Scripting, control, and privacy in domestic smart grid technologies: Insights from a Danish pilot study

Abstract

Smart grid research in Denmark has increasingly turned its focus on aggregator trading flexibility achieved by remotely controlling appliances, studying the technologies involved rather than the control. This paper investigates how different types of control were envisioned and designed for a two-year smart grid trial in Denmark with 20 private households. Using the notion of script, processes of in- and de-scription were used to gain insights into perceived and enacted control. Based on empirical data from 26 interviews and three workshops, we show how the in-scription process of control can be characterized as dynamic and includes negotiations between the residents and those responsible for the project. Second, we show how users de-script control, and third, we outline the project owners’ reaction to the user’s de-scription of control.The design of the remote control appears to have promoted a preference for ‘passive consumers' within a smart grid. This design prompts questions about how the users in smart grid development are envisioned and configured using different ideas about control. With current development and the need for additional energy reductions, consumers who invest in photovoltaic solar cells and electric vehicles lose interest in delivering their energy to the system level.