Emergence of Prosumers is Reshaping the Energy Ecosystem
(Room Garuda 8, 1st Floor)
19 Sep 18
4:30 PM
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6:00 PM
Tracks:
TRACK A - Trends, Projects and Strategies
In the long electricity supply history, end users can mainly be consumers of electricity and buy electricity from utilities or retailers. But the advancement of technology and the evolution of electricity markets and associated regulation have induced some prosumers – who do not just consume electricity, but also produce electricity for self-consumption and/or sending some back to the grid. This development are not anticipated by many actors and its impact is somehow complex. In this presentation, I will discuss the drivers for the emergence of prosumers, such as the attractiveness of installing distributed generation technologies at own premises, and how regulatory settings and mechanisms could affect the rate of penetration. I will then discuss how this evolution has affected different actors and changed the dynamics of the energy system - electricity retailers, network system operators, policy markers and regulators, other consumers (but not prosumers), equipment manufacturers and engineering procurement contractor, energy asset investors and financing providers, energy service companies etc. The impact of prosumers on others are wide and convoluted, and sometimes self-catalysing. I will then discuss some latest developments in the electricity markets, such as service aggregation, peer-to-peer trading etc., that could further alter the behaviours of prosumers and other actors. Lastly, I will discuss some considerations and recommendations that actors could make if they do not want to lose out in the evolution, or in more general, how prosumers could be more fairly integrated. The aim of the presentation is to illustrate the emergence of prosumer is unavoidable and different actors need to understand the complex dynamics and be able to adapt to the change.