=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1203/SPPSG-paper3
|storemode=property
|title=Multidisciplinary Smart Grid Research and the Design of Users
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1203/SPPSG-paper3.pdf
|volume=Vol-1203
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ict4s/GayeW14
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==Multidisciplinary Smart Grid Research and the Design of Users==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1203/SPPSG-paper3.pdf
Multidisciplinary Smart Grid Research and the
Design of Users
Georgia Gaye & Grégoire Wallenborn
Centre for Studies on Sustainable Development
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Brussels, Belgium
Abstract— Working in a multidisciplinary smart grid research interests. We represent the part of the project that mixes
as social scientists, we show how engineering and economic anthropology, design and sociology. In order to grasp the
models design and restrict users to a limited set of features. This economists’ and engineers’ interventions, we draw on different
poor design puts a priori limits to possible uses. In contrast, we traditions in sociology and anthropology (sociology of usage,
argue that users can be “designed” as interested in and open to
practice theory and STS) that enables us to analyse how users
devices that concern them.
Index Terms— smart grid, users, codesign. negotiate with daily life objects. In the following parts, we
quickly analyse how users, social acceptance and engagement
are used in the different disciplines and how these conceptions
I. SMART GRIDS AND MULTIDISCIPLINARITY
frame possible uses.
As part of the target 20-20-20 set by the European Union,
the Walloon Region in Belgium has decided to fund the
FLEXIPAC project to evaluate the potential of flexibility in II. ENGINEERING: USERS ARE PERTURBATIONS
storing electricity through the use of heat pumps and well- For engineers, the objective of the project is to model
insulated buildings. In this project, which spans over 2013-14, different scenarios to evaluate the potential of flexibility, i.e.
we work as anthropologists and designers, along with partners shiftable loads for different types of buildings, heat pumps and
who are engineers and economists. In order to collect occupancy profiles. Technical models are carried out on a
consumption data, smart meters have been installed in 70 reference building that is used to simulate different
households and 15 small enterprises. In this position paper, we consumption patterns in the home. This allows engineers to
wish to draw some interdisciplinary lessons from our estimate the loss of comfort that can be caused by different
participation in this research. flexibility scenarios. They include the cost of electricity in their
Although residential consumers are often considered as model.
important actors, or co-managers of the grid, they are one of Engineers use also emulators to simulate the energy
the main unknowns of smart grid development [1]. Consumers demand of the heat pump and the boiler. In the engineer’s
are supposed to become more “active”, but that can mean model, the house is divided into different heated zones possibly
different things: searching for good prices and “churning”; differentiated with occupied (21°C) or not occupied (16°C).
switching off appliances when the grid is congested or, But other heat contributions and electrical demands have also
conversely, switching on when it is windy or sunny; producing to be quantified. For engineers, the user is a random variable
renewable energy. Today, smart grid instruments are mainly which makes their models fluctuating. The user is thus reduced
based on information, prices and technology. Aspects of to a set of parameters that emulate his actions on the inner
environment, participation and community are hardly explored climate of the house: humidity, temperature and CO2
in smart grid projects. As Yolande Strengers shows, smart emissions. Occupants are mentioned as “metabolic heat” or
things are developed with the figure of “resource man”, who is “internal gains”.
the fully aware and competent resource manager of the home For the engineer, the social acceptance question arises when
[2]. an innovation is on the market threshold: “now that I have
The deployment of smart grids requires the involvement of worked hard, how could the new device be adopted by users?”
a diversity of actors. It brings together separate social worlds, The acceptance of a flexibility device is thus reduced to the
which have different goals and confer various properties and study of physical constraints of the heat pump, the heating
interests to beings [3]. Each profession focuses on different system and the electricity grid, and to identify the extent to
issues, brings specific beings to existence and construct its own which users could comply with these constraints.
reality. As social scientists we are sometimes at odd with our
research partners who are grounded in different epistemic
III. ECONOMICS: USERS SHOULD BE RATIONAL management of their devices to external operators? We have
In our project, economists (and electricity suppliers) seek to adopted a provisional definition of flexibility: curtailing or
determine the potential and the cost of flexibility for heat pump shifting one’s consumption for the benefit of a upper level (i.e.
systems. They seek to identify electricity pricing to encourage that makes sense and value to an aggregate level). The upper
consumers to shift their heat pump loads to time where energy level can be the electrical grid, the provider, the environment,
is cheaper. The study focuses on the development of a cost etc.
model that would minimize the “societal costs” (i.e. the cost for In collecting data through interviews and observations, the
the provision of energy for consumers), would comply with the social scientist is faced with a diversity of uses and users, and
technical requirements and would propose a more transparent is required to summarise this information and translate it in a
tariff, splitting the benefits of flexibility between the different useful language for the project partners. Segmentation,
actors. As an electricity supplier told in a meeting: “We need to respondent profiles and personas are ways of communicating
force consumers to consume at certain moments”. The profiles the social scientist’s fieldwork diversity to research partners.
of electricity prices, as determined by the supplier, are intended The analysis of our data yields to four types of profiles: the
to encourage consumers to shift loads required by heat pumps economist, the ecologist, the technician and the balanced.
at cheaper hours, which is considered as a decisive argument. These profiles differ in their commitment to their
Real time (or dynamic) pricing is the ultimate objective of environmental practices and the intensity of their logic of
electricity retailers, so that they can pass market risks to their economic calculation. When we presented our segmentation,
customers. the first reactions of the partners were to focus on the
Economists require that what is valued is monetised. Values “economist” profile in order to understand what is his
like comfort and environment have to be translated into Euros. flexibility potential. The idea that users might be engaged in
For instance, a subjective price is given to thermal discomfort the grid management for other reasons than economical ones
by the consumer. The economist requires also that users make leave economists and engineers quite baffled.
rational choice and respond immediately to signals. It is at this
price that behaviours can be mathematised. It goes without V. DESIGN: PRACTICES AND ENGAGEMENT
saying that in this model non-economic interests are not
represented. Top down innovation is facing a lot of resistance to change.
The economic criterion of social acceptance is that services Numerous usage studies demonstrate the difficulty for
must be competitive. Market is the place where potential users engineers to convince the user to follow the “right gesture”,
can just say whether they agree or not with the product in “original script” or “procedure” of using a device [5]. The task
buying it or not. This shows that the economists’ conception of is further complicated because 1) there is not a standard user
innovation supposes that the relative absence of user but a diversity of individuals; there is not a right gesture, but a
acceptance during the early stage is a necessary condition for singular appropriation. 2) The device comes in the domestic
the development of innovation. When users are asked to sphere and its management becomes co-negotiated between
become active, this poses however some difficulties. In this household members.
case, the product cannot be something that can be used or The social practice scientist is relatively well prepared to
discarded, for it aims explicitly at transforming practices. deal with the issue of engagement since it concerns the
reconfiguration of the relationships between humans and
objects [6]. From this perspective, the practical everyday
IV. SOCIAL SCIENCE: DIVERSITY OF PRACTICES actions are based on the recognition of objects as political
Social scientists are better prepared than the economist or mediations (low energy lamp, thermostat, compost). The object
the engineer to accept that users are not so willing to adopt new acquires a participatory status: its role is to be a mediator
technologies that would change their daily lives. We have between the public action and the environment. Feedback or
conducted 29 interviews and 3 focus groups with participants demand response devices participate fully in the idea that users
in using different concepts drawn on practice theory and STS, are not just consumers but participate, through their appliances,
and established what we call the ecology of our investigation: to a public sphere.
building, heat pump, photovoltaic panels (if relevant), The participation of heat pumps to the grid balancing is part
controlled mechanical ventilation, electricity consumption and of this new type of engagement or material participation. Users
appliances, meter, interface, electricity grid and… inhabitants. are somehow asked to pass from a representative democracy
Ecology means here that we are interested in the links between (in which they choose an electricity supplier) to a direct
these entities and how these links are enacted when practices democracy (in which they act in concert with the grid, i.e. the
are performed [3]. multitude of other users and also the sources of production). It
We have focussed our observations on what people do (and is however not clear what today is the “material public” of the
not on what they are supposed to do). We have translated the grid. It is likely that as long as the grid remains obscure in the
objective of the project into the following research questions: eyes of the users, the material participation to the grid
how do householders create their comfort? How do they use balancing will remain limited.
and control their heating system? How do respondents manage We are organising co-design sessions in which users
their energy consumption? Are they willing to delegate the participate to elaborate on the potential for flexibility and how
this flexibility might design their practices. Strategies of [1] G.P.J. Verbong, S. Beemsterboer, F. Sengers, Smart
codesign or participatory design are based on the idea that users grids or smart users? Involving users in developing a low
are competent to partially transform the configurations that carbon electricity economy, Energy Policy. 52 (2013) 117–125.
interest them [7]. [2] Y. Strengers, Smart Energy Technologies in
Everyday Life: Smart Utopia?, Palgrave Macmillan, New
VI. CONCLUSION York, 2013.
The current development of smart grids is chiefly done [3] G. Wallenborn, “How to attribute power to
through the combination of an individualist basis (reflected in consumers? When epistemology and politics converge”, in
the economist’s ontology) and a large technological grid Sustainable Consumption, Ecology and Fair Trade, E. Zaccaï
(engineer’s ontology). We have however observed that other (ed.) London, Routledge, 2007, pp. 57-69.
developments are possible and even desirable for some parts of [4] E. Shove, M. Pantzar, M. Watson, The Dynamics of
the population. These configurations would rest upon Social Practice: Everyday Life and how it Changes, SAGE
community levels, direct exchanges of electricity among Publications Ltd, Los Angeles, 2012.
neighbours and “ecological” interests. Flexibility at this level [5] M. Akrich, The de-scription of technical objects, in:
might be bigger because it would be based on interpersonal Shap. Technol. Soc., 1992: pp. 205–224.
relationships and a higher trust among concerned actors. We [6] N. Marres, Material Participation: Technology, the
are exploring these issues through collaborative sessions with Environment and Everyday Publics, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
users. We are nevertheless aware that this perspective goes [7] L. Kuijer, A.D. Jong, Identifying design opportunities
against incumbent interests and will require a political change for reduced household resource consumption: exploring
that takes seriously the place of nonhumans. practices of thermal comfort, J Des. Res. 10 (2012) 67.
.