Study on the interests of electricity consumers

With advancement of the energy transition, demand side flexibility is increasingly important in order to integrate variable renewable energy sources into the power system while keeping the grid expansion costs at a minimum. At the same time, different trends such as prosumerism and digitisation drive changes in expectations of the power consumers and prosumers towards power suppliers and service providers. In order to better understand the role of end consumers, 50Hertz as the transmission system operator for Northern Germany, has commissioned this study.

In order to integrate the private costumers as well as those from the trade, services and commerce (TSC) sector into the power system and tap their flexibility potentials, their needs, interests, concerns and their decision-making processes must be be taken into account. The goal of this study was to collect and analyse the existing insights into these aspects, and to develop a fitting framework for characterising and systematising them. adelphi carried out a meta-study of relevant studies and data, developed a model describing the users, their interests and factors influencing their decisions, and investigated the flexibility potentials within the German market and regulatory context for the most relevant technologies. The project is anchored in 50Hertz's and Elia's Consumer Centricity Programme.