In the transition to a state of net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, citizens are supposed to play a much larger role, including as self-consumers and participants in energy communities. As a result of this increasingly participatory role of citizens in the energy system the new concept of energy citizenship has emerged in the recent years. Around this term, we can also find emerging trends/ patterns that can relate to: (i.) the active participation in the energy market, such as the concept of prosumerism, smart technologies, etc., (ii.) behavioral attributes of citizens, (iii.) individual lifestyle changes, (iv.) collective initiatives and expressions of energy citizenship, and (v.) political activities. This report identifies the following trends/ patterns:
- Prosumerism;
- Formation of energy communities;
- Establishment of eco-villages;
- Lifestyle changes;
- Energy efficiency measures;
- Citizens’ behavior;
- Preferences towards RES;
- Participation in energy transition movements;
- Participation in energy sector planning and decision-making.
Moreover, energy system modeling has been playing an increasingly important role over the past 30 years in providing useful and measurable insights about energy policies. However, energy citizenship aspects, such as the ones listed above, are still underrepresented in these models. In particular, most models take a technoeconomic approach, which limits their ability for including social aspects and dynamics, such as policy preferences and social acceptance.
In this context, a parallel process of documenting the energy models that are employed in the Horizon 2020 project “ENCLUDE”, namely ATOM, DREEM, and IMAGE, entailed the detailed documentation of the current state of the three models (e.g., capabilities and limitations, input and output variables and technical characteristics, etc.). More importantly, this process enabled the specification of how the models already address some of the aforementioned trends/ patterns, such as prosumerism and behavioral aspects of citizens, and what areas of further development are necessary to address the rest of them. Finally, the various interface protocols for the soft-linking of the models are developed and presented, concerning the data transfer and “communication” between the models.