ABSTRACT
Going beyond some of the existing literature on trust in the energy realm, this chapter seeks to explore different levels and arenas of trust in, through, or within the energy system and its conditions and consequences. In particular, three views are presented that encompass public, organizational, and transsystemic trust. Insights on these issues can help to further progress in both energy and trust research. In all three realms, trust creates the ties that are necessary to keep the system running, a circumstance whose importance is increasing under the current changes to low-carbon transitions and smart grids. Trust lets people act with the system, lets organizations rely on each other in complex information networks, and lets systems build up favorable expectations under the impression that the trustee will provide services they cannot generate by themselves. Due to rising system complexity and ensuing coordination requirements, energy actors are prone to lack either time or ability to scrutinize system operations on their own, which implies that knowledge is increasingly replaced by trust.
The less this trust is backed by verified knowledge, the greater the risk that is looming in the background as the flipside of the trust that is given. Consequently, in order to exploit the full potential of trust as a moderating resource in the energy transition, its reflection as distrust (as healthy suspicion) should be included in a systematic analysis.
