This paper examines findings from four deliberative workshops held with members of the British public to explore perceptions of risk associated with potential transformations of the UK energy system. In particular, attention was paid to the introduction of batteries and other novel storage technologies at household, local and national scales under different governance regimes. Participants were recruited to reflect a range of community experiences including urban and suburban homeowners, private and social rented tenants in Birmingham and Aberdeen and a community living without connection to the mains gas grid near Abergavenny, South Wales. Discussion centred on both the risks and benefits associated with specific technologies, and on six archetypal models which have been proposed for managing the introduction of energy storage as part of wider changes to the UK energy system: community energy, household energy independence, municipal energy provision, new user practices, traditional energy company provision and virtual power plants. Our analysis explores how discourses and values associated with independence, fairness, trust in civil society, market and state agencies emerged in participants’ discussion of different governance options, surfacing different and at times contradictory risk-benefit profiles to those associated with individual energy storage technologies. By identifying these key perceptual fault lines shaping how different governance and technology combinations may be perceived in practice, we argue it is insufficient for risk researchers and communicators to focus on individual technologies for energy storage. It is also necessary to consider diverse contextual considerations into which emergent technologies may be deployed and the interactions between such contexts and the behavioural, financial, political and regulatory mechanisms through which such deployments take place.