One solution is so-called energy communities where the local community takes over all or parts of electricity production and distribution. Another collaborative solution is the regional power markets that are being developed in Uppsala, Stockholm and Malmö. Through interviews with participants in energy communities and power markets we analyze collaboration in the energy system, how and why actors participate (or do not participate) as well as what opportunities and obstacles there are.
The electricity system in many Swedish cities faces several challenges in the coming years. The cities are growing at the same time as the transmission network has reached its capacity limit. The energy needs of a growing population and cities with increasingly electrified functions must be met within unchanged power capacity. Available infrastructure must be used more efficiently to meet the challenges, which places great demands on the existing network but also on the fact that different actors can collaborate. Collaboration on the effect problem is so far not so researched and there is a lack of e.g. studies that analyze business models and forms of collaboration that benefit all parties involved (and not just the energy companies) or how to deal with basic trust problems between, for example, property owners and energy companies that can be an obstacle for sustainable system solutions.
The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE)
