Who ‘Uses’ Smart Grids? The Evolving Nature of User Representations in Layered Infrastructures

This article studies the anticipated use and users of smart energy technologies and the contribution of these technologies to energy sustainability. It focuses on smart grids and smart energy meters. Qualitative accounts given by European technology developers and experts reveal how they understand the final use and social impacts of these technologies. The article analyses these accounts and compares the UK’s smart meter rollout with experiences from other European countries, especially Finland, to provide insights into the later adoption stages of smart energy and how its impacts have evolved. The analysis underscores significant differences in the likely intensity and manner of user engagement with smart grids and meters. Main differences lie between engagement with existing technologies and with smart that technologies that are expected to mature sometime in the next decade; and in whether the ‘user’ is the user of smart meters or the user of an entire layer of new energy services and applications. By using the strategic approach developed in the article, smart grid developers and experts can give more explicit attention to recognising the descriptions of 'users' in smart grid projects and to the feasibility of these expectations of 'use' in comparison to the possibilities and limits of energy services and applications in different country contexts. The examination of user representations can also point out the need for further technology and service development if some of the envisioned user profiles and user actions appear unrealistic for presently available technologies.