European Energy Regulatory, Socioeconomic, and Organizational Aspects: An Analysis of Barriers Related to Data-Driven Services across Electricity Sectors

Kyriaki Psara, Christina Papadimitriou, Marily Efstratiadi, Sotiris Tsakanikas, Panos Papadopoulos and Paul Tobin
Additional contact information
Kyriaki Psara: PV Technology Laboratory, FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cyprus, Nicosia 1678, Cyprus
Christina Papadimitriou: PV Technology Laboratory, FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cyprus, Nicosia 1678, Cyprus
Marily Efstratiadi: Elin VERD S.A, Smart Energy Systems, 24 Adrianou Street, Kifissia, 145 61 Athens, Greece
Sotiris Tsakanikas: Elin VERD S.A, Smart Energy Systems, 24 Adrianou Street, Kifissia, 145 61 Athens, Greece
Panos Papadopoulos: Elin VERD S.A, Smart Energy Systems, 24 Adrianou Street, Kifissia, 145 61 Athens, Greece
Paul Tobin: GECO Global IVS, Skjoldenæsvej 1, 4174 Jystrup, Denmark

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-25

Abstract: Data-driven services offer a major shift away from traditional monitoring and control approaches that have been applied exclusively over the transmission and distribution networks. These services assist the electricity value chain stakeholders to enhance their data reach and improve their internal intelligence on electricity-related optimization functions. However, the penetration of data-driven services within the energy sector poses challenges across the regulatory, socioeconomic, and organizational (RSEO) domains that are specific to such business models. The present review examines the existence and importance of various obstacles across these domains regarding innovative energy services, new business models, data exchanges, and other actors’ synergies across the electricity data value chain. This research is centered around the European landscape, with a particular focus on the five demonstration countries (Greece, Spain, Austria, Finland, and Croatia) of the SYNERGY consortium. A state-of-the-art analysis on the regulatory, socioeconomic, and organizational aspects related to innovative energy services (IESs) revealed a plethora of such potential obstacles that could affect, in various degrees, the realization of such services, both at a prototyping and a market replication level. More specifically, 13 barriers were identified in the regulatory domain, 19 barriers were identified in the socioeconomic domain, and 16 barriers were identified in the organizational domain. Then, a comprehensive, survey-based data gathering exercise was designed, formulated, and conducted at a national level as well as at a stakeholder type level. To ensure that our analysis encompassed business-wide perspectives and was validated from the whole electricity data value chain, we utilized a trilevel analysis (i.e., partner, stakeholder type, demo country) to formulate qualitative interviews with business experts from each stakeholder type (namely TSOs, DSOs, aggregators/ESCOs, facility managers/urban planners, and RES Operators). By combining the quantitative data with the qualitative interviews, further recommendations on identifying and facilitating ways to overcome the identified barriers are provided. For the regulatory domain, it is recommended to treat nationally missing regulations by conforming to the provisions of the relevant EU directives, as well as to provide a flexibility-related regulation. For the socioeconomic domain, recommendations were made to increase consumer awareness and thus alleviate the three more impactful barriers identified in this domain. All organizational barriers can be alleviated by taking complex big-data-related issues away from the hands of the organizations and offering them data-as-a-service mechanisms that safeguard data confidentiality and increase data quality.

Keywords: regulations; socioeconomic; organizations; barriers; data-driven (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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