Smart Meter as Technical Brick for Ecological Transition, or the New Knowledge Capital for Industries?

Abstract

This article looks at the economy-politico of the Linky Smart meter initiatives in France as part of the Ecological Transition campaign proposed by EDF, the State Utility Company. Introducing Linky, EDF brought forward the idea of R&D consortium composed of dozens of industrial companies in home appliances products. Linky is claimed to be digitally eco-friendly and could be the fundamental movement toward the ecological transition. This research, sketched through a qualitative method, an in-depth interview with dozen key informants, empirically proved and argued that despite the ecological campaign of Linky, the device could play a central role as knowledge capital for the R&D industry members. At this point, research results briefly argue at the first place, EDF, as the leading institution, introduced Linky to be generally more reliable to the current digital home appliances market development. In bearing so, this article should provide a critical point of view in which the ecological transition campaign is on the cutting edge of the market development rather than a clear view of the ecological transition.