Social and technical differentiation in smart meter rollout: embedded scalar biases in automating Norwegian and Portuguese energy infrastructure

Abstract

Within the energy geographies debate on the uneven scalar effects of energy transitions, this article addresses the under-examined, increasing intersection of automation and energy transitions. Using a comparative case of national smart meter rollouts-the deployment of distributed energy monitors whose diffusion constitutes the foundation for layering and automating energy infrastructure-it draws on two contrasting studies. One features an urban living lab during Norway's rapidly completed smart meter rollout to 2.9 million consumers; the other targets the national scale in Portugal during its recently accelerated twofifths completed smart meter rollout across six million consumers. The article identifies twin scalar biases: (i) social aspects of automation are controlled at higher scales while users are responsibilised for them at the household scale, and (ii) both control over and responsibility for technical aspects are restricted to higher scales. It empirically specifies how these scalar biases modulate socio-technical infrastructural interventions, such as smart meters. On this basis, it argues that embedding social and technical differentiation due to such scalar biases risks dehumanising technical aspects while detechnicising social aspects in this early intersection of energy transitions and automation.

Double energy vulnerability in the Norwegian low-carbon urban transport transition

“…This information, combined with data about the estimated annual electricity bill, which at 30,000 NOK was among the highest among all 45 respondents, and given relatively low household income (below 300,000 NOK gross per capita), suggests that this is an instance of hidden DEP (Sareen et al, 2020;Tirado Herrero, 2017). Thus, our findings illustrate the difficulty of detecting DEP, especially in contexts like Norway where existing data and policy attention are inadequate (Ryghaug et al, 2018;Sareen, 2020). We argue that policymakers need to take both demographic and socioeconomic profiles as well as domestic energy practices and lived experiences into consideration in order to develop appropriate policy interventions for DEP alleviation.…”

“…Fjellså et al (2021) analyse students' everyday energy practices to argue that the increasing electrification across sectors in Norway and the advent of dynamic electricity tariffs is liable to place those with relatively inflexible energy needs and low household budgets in vulnerable positions due to "flexibility poverty" in electricity usage, i.e., an inability to exercise flexibility in their electricity practices which exposes them to harm such as high electricity bills. Sareen (2020) points out the scalar biases in the rollout of smart electric meters in Norway whereby control of energy flexibility is held by supplyside actors whereas responsibility is shifted on to households. These trends gain significance when one considers that on 12 February 2021, electricity demand in Norway during a morning peak hour hit a record high of 25,230 MWh (Thunold, 2021).…”