The European electricity market model continues to evolve in the face of new challenges. This systematic literature review aims to assess the status of research and discussion on the current model and its market mechanisms. In addition, it aims to ascertain the kinds of modelling tools that have been used to model market mechanisms or formulate proposals for changes to current practice. The results show that the challenges of individual market mechanisms have been identified quite extensively in the research sample. However, the number of papers identified for inclusion in the systematic literature review was quite small, from which it can be concluded that there are surprisingly few publications focusing on this particular topic. Nevertheless, the trend indicates a probable increase in research in the subject area in the future. The general standpoint among researchers seems to be that the goals set by the EU are, as it were, a law of nature that cannot be deviated from. Consequently, new radical change proposals or comprehensive reforms were not encountered in the study. In addition, it was found that optimization was the most commonly used modelling method in the papers included in the literature review.

Shared energy resources and energy communities are being widely studied and pilots are being implemented in various locations around the world. However, laypeople may find the concepts regarding energy and electricity in general difficult to grasp, and the issue is made more complex by introducing new aspects like demand response and shared photovoltaic (PV) installations. Serious games are proposed as a tool for raising awareness, and this paper presents a systematic literature review on serious games featuring energy and electricity aspects while giving extra attention to whether a serious game has features considering demand response or energy communities. The results are used to determine whether research gaps exist, and if a serious game featuring energy communities and demand response would be meaningful to develop. In total, 34 games were identified, four of which had demand response aspects and five of which had aspects considering energy communities or shared energy resources. None of the games featured both aspects while having a link to real-life events by, e.g., making the energy consumption of the player’s home affect the outcome of the game. This emphasizes the fact that the concepts are new, and a serious game covering them could be implemented.