Explaining inclusivity in energy transitions: Local and community energy in Aotearoa New Zealand

Reviewing the impacts of community energy initiatives in New Zealand

“…Many of these trusts emphasise that reducing electricity costs as much as possible is their way of giving back to the community. This is in line with other findings stating lines companies' main goal is to provide cost efficiency and functioning of the grid with secondary community benefits (Berka et al 2020). This motive could be true for 12 of the 26 distributors that are exempt from price-path quality regulation, but perhaps less so for the remainder.…”

“…Using the commonly cited definition provided by Walker and Devine-Wright (2008) (and consists with the definition used in this paper), the study identifies operational projects in the two countries, categorising them by project type (generation, retail, distribution, efficiency or a combination of functions) as well as form (municipal, indigenous-linked, trust, cooperative, community association, joint venture). A similar study by Berka et al (2020) found 198 initiatives in New Zealand, including projects that were suspended, operational, under construction or at feasibility stage. It is evident there is a range of different CE activities currently in New Zealand, spanning many forms and functions, and based on windows of opportunity set by policy.…”

“…New Zealand is in a unique position in that approximately 80% of its electricity is sourced from renewable energy generationpredominantly hydropower (56%) and geothermal energy (18%) (Berka et al 2020). Hydropower has a history dating back to the late nineteenth century.…”

“…The literature resources therefore adequately answer the paper's first research question, namely what CE initiatives are occurring in New Zealand, but fall short of answering the second. Examining the impacts is, in fact, noted as crucial to the development of CE and is suggested as future research areas (Berka et al 2020).…”

How Smart Metering and Smart Charging may Help a Local Energy Community in Collective Self-Consumption in Presence of Electric Vehicles

“…The 2018/2001/EU renewable energy directive (RED II), as part of the European Clean Energy Package, underlined the strategic role of energy communities [1] in helping the EU in the transition to sustainable and renewable energy [2]. Energy communities are a modern reorganization of local energy systems to integrate distributed energy resources [3]; such a reorganization needs a strategic approach that has to take into account an important activity regarding social acceptability [4], to involve common people and the policy makers in building energy communities [5,6]. Showing to ordinary people how desirable being part of an energy community is, thus abandoning the position of individuals who independently manage their own distributed generation [7], is a fundamental step.…”