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Actors & Stakeholders
Stakeholders
Stakeholders are individuals, groups, and organisations that have an interest or stake in how the electricity system functions and develops, and whose engagement shapes the framework conditions under which the system operates. Understanding who the stakeholders are, what they want, and how much influence they hold is essential for designing governance processes, regulatory reforms, and transition pathways that are durable and legitimate.
Why this matters
Energy system transitions involve a wide range of interests that do not align automatically. Grid operators need predictable technical standards. Communities near new infrastructure have concerns about siting and amenity. Environmental organisations focus on emissions and land use. Investors need long-term policy certainty. Regulatory bodies balance competing mandates. Each of these parties can influence whether a transition moves forward, stalls, or provokes opposition — even when they are not directly involved in electricity markets or grid operations day to day.
Not all stakeholders have equal influence. Power, legitimacy, and urgency determine whose interests attract attention and shape decisions. Identifying which stakeholders hold which combination of these attributes is a practical starting point for designing engagement processes that are both inclusive and effective.1)
Smart grid transitions expand the stakeholder landscape considerably. Consumers who were once purely passive recipients of electricity become potential participants in demand response, local generation, or community energy. Platform operators and data service providers enter the system from outside the traditional utility model. Local governments gain relevance as planning authorities for charging infrastructure and distributed generation. Managing the interests of this broader group requires governance capacity that legacy regulatory frameworks were not designed to provide.
A shared definition
Stakeholders are those who have interests, claims, or rights in relation to the activities and outcomes of an organisation or system, whether or not they are directly involved in its operations.2) In electricity systems, stakeholders include all those affected by or able to influence the development, operation, and governance of grids, markets, and infrastructure, including communities, environmental bodies, investors, workers, and public authorities.
Mitchell, Agle, and Wood identify three attributes that determine stakeholder salience — the degree to which a stakeholder attracts attention and shapes outcomes:3)
| Attribute | Meaning in energy system context |
|---|---|
| Power | The ability to influence decisions, access resources, or impose costs — held by large utilities, regulators, or politically connected industry associations |
| Legitimacy | The socially accepted right to be heard — held by affected communities, consumer representatives, or environmental bodies |
| Urgency | The degree to which claims demand immediate attention — driven by time-sensitive impacts such as grid disruption, energy poverty, or imminent infrastructure siting decisions |
The combination of these attributes determines stakeholder type. Stakeholders holding all three — power, legitimacy, and urgency — are definitive stakeholders whose claims must be addressed. Those holding only one attribute are latent stakeholders who may become more salient as circumstances change. For example, a community group opposing a grid development may gain urgency as a decision deadline approaches and power if it secures legal standing — shifting from a demanding stakeholder to a more influential category.
Perspectives
Who counts as a stakeholder, and how salient their interests are, varies depending on whether the focus is on the people and organisations affected, the technical systems that create impacts, or the institutional frameworks that determine who has formal standing. All three perspectives are needed to avoid both under-inclusion and capture by powerful incumbents.
Actors and stakeholders
In energy system governance, the stakeholder population extends well beyond the actors who hold operational roles. Workers in generation and distribution carry stakes in transition pace and job quality. Communities near transmission lines, wind farms, or substations have interests in siting decisions regardless of whether they participate in electricity markets. Environmental organisations hold legitimacy claims without operational involvement. Investors hold power through capital allocation without necessarily having formal regulatory standing.
Germany – Energiewende stakeholder landscape
The German energy transition has involved a large and contested stakeholder population: incumbent utilities defending existing assets, citizen cooperatives seeking market access, industrial consumers negotiating cost exemptions, environmental groups pressing for faster coal exit, and communities affected by grid expansion. The interaction among these groups has shaped the pace and design of regulatory reform throughout the transition.4)
Colombia – community stakeholders in distributed generation
CREG Resolution 174 of 2021 extended participation rights to small-scale and collective generators, reflecting a regulatory response to the interests of communities and individuals who held legitimacy claims as energy users but lacked market power under the prior framework.5)
European Union – stakeholder consultation in electricity market design
The Electricity Market Directive 2019/944 was developed through extensive stakeholder engagement involving consumer organisations, industry associations, environmental groups, and member state regulators. The resulting definitions of active customers and citizen energy communities reflect the legitimacy claims of groups whose interests had not previously been captured in EU electricity law.6)
Technologies and infrastructure
Technology choices create stakeholders by determining whose land, health, amenity, or livelihoods are affected. Transmission line routing creates local stakeholders from communities that would otherwise have no connection to electricity markets. Smart meter rollouts affect households as data subjects, giving them privacy-related stakes regardless of whether they benefit commercially. Offshore wind development involves fishing communities, coastal tourism interests, and marine conservation bodies as stakeholders long before any electricity is generated.
Bangladesh – rural households as stakeholders in solar deployment
The IDCOL solar home system programme engaged rural households not only as customers but as stakeholders in a delivery model designed around their financial constraints, energy needs, and limited grid access. The programme's success depended on aligning a range of stakeholder interests — households, microfinance institutions, technology suppliers, and government — around a shared delivery framework.7)
Australia – distributed energy resources and network stakeholders
The AEMC's 2021 rule change on access and pricing arrangements for distributed energy resources followed years of stakeholder engagement involving households with rooftop solar, networks seeking to manage export volumes, retailers, and consumer advocates. The contested interests among these groups shaped both the pace and the outcome of the regulatory reform.8)
Institutional structures
Institutional frameworks determine who has formal standing as a stakeholder in regulatory processes, planning decisions, and market design. Requirements for public consultation, environmental impact assessment, and consumer representation create legal channels through which stakeholder interests enter governance processes. Where these channels are absent or poorly designed, dominant actors may capture regulatory processes while less powerful stakeholders — dependent communities, low-income households, or future users — remain excluded.
South Africa – integrated resource planning
The IRP 2019 process included formal consultation phases engaging labour unions, civil society, and communities affected by coal plant retirements alongside utilities and generators. The salience of mining community stakeholders — holding high urgency and growing legitimacy as plant closures approached — influenced the planning timeline for coal exit.9)
Nigeria – multi-stakeholder governance of mini-grids
Off-grid electricity provision in Nigeria involves communities, private operators, the Rural Electrification Agency, and local governments — each holding different combinations of power, legitimacy, and urgency. The regulatory framework has evolved to create formal channels through which community stakeholders can participate in licensing and tariff-setting decisions.10)
Key terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Stakeholder | An individual, group, or organisation with an interest or claim in relation to the activities and outcomes of a system, whether or not they participate directly in its operations.11) |
| Stakeholder salience | The degree to which a stakeholder attracts attention and shapes decisions, determined by the combination of power, legitimacy, and urgency they hold.12) |
| Definitive stakeholder | A stakeholder who holds power, legitimacy, and urgency simultaneously, and whose claims therefore have the highest salience and require active management.13) |
| Latent stakeholder | A stakeholder holding only one of the three salience attributes — power, legitimacy, or urgency — and therefore less likely to attract immediate attention, though capable of becoming more salient as conditions change.14) |
| Stakeholder engagement | A structured process through which organisations identify, consult, and incorporate stakeholder interests into decision-making, planning, or regulatory design. |
Distinctions and overlaps
Stakeholders vs. actors
Actors participate directly in the daily operations of the electricity system. Stakeholders hold interests and may shape the conditions under which actors operate, without necessarily engaging operationally. The boundary is not fixed: a community group becomes an actor when it establishes an energy cooperative or takes on a grid connection.15)
Stakeholder salience vs. stakeholder importance
Salience describes how much attention a stakeholder receives from decision-makers, based on power, legitimacy, and urgency. Importance is a normative judgment about whose interests should count. High salience does not guarantee that a stakeholder's interests are well-served; low-salience stakeholders — such as future generations or geographically dispersed communities — may have significant normative claims that are structurally underrepresented.16)