On 8 September TNO will present and discuss the BRIGHT framework, methods and strategies for citizen and consumer engagement in the development of Demand – Response instruments, at the Sustainable Places conference in Nice, France: Home – Sustainable Places (SP). The BRIGHT presentation is part of a joint workshop with five other European research and innovation projects (ATELIER, +CityxChange, ENERGE, MakingCity, Pocityf) with the overarching theme: “Energy Citizenship: Must or Myth? The impact of citizen participation on local energy systems”.
A short description of the workshop:
The involvement of citizens and energy communities (energy citizenship) is seen as a key pillar in the energy transition. Citizens interact with the technical, economical, and social energy systems; they are both subject and object of social innovation in the energy society and are emerging economic actors in the energy markets. However, how to design and optimize energy policies that enable different levels of citizen’s participation in accelerating the energy transition, is still unclear. Also, the assessment of the potential impacts of energy citizenship is still under defined.
The workshop aims at presenting and discussing the methods, strategies and expected impacts for citizen engagement applied in six different research and innovation projects in the area of Positive Energy Districts. The workshop presents the different citizen engagement frameworks, models and strategies, their impact and lessons learned, and explores how important citizen engagement really is for the success of new energy concepts. Also discussed will be the question of how to assess and compare the impact of citizen engagement strategies across projects.
