Ambivalence, designing users and user imaginaries in the European smart grid: Insights from an interdisciplinary demonstration project

Abstract

As the smart grid is gradually implemented, there is an increased concern amongst researchers and policymakers for the role of users in such systems. For the smart grid to perform as expected, users must change. One approach to the relationship between users and technology proposes that success is more likely if users are involved in the design and development of technologies. This, however, is no small task. This article reports on a research project that set out to engage users through inviting them to participate in the design of software and feedback technologies. Parallel to this engagement, and paradoxically, was the perspective of by-passing the user. There was a growing ambivalence amongst team members of the knowledge users have for developing smart grids. The case illustrates where the distinction between user involvement and by-passing the user is blurred. The work contributes to research of imagined users as well as future expectations in this process. It illustrates how traditional models of knowledge deficiency on behalf of users can pave the way for minimal user engagement.

Energy, economics, and performativity: Reviewing theoretical advances in social studies of markets and energy

“…The key focus here has been on how market energy is produced by experts via distinctive knowledge, modelling tools, and many other tools besides. Partially, the energy market and its participants may be performed by overarching economic promises and visions (Pollock & Williams 2010): for example, imaginations about users of 'smarter' market-based electricity grids (Skjølsvold & Lindkvist 2015) or about ways of living in future low-carbon houses (Cherry et al 2017) can shape future policies, design, and development choices.…”

“…Where many studies hence use economics tools across different aspects of energy, much fewer have developed social studies of markets types of questions: concerning how knowledge about energy markets and their participants may bring about these subjects rather than merely describing them (for key exceptions see Cointe 2015;Skjølsvold & Lindkvist 2015;Cherry et al 2017). Furthermore, in disciplinary terms, sociology, anthropology, and STS remain relatively minor points of departures in energy social research, but have unique insights in rethinking the relationship between energy, economics, and performativity.…”

Smart grids and households: how are household consumers represented in experimental projects?

“…However, this is dependent on how experiments and tests are carried out in practice, and they will always involve a certain level of framing and bias. Skjølsvold & Lindkvist (2015) showed how intentions of user-centred design and user participation in a European smart grid demonstration project were in practice overshadowed by the technology developers' images of the users. Similarly, Abi Ghanem & Mander (2014) through another European smart grid project identified that it is the expectations of project engineers and designers of future household users as economic rational consumers that structure technological design and household experiments.…”

Det fleksible mennesket 2.0: Om sosiale relasjoner i fremtidens digitale elektrisitetssystem

“…Som en av våre informanter sa: «[forbrukerne] må ha informasjon, og de må få opplaering og informasjon, tror jeg, før de gjør noe som helst» (Ekspert 1). Denne fortolkningen av brukerne som preget av et kunnskapsunderskudd, er også identifisert i mange tidligere studier av teknologiutvikling på dette feltet (Skjølsvold & Lindkvist, 2015;Throndsen & Ryghaug, 2015).…”