This book argues that law has a vital role in shaping the electricity system to enable a more active role for consumers in liberalizsed electricity industries. To do that, this book offers a unique legal perspective of the Netherlands, New Zealand and Colombia to help understand some of the current legal approaches to prosumers and therefore the legal challenges and opportunities facing. Law and regulation have the role of creating a level playing field for emerging participants, such as prosumers, to participate and compete in the market together with traditional actors, bringing not only more competition but also representing a more sustainable, environmental and democratic way to supply energy. Furthermore, law and regulation have the role of responding to innovation and creating space for technological advances to procure the changes in the industry without delay. This book examines some of the legal barriers for the raise of energy prosumers. The traditional role of the distributor when responding to increasing distributed generation in the network; prosumers unable to decide to whom they can sell their electricity to; the price of the energy or even whether to participate more actively in demand response programs. A further issue is the lack of clarity about whether small prosumers are entitled to consumer protection rights and legal challenges regarding configuration, access to the network, access to markets and strict unbundling rules for community energy projects. This book provides a clear, analytical, and informed approach to understanding the regulatory framework around energy prosumers. It will appeal to policy makers, lawyers, individuals, business entrepreneurs or communities wanting to engage in energy projects, as well as academics, researchers and students

This comprehensive volume of the Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Law provides an overview of the major elements of energy law from a global perspective. Based on an in-depth analysis of the energy chain, it offers insight into the impacts of climate change and environmental issues on energy law and the energy sector. This timely reference work highlights the need for modern energy law to consider environmental impacts and promote the use of clean energy sources, whilst also safeguarding a reliable and affordable energy supply.

The Regulation and Policy of Latin American Energy Transitions examines the ongoing revolution within the energy landscape of Latin America. This book includes real-world examples from across the continent to demonstrate the current landscape of energy policy in Latin America. It focuses on distributed energy resources, including distributed generation, energy efficiency and microgrids, but also addresses the role of less common energy sources, such as geothermal and biogas, as well as discusses the changing role of energy actors, where consumers become prosumers or prosumagers, and utilities become service providers. The legal frameworks that are still hampering the transformation of the energy landscape are explored, together with an analysis of the economic, planning-related and social aspects of energy transitions, which can help address the issue of how inequalities are affecting and being affected by energy transitions. The book is suitable for policy makers, lawyers, economists and social science professionals working with energy policy, as well as researchers and industry professionals in the field. It is an ideal source for anyone involved in energy policy and regulation across Latin America. - Reviews key legal and policy features defining success and failure within the diverse Latin American energy transitions - Provides clear descriptions and comparisons of current and potential future policy frameworks in Latin America across differing social, economic, geo-political and policy contexts - Analyzes the potential role of new technologies and practices in developing the region's energy economy - Poses key regulatory challenges and possible means to finance the envisioned transitions

Sustainable Energy Democracy and the Law offers a legal account of the concept of sustainable energy democracy. The book explains what the concept means in a legal context and how it can be translated into concrete legal instruments.

This Handbook examines the regulatory, social, financial, and technological issues pertaining to energy communities in smart cities. Evidencing the emergence of new imperatives at the intersection of sustainability, resilience, innovation, and legal issues, energy communities embody the thrust of the user-centred digital transformation our societies are subjected to today. By bridging the energy communities debate with smart cities research, this Handbook positions itself at the heart of the conversation on energy sustainability, climate action, and “just transition”. Drawing on contributions from across the globe, this book offers both a birds-eye and a detailed inter- and multidisciplinary insight into the emergence of energy communities and their evolution in the smart city context. Technological and regulatory aspects of this transition are explored from a variety of conceptual and empirical perspectives. Case studies evidencing developments in the Global South and the Global North embellish the conversation. Questions of climate change, energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, emissions’ reduction, and corresponding policy frameworks are discussed. Dedicated to all those interested in climate action, energy transition, sustainable development, and smart cities, this Handbook will be of interest to policymakers, lawyers, energy and urban experts, researchers, and students.

Electricity Decentralization in the European Union: Towards Zero Carbon and Energy Transition, Second Edition examines progress in decentralization across the European Union, with each chapter focusing on developments and innovations in a specific country. Sections provide an overview of the current role and state of smart grids, the conceptualization of energy transition, and specific cases across all EU states. Across the chapters, regulatory frameworks are assessed to identify to what extent it is conducive to decentralization, with specific outcomes of decentralization covered in detail, including deployment of smart grids and meters, demand response, electric vehicles, and storage. The book highlights how specific EU member states are progressing towards deployment of these tools and technologies, along with the specific needs and regulatory barriers in each and recommendations for how regulation can be more encouraging. In addition, electricity interconnections in the EU are considered as a vital step towards decentralization in order to boost energy security and energy efficiency. Finally, the book includes a detailed examination of data protection concerns that arise from the advent of new technologies that collect personal information, such as smart grids, assessing current regulation on data protection and identifying areas for improvement, as well as innovative finance options for sustainable energy. - Analyzes the regulatory environment with regard to decentralization - Explores new tools and technologies to facilitate decentralization, along with current progress in each - Addresses barriers and suggests improvements across tools, technologies and regulations

This book shows how the links between energy security and national and international law and policies on green energy pose challenges to a transition towards a green energy system. Based on empirical work carried out in two very different country case studies – Great Britain and Brazil – this book attempts to foster a better understanding of the role played by energy security in constructing and deconstructing green energy policy initiatives. The broad range of views raised in national contexts leads to legal disputes in international forums when attempts are made to address the issues of this energy security/green energy interplay. As such, building on the findings of the case studies, this book then analyses the interplay between energy security and green energy development in international trade law as encapsulated in the law of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Finally, the author proposes a way forward in creating the legal space in the law of the WTO for trade restrictive measures aimed at ensuring green energy security.

This book analyses the transformation of consumer law and policy in Europe from 4 perspectives: first, the temporal transformation, i.e., changes that can be tracked from the turn of the millennium; secondly, the substantive dimension, i.e., changes in the scope of the rights and remedies provided by consumer law, as well as the underpinning values; thirdly, the institutional dimension, i.e., changes in the role of national courts, national Parliaments, consumer agencies, and consumer organisations; and fourth, the procedural element, i.e., the shift from individual enforcement via courts to enforcement by public regulators, consumer associations, alternative dispute resolution, and the development of collective enforcement exercised by consumer agencies and/or consumer organisations. With contributions by leading consumer law scholars from across Europe, this book is a fascinating account of how consumer law has often been shaped by national as much as European interests.

Consumers, Prosumers, Prosumagers: How Service Innovations will Disrupt the Utility Business Model examines customer stratification in the electric power sector, arguing that it is poised to become one of the fundamental drivers of the 21st century power network as distributed energy generation, storage, sharing and trading options become available at scale. The book addresses the interface and the relationship between key players and their impacts on incumbent and disruptive service providers. Topics covered include innovations that lead to consumer stratification, regulatory policy, the potential of service, the speed and spread of stratification, and a review of potential business models and strategies. The work also covers the evolution and potential end-states of electricity service provision, from its basis in current pilot programs as distributed generation scales and its potential to supplant industry norms. - Explores the impacts and trajectories of increasing distributed power generation and storage adoption - Analyzes the growing number of electricity services and their impact on the existing power grid and service providers, including incumbent and disruptor utilities - Discusses future market trends and trends in costs, pricing and business models

This book deals with questions of democracy and governance relating to new technologies. The deployment and application of new technologies is often accompanied with uncertainty as to their long-term (un)intended impacts. New technologies also raise questions about the limits of the law as the line between harmful and beneficial effects is often difficult to draw. The volume explores overarching concepts on how to regulate new technologies and their implications in a diverse and constantly changing society, as well as the way in which regulation can address differing, and sometimes conflicting, societal objectives, such as public health and the protection of privacy. Contributions focus on a broad range of issues such as Citizen Science, Smart Cities, big data, and health care, but also on the role of market regulation for new technologies.The book will serve as a useful research tool for scholars and practitioners interested in the latest developments in the field of technology regulation. Leonie Reins is Assistant Professor at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT) in The Netherlands.