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- Adams, Sophie, et al.
(author)
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Social license to automate: A critical review of emerging approaches to electricity demand management
- 2021
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In: Energy Research & Social Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 2214-6296 .- 2214-6326. ; 80:October, s. 102210-12
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Electricity demand-side management (DSM) programs are becoming increasingly important to energy system managers in advanced industrialized countries, especially those with high renewable energy penetration. As energy user participation is paramount for their success but has proven to be difficult to obtain, we explore the usefulness of the ‘social license’ concept, originally developed in the mining sector, to refer to the process of creating acceptance in DSM programs aimed at managing or controlling household energy resources such EVs, batteries, and heating and cooling devices. We argue that analyzing the attainment or lack of ‘social license’ may be useful to energy policy-makers and researchers for understanding public concerns with not only supply-side energy resources, but also DSM. We do so by (1) drawing attention to potential frictions between demands for flexibility on the one hand and social practices and habits on the other; (2) attending to the ways that users’ engagement in DSM programs is influenced by their sense of control and agency, and their trust in program providers; and (3) exploring the ways that users may understand their stake in the energy system and may participate in programs as collectives rather than simply as individuals. We argue that a ‘social license to automate’ could not only describe a set of tools to manage participation in DSM projects, but rather assess the ways users effectively feel part of new energy systems designed to serve them.
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| 2. |
- Henriksen, Ida Marie, et al.
(author)
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The role of gender, age, and income in demand side management acceptance: a literature review
- 2023
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In: Proceedings of the 2023 BEHAVE Conference. - 0000-0000 .- 0000-0000. ; , s. 444-455
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Demand-side management (DSM) programs aiming to both reduce and render household consumption more flexible, are becoming increasingly essential due to energy crises and the growing integration of renewable energy into energy production. The involvement of households and energy users is crucial to fully unlock the potential of DSM programs. As this paper demonstrates, despite more than thirty years of feminist scholarly work focusing on the home as an important site of the production of gender inequality, few of these insights have been taken into account by DSM-designers. Additionally, we note a broader pattern concerning gaps in knowledge regarding the diverse perspectives of energy users and their domestic contexts, all of which create obstacles to successful rollout and scalability. This paper uses the concept of the social license to automate and insight from feminist research to analyse the literature on DSM programs. We find three primary barriers in household DSM programs: 1) there is an unresolved tension between DSM technology being perceived as a masculine domain and the home as a feminine domain, 2) low-income households face challenges in accessing the technology needed to enable both flexibility and savings, and 3) disparities in opportunities for participation among elderly and young individuals in DSM programs and their complex reasons are insufficiently considered. Based on these findings we argue that user diversity needs to form a starting point in DSM program design for fair and scalable solutions.
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