and production at the grassroots level. Ofen emerging out of community-led renewable energy projects, community initiatives have the capacity to address issues such as rising energy prices, fuel poverty and the desire of independence from incumbent energy utilities. Te publication of the Community Energy Strategy in January 2014 in particular marks the frst attempt to institutionalise community energy within the UK energy system. Using localised and tacit knowledge, community energy groups can be ideally placed to deal with energy consumption at the point of demand. Tis opens up opportunities for consumers to engage not only in energy generation but increasingly also in energy demand-management, thus moving from consumption over ‘prosumption’ to ‘pro-saving’. Our three case studies provide an overview of three community energy approaches that exhibit the emergence of ‘prosumption’ and the shif towards ‘pro-saving’, a concept which includes the notion of demand reduction as well as the development of innovative approaches combining distributed energy with demand reduction and demand side response. Te paper draws these examples together in order to provide an outlook for increasingly decentralised energy generation and demand-management practices along with some concrete policy recommendations.

Authors: Mari, M; Nolden, C

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: European Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
• Host title: ECEEE Summer Study proceedings 2015
• Publication date: 2015-06-06
• Acceptance date: 2015-05-20
• Event title: ECEEE 2015 Summer Study
• Event location: Club Belambra Les Criques, Presqu’île de Giens Toulon/Hyères, France
• Event website: https://www.eceee.org/events/calendar/event/eceee-summer-study-2015/
• Event start date: 2015-06-01
• Event end date: 2015-06-06
• EISSN: 1653-7025
• ISSN: 2001-7960
• EISBN: 978-91-980482-7-8
• ISBN: 978-91-980482-6-1
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR