Incorporating Citizen and Expert Inputs into Community Microgrid Development: Insights from Focus Group Studies

• In Event: From Perception to Policy to Behavior: Governing Emerging Distributed Energy Systems

Abstract

Mobile community microgrids (MCMs) provide new opportunities to meet the energy and disaster response needs of vulnerable communities. The successful planning and deployment of MCM projects requires collaborative governance that involves local communities. Taking the co-production approach, this study aims to incorporate citizens and experts inputs into MCM development and implementation. To gather inputs from experts and residents with living experience, we conducted 5 focus groups: 2 panels of primarily low-income citizens, 2 panels of medium to high income citizens, and 1 panel of experts. The focus group studies included 62 participants (49 citizens and 13 experts) to better understand the perspectives of experts and citizens on MCM adoption. We analyzed the transcripts from the five focus groups to find similarities and differences between citizens and experts on seven thematic domains: energy needs, perceived benefits, perceived risks, economic considerations, environmental concerns, policies, and community engagement. 

The results indicate that citizens often conceived microgrids as instruments for lowering energy expenditure, maintaining thermal comfort and digital needs, while professionals viewed MCMs as a technology providing critical functions of load shedding, emergency response, and improving supply stability and system resilience. In the consideration of technical risks, citizens were mostly concerned about the use of renewables, while experts focused more on siting, priority setting, and workforce development. In the discussion of policies, citizens expressed concerns about politics, while experts extended to detailed policy challenges related to planning, utility rules, and communication. With regards to economic and environmental considerations, views by citizens and experts mostly converged that microgrids were considered environmentally biennial, while expressing concerns about the high capital cost and the fair distribution of potential benefits. Citizens’ and experts’ views also converged on the early involvement of local community members, emphasizing the challenge of lack of information. These findings, particularly the inputs from citizens, illustrate the extent to which social values and priorities can inform the planning of community microgrid projects to meet local needs. We argue that improving communication and energy justice need to be addressed in MCM projects to create equitable, resilient, responsive, and locally-centered energy solutions.

Authors

• Yu Wang, Iowa State University
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth J. Wilson, Aalto University FINLAND
  Non-Presenting Co-Author