Local Energy Markets: From Concepts to Reality

Local energy markets can create new societal value by offering a variety of energy services tailored to the local context and community desire. Based on real-world experience, this chapter describes how to enable active participation of a diverse set of local system stakeholders through a novel hybrid electricity market architecture. This market is the product of an agile co-design process carried out within Project LEO (Local Energy Oxfordshire), one of three large-scale energy community demonstrator initiatives in the United Kingdom. Firstly, we discuss the underlying concepts and desired services to be provided by the market. Next, we describe the agile approach taken to trial whole-system innovation in real-world contexts, describing the end-to-end procedures, data requirements and the digital platforms that enable local energy markets to function. Finally, we discuss some of the challenges faced and provide an outlook to the future of local energy markets.