Energy exchange between households: What are the preferences for exchanging locally generated renewable energy in the Netherlands?

Abstract

With the increasing deployment of renewable distributed energy resources (DER), centralised electricity grids will face issues regarding the balance of supply and demand. Additionally, feeding sur-plus energy into centralised grids will become decreasingly economically attractive for households producing and consuming electricity, so-called prosumers, due to policy changes in the Nether-lands. These two developments pave the way for alternative electricity trading schemes like peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity trading where prosumers can trade surplus electricity directly with peers in a local electricity market (LEM). By conducting a survey including a discrete choice experiment (DCE) with prosumers in the Netherlands, the electricity trading preferences regarding six parameters (CO2 emissions, selling price, social connection with electricity trading partner, additional effort, improved efficiency, self-sufficiency) were elicited. Several subgroups were identified based on participants’ characteristics and compared in regard to their stated preferences. The results reveal that prosumers attach the most importance to CO2 emissions (38%) and to the additional effort in terms of time (20%) required when participating in electricity trading. The four remaining factors selling price, improved efficiency, self-sufficiency and social connection with the electricity trading partner have less impact on trading behaviour (approx. 10% each). Energy cooperative members attach less importance to economic factors compared to non-members, so do prosumers who are highly environmentally conscious and prosumers who are willing to provide surplus electricity for free. When asked directly, a majority of prosumers stated they would give surplus electricity for free (60%) or for a non-monetary compensation (76%). The findings highlight that the environmental aspect play the most important role for prosumers. Therefore, the benefits of P2P trading for the environment due to more employment of DER, efficiency improvements and reduced electrici-ty losses should be communicated when marketing a P2P electricity trading platform. The findings also give insights into important design features for P2P electricity trading platforms, such as little time investments for users and the possibility to personalise trades according to individual preferences.