Climate & Environment
Prosumer
Definition
A prosumer is an actor that both consumes and produces energy, most commonly a household or business with rooftop solar photovoltaics, sometimes combined with batteries or electric vehicles. Surplus generation is exported to the grid under arrangements such as net metering, feed-in tariffs or net billing; prosumers may also provide flexibility services through smart controls.
References
Source imported for editorial provenance.
This reference provides supporting context for how “Prosumer” is defined and used.
Overview
How it is used
The term is standard in energy policy, EU electricity market legislation (which grants "active customers" rights to self-generate and sell), and analysis of distributed energy resource integration.
Why it matters
Prosumers are the human face of energy decentralisation; how regulation treats them shapes the speed, equity and politics of the distributed clean energy transition.