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In order to design effective, participatory and sustainable energy access interventions that are in sync with real community priorities, it is necessary to understand and capture nuances of community energy needs and preferences across the target population. In South Africa, the CHOICES community energy project organized ‘energy options’ workshops to discuss and prioritize local energy needs. The workshops highlighted important variation within and between types of communities (urban, rural and informal) and geographical locations within the target region. Understanding this variation is essential for planning and delivering targeted energy services that people are willing to pay for. Planning that responds to specific community needs is more likely to receive support from local communities, making investments more sustainable in the long term.