Collective decision-making in energy transitions: A systematic review and a way forward

Energy transitions increasingly depend on collective decision-making (CDM) by households, firms, and civic organizations that co-invest, co-operate, and co-govern local energy resources. Yet mainstream energy models still treat behavior as that of a single, perfectly rational actor, under-representing the social dynamics of CDM. This paper presents a decade-scale (2015-2025) systematic review of CDM modeling at community scale. Using a broad search string pairing synonyms of “collective decision” with “energy” across leading databases, hundreds of records were screened and 84 peer-reviewed studies retained that simulate interactions among multiple autonomous actors. A supplementary search-robustness check indicates that broader retrieval adds more game-theoretic and governance-oriented studies, but does not materially alter the main patterns. Methodologically, agent-based simulation is a major strand, alongside game-theoretic formulations, hybrid optimization-agent approaches, and an emerging line of multi-agent reinforcement learning. Most studies focus on electricity communities, especially solar PV, battery storage, and peer-to-peer trading, while heat, mobility, and multi-energy integration remain limited. Peer influence and heterogeneity are often represented, whereas governance processes and diverse actor roles are still rarely modeled. Empirical calibration and validation are improving but remain uneven, limiting policy credibility in practice. The review identifies three field-defining gaps: (i) limited behavioral realism and weak validation; (ii) thin representation of governance and institutional change; and (iii) weak multi-scale socio-technical integration across sectors and levels. In response, the Multi-Scale Integrated Collective-Energy Decision (MICED) framework is proposed as a modular way forward for linking heterogeneous actors, group-decision processes, and socio-technical system dynamics. Together, the review and framework outline an agenda for more credible, equity-aware, and policy-relevant analysis of community-scale energy transitions. • Decade-scale systematic review of energy-related collective decision-making models. • Key gaps: weak behavioral realism, governance, and multi-scale coupling. • Propose framework MICED: multi-scale, learning agents, and explicit governance.