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BUSINESS MODELS AND BARRIERS TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL ENERGY SYSTEMS IN EUROPE: INSIGHTS FROM THE MERLON PROJECT

Local energy systems (LES), coordinating different distributed flexible resources and enabling end users to trade energy and flexibility within energy communities, exhibit a huge potential to address the emerging decarbonisation challenges in Europe. The scope of this paper, which presents relevant insights from the ongoing European H2020 MERLON project, is twofold. Firstly, in the context of realising the potential of LES in the European deregulated electricity market, the paper identifies suitable business models and explores their applicability to two LES pilot sites participating in MERLON. Secondly, the paper identifies and classifies barriers to the development of LES, and evaluates their criticality to the two MERLON pilot sites.