Automated demand side management is a critical component of the energy transition, but to unfold its full potential, end-user acceptance needs to be achieved. A clear understanding of acceptance conditions and their variation across contexts and user segments is needed and system-related interaction aspects are central to this acceptance. To explore such factors, we have developed a number of questions on end-user interaction properties of the system based on critical aspects of trust in automation. These factors will be integrated within a larger framework encompassing regulatory, institutional, socio-technical, energypractice-related, and interactional factors determining the granting of a “social license to automate” and applied in an international comparison of country profiles.
________________________________________________________ Workshop proceedings Automation Experience across Domains In conjunction with CHI'20, April 26th, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA Copyright © 2020 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Website: http://everyday-automation.tech-experience.at
Automation; demand side management (DSM), social license; trust; interaction.
• Human-centered computing→HCI design and evaluation methods
The smart grid as the future of the energy supply
network centers around the integration of a
significantly increased share of renewable energy
resources, which are considerably more volatile than
traditional fossil-fueled energy production [
Understanding the factors that determine the granting
of “a social license to automate”– a term stemming
from sociological research denoting the informal
approval by an affected community [
Automated demand-side management systems typically offer their users ways to interact with them, , e.g. through an online portal, an app, an in-home-display, alternative ambient displays, or messaging. As central points of contact between consumer and automation these interfaces deserve specific attention and the present paper provides such attention by focusing on user interaction aspects of a social license to automate. In the following, we present a short overview of factors that are crucial for acceptance and trust in automation and introduce an overview of user interaction aspects in end-user systems that are likely to impact the granting of a social license to automate.
Determinants for user interaction
The concept of a social license to automate was
originally developed to express acceptance and
approval of mining by locally affected communities.
Aspects of this concept relating to user interaction
components are perceptions of benefit, perceived
reliability regarding keeping promises made, perceived
fairness, an open dialogue, perception of a long-term
contribution to the well-being of the whole region,
shared decision-making, and perceived transparency
[
Much of this can be found among factors known to play
a central role in technology acceptance and trust
1 https://userstcp.org/annex/social-license-to-automate/
building. Besides overall usefulness and ease of use
[e.g.,7], further prominent factors are the provision
and communication of control though (nuanced)
choices, transparency, system reliability, the
communication of appropriate privacy and security
measures, and the communication of accountability
[
Based on these factors, we identified aspects that relate to these acceptance and trust requirements and have an according potential to impact the granting of a social license to automate through deliberate design decisions on user interaction features and their design. In Table 1, an initial overview of identified relevant aspects is provided which will form the basis of a short questionnaire that will be distributed to project leaders, researchers, stakeholders and end-user representatives worldwide within the network of the partners’ network of the IEA TCP on User-centered Energy Systems. These aspects describe important information communicated to towards end-users such as the purpose and procedure of automation, the achievable benefits, control options, status information, as well as security and privacy options. Also, the questionnaire asks about how the information is provided, whether the system provides choices to end-user. Further questions relate to whether and under which circumstances end-users are invited to actively engaged to interact with the system, and how they can get in touch with the organization responsible for the automation.
What does the system communicate to end-users?
system provide choices to the end user and if yes, which ones?
Aims at identifying what information is provided to end users such as purpose explanation, principles underlying information, benefits, control options, information on status, post, and planned processes, as well as security and privacy measures To identify the form(s) per content such as text, graphs, tables, pictorial information, video, audio, non-specific sound or light This concerns beyond opt-in/optout personalization options such as comfort zones, timeframes, or similar, the possibility to intercept or adjust planned automated processed, as well as requirements of direct consent before process start Possible engagement measures might include self-monitoring and feedback, social comparisons, and rewards
Within this paper we have outlined currently ongoing work on understanding user interaction aspects of demand side management and their contribution towards a social license to automate. This questionnaire will be detailed further and integrated within the context of a larger one covering additional questions concerning the previously mentioned socio-technical, institutional, regulatory, energy-practice related, and transversal economic factors. The resulting framework will be used to document and analyze implemented automated demand side management use cases in order to identify the central acceptance and trust factors that determine the granting of a social license to automate.