Glossary

The LCOE determines how much money must be made per unit of electricity (kWh, MWh etc. or even other type of energy like home heating) to recoup the lifetime costs of the system. This includes the initial capital investment, maintenance costs, the cost of fuel for the system (if any), any operational costs and the discount rate.

A Local Energy Community is a legal entity, effectively controlled by local shareholders or members, that manages the LES. Generally value- rather than profit driven: an association, a cooperative.

A Local Energy System is a connected energy system that includes performing activities of a distribution system operator, supplier or aggregators at local level. Typically includes renewable generation.

LLCOE covers lifetime costs of energy generation and distribution, divided by energy production. This measure calculates present value of total system costs operations for the community it serves. This allows comparison between different system designs of unequal model (centralized, decentralized), life span, size, capital costs, etc. The measure differs from the know LCOE, which considers only individual assets.