Sustainable Energy Transition: A Participatory Approach and an Integrated Perspective
Sabita Maharjan - University of Oslo, Norway
Dec. 8, 2025, 9:30 a.m. - Dec. 8, 2025, 10:30 a.m.
Online via Zoom only – no physical location.
Hosted by: SustainSys NSERC CREATE Program
Participatory energy systems hold great potential towards increased deployment of sustainable energy through active participation and contribution from local prosumers as key stakeholders in the energy ecosystem. Understanding aspects related to prosumers is crucial for acceptance and adoption of the distributed and participatory energy systems such as P2P energy trading. Regulatory and policy aspects also play a vital role in such a transition. There is however a clear knowledge gap as aspects related to users are less explored, and policies are mainly focused on the environmental agenda. In the convergence environment PriTEM (Privacy-preserving Transactive Energy Management), we do research at the intersection of Energy Systems, Energy Informatics, Social Psychology and Data and Energy legislation through a collaborative and a highly cross-disciplinary research synergy between the Department of Informatics (IFI), the Department of Technology Systems (ITS), the Department of Psychology (PSI), the Department of Energy and Resources Law, and the Department of Private Law/Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law (SERI), at the University of Oslo, and other stakeholders including prosumers, regulatory bodies (NVE), operators (Nord Pool) and other industrial partners.
One of the main objectives in the project is to examine and characterize the socio-psychological aspects that can act as potential barriers in the transition towards a TEM framework. Leveraging that, we will develop an understanding of the role of trust, transparency, and prosumer empowerment in this context, and develop computation efficient and scalable privacy preserving and secure data sharing solutions to build and enhance digital trust to empower the prosumers. Finally, the project will integrate the socio-psychological and regulatory aspects into a holistic framework to optimize the TEM process incorporating technical challenges related to the energy system.
In this talk, I will present about our research in the PriTEM project, highlighting the works that lie at the intersection of technology, social sciences and law. In the later part of the talk, my Postdoctoral researcher will present about his ongoing work in PriTEM about how existing AI tools and open data can contribute to city level solar power profiling.
