Energy Communities explores core potential systemic benefits and costs in engaging consumers into communities, particularly relating to energy transition. The book evaluates the conditions under which energy communities might be regarded as customer-centered, market-driven and welfare-enhancing. The book also reviews the issue of prevalence and sustainability of energy communities and whether these features are likely to change as opportunities for distributed energy grow. Sections cover the identification of welfare considerations for citizens and for society on a local and national level, and from social, economic and ecological perspectives, while also considering different community designs and evolving business models.

Sabine Löbbe is a professor for energy economics and business administration in energy markets in the Reutlingen Energy Center for Distributed Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency at Reutlingen University, Germany. She is responsible for Sustainability in the President’s Office at the University. Her consulting company advises utilities on strategy, business and organizational development. Prior to her current position, she was Director for Strategy and Business Development at the municipal utility swb AG Bremen. She also worked at Arthur D. Little Inc. in the Energy Practice and in the regional utility VSE AG. She wrote her doctoral dissertation about marketing strategies for utilities at Saarbrücken University. In her research and teaching, she focuses on the transition of organisations towards climate neutrality, business model development based on customer preferences regarding distributed energy, as well as organisational issues for bridging the energy efficiency gap. Dr. Fereidoon Sioshansi is President of Menlo Energy Economics, a consulting firm based in San Francisco with over 35 years of experience in the electric power sector working in analysis of energy markets, specializing in the policy, regulatory, technical and environmental aspects of the electric power sector in the US and internationally. His research and professional interests are concentrated in demand and price forecasting, electricity market design, competitive pricing & bidding, integrated resource planning, energy conservation and energy efficiency, economics of global climate change, sustainability, energy security, renewable energy technologies, and comparative performance of competitive electricity markets. Dr. Sioshansi advises major utility clients and government policy makers domestically and internationally on electricity market reform, restructuring and privatization of the electric power sector. He has published numerous reports, books, book chapters and papers in peer-reviewed journals on a wide range of subjects. His professional background includes working at Southern California Edison Co. (SCE), Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), NERA, and Global Energy Decisions. He is the editor and publisher of EEnergy Informer, a monthly newsletter with international circulation. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of The Electricity Journal where he is regularly featured in the “Electricity Currents” section. Dr. Sioshansi also serves on the editorial board of Utilities Policy and is a frequent contributor to Energy Policy. Since 2006, He has edited 12 books on related topics with Elsevier. David Robinson is a consulting economist and Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. He is an academic adviser to The Brattle Group of Economic and Financial Consultants and was previously a director of NERA, where he was the co-chair of European Operations and one of the Directors of the Global Energy and Telecom Practices. He also worked at the International Energy Agency (IEA) and wrote his doctoral dissertation at the University of Oxford on the vertical disintegration of the international petroleum industry.