Fair distribution of power-generating capacity justice, microgrids and utilizing the common pool of renewable energy

Ongoing problems with renewable energy schemes have shown that institutional factors have proved to be the main determinants of renewables' deployment. The institutional constraints will likely affect the next stage of deployment of renewables even more. This phase concerns the integration of renewables into the energy supply system and the enhancement of these sources by the introduction of so-called 'smart grids' to optimize the exploitation of natural resources. These numerous microgrids mark a revolutionary turn our system of energy generation that requires many fundamental changes in the social construction of power supply. Creating a microgrid with substantial amounts of renewable energy is a problem of collective action, and in this regard Common Pool Resources' adaptive governance comes to the fore as a fruitful concept.
Citizens/consumers and other end-users increasingly are becoming co-producers of electricity, and the option to include ‘distributed storage’ (electric vehicles) in the system promises to enhance this role and creates options to increase of renewables deployment. The co-producers may optimize the contribution of distributed generation by feeding their renewable energy in a cooperative micro-grid with mutual delivery. This requires a high level of self-governance and regulation that allows micro-grids. However, although such systems fundamentally concern involvement of a community right from the start, and the effective adaptive governance of such systems may be good for renewable energy, self-governance in the ‘common pool’ brings institutional questions of justice - distributive equity and fairness of process - to the fore. These equity and fairness dimensions of new microgrids and self-governance arrangements are explored in combination with the factors that further distributed energy generation.