Do solar households want demand response and shared electricity data? Exploring motivation, ability and opportunity in Australia

Abstract

The success of Australia's energy transition is dependent on households’ motivation, ability and opportunity to participate in it. This involves technologically-mediated participation in demand response, such as sharing control of solar or battery assets or sharing electricity data use/generation data with third parties. Applying the Motivation Opportunity Ability (MOA) framework, this paper uses in-depth interviews and speculative design with 39 Australian solar panel owners (“prosumers”) to understand the values and concerns driving their motivation and ability to participate. Fairness, autonomy, control, trust, privacy and collectivism affect participants’ motivation to curtail energy use, share control of solar/battery assets and share energy data, yet motivation does not guarantee ability to participate. The paper contributes and operationalises a provisional method for scoring Motivation, Ability in the MOA framework, toward better understanding customers’ potential use or participation in future energy technologies and interactions. This quantification overcomes limitations of existing scoring systems which do not adequately account for negative (rather than simply low) motivation. Findings suggest that increasing users’ ability with emergent technologies requires first increasing familiarity and further avenues for more involved consumer participation in the design of energy futures.