Smart grids within the transition to sustainable energy systems Smart grid systems are widely considered as crucial in the energy transition, because they allow for greater flexibility in bridging temporal gaps between electricity supply and demand in renewable energy systems. To do so, the systems make use of information and communication technologies to measure and monitor supply and demand in real-time, on the basis of which the use of renewable electricity can be optimized. Despite this important role in future renewable energy systems, the introduction of smart grids comes with serious moral repercussions, for example for data privacy and security, autonomy and control, or distributive justice. This dissertation analyzes the moral implications of smart grid systems, and provides guidance for designers and policymakers on how to address these implications in smart grid technologies and institutions, with the ultimate motive to increase the systems’ ethical acceptability. Interdisciplinary in nature, the research contributes to value-sensitive design, institutional analysis, and energy justice. It is in line with academic endeavors to enrich energy research with insights from the social sciences and humanities. It thereby adds to a literature that is dominated by technological approaches and presents smart grids as a technical ‘fix’ to make electricity systems more sustainable. The main body of this dissertation consists of four papers that, collectively, address the ethical acceptability of smart grids. It combines conceptual insights with empirical investigations. Conceptual investigations draw from ethics of technology, value-sensitive design and theories of justice used in the energy justice literature. Empirical methods involve qualitative content analysis and case study research to understand affected stakeholders’ value conceptions and perceptions of a technology...

Many academic approaches that claim to consider the broad set of social and ethical issues relevant to energy systems sit side-by-side without conversation. This paper considers three such literatures: Value Sensitive Design, Responsible Research and Innovation and the Energy Justice framework. We argue that whilst definitions of these concepts appear, on face value, to be united by a common normative goal – improving the social outcomes and mitigating sensitivities at the interface of technological energy systems and human livelihoods –, their existence in academic silos has obscured complementarities, which, once synthesized, might increase their overall academic and practical relevance. This paper fills the emergent gap of critically discussing the concepts and their strengths and challenges as well as how they could contribute to each other. It compares: (1) the things that they claim to tackle, (2) the solutions they claim to provide and (3) the points that clearly distinguish one approach from another (if any at all). Not only does this make this paper the first of its kind, but it also makes it an impactful one. With each concept gaining various degrees of support in academia and practice, our discussion reveals where tensions exist and where positive gains can be made. We identify five opportunities for collaboration and integration with implications for the achievement of energy systems that are acceptable from a societal and ethical perspective.

In future urban energy systems, smart grid systems will be crucial for the integration of renewable energy. However, their deployment has moral implications, for example regarding data privacy, user autonomy, or distribution of responsibilities. ‘Energy justice’ is one of the most comprehensive frameworks to address these implications, but remains limited regarding smart grids, and regarding concrete guidelines for designers and policymakers. In this paper, we fill this gap by answering the following research question: How do design choices in smart grid projects impact energy justice? Thereby, four smart grid pilot projects are evaluated in a comparative qualitative case study research design. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and a content analysis. Our findings contribute to the energy justice literature with insights regarding the design for distributive, recognition, and procedural justice. They underscore the importance of fairness in data governance, participatory design, user control and autonomy, technology inclusiveness, and the design for expansion and replication. Future research should explore the feasibility to govern smart grids as commons and the relationship between trust and perceptions of justice. We conclude with policy recommendations for funding future smart grid experiments and for facilitating the implementation of storage through electricity sector regulation.

In efforts to mitigate climate change, energy systems are undergoing a profound transition towards low-carbon systems. This transition does not only involve changes in energy technologies but importantly it is shaped and incentivized by changes in the rules and regulations that govern energy markets. It is a normative transition, focused at achieving secure, affordable, and sustainable energy provision. In a multidisciplinary approach, this paper proposes a framework that highlights the role of normative principles - i.e. values - in socio-technical systems. Building on the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, the analysis explicates how values relate to institutional change in the case of the energy transition.

The digital revolution of the energy system promises a new sustainable energy future, but risks security and privacy. How to balance or at least compare these risks against other values like more sustainability is far from obvious and poses severe challenges for the orientation knowledge of technology assessment (TA). This paper explores the Capability Approach (CA) as a normative orientation for TA that allows addressing these challenges. We use two scenarios for the current digitalization in the energy sector as case studies.

The current transition towards low-carbon energy systems does not only involve changes in technologies but is also shaped by changes in the rules and regulations (i.e., the institutions) that govern energy systems. Institutional change can be influenced by changes in core values - normative principles such as affordability, security of supply, and sustainability. Analyzing this influence, however, has been hindered by the absence of a structured framework that highlights the role of values in institutional change processes. This paper presents an interdisciplinary framework explicating how values influence institutional change in the case of the energy transition. We build on a dynamic framework for institutional change that combines the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework with the concept of social learning. This basic analytical framework is expanded by conceptualizations of values in moral philosophy, institutional economics, and social psychology. Our framework offers researchers and policy makers an analytical tool to identify how values are embedded in infrastructure and existing regulation and how values shape communities and behavior. It explains how value controversies can trigger social learning processes that eventually can result in structural change. Thus, this framework allows analyzing institutional change over time as well as comparing change patterns across spatial and temporal contexts.

Smart grid technologies are considered an important enabler in the transition to more sustainable energy systems because they support the integration of rising shares of volatile renewable energy sources into electricity networks. To implement them in a large scale, broad acceptance in societies is crucial. However, a growing body of research has revealed societal concerns with these technologies. To achieve sustainable energy systems, such concerns should be taken into account in the development of smart grid technologies. In this paper, we show that many concerns are related to moral values such as privacy, justice, or trust. We explore the effect of moral values on the acceptance of smart grid technologies. The results of our systematic literature review indicate that moral values can be both driving forces and barriers for smart grid acceptance. We propose that future research striving to understand the role of moral values as factors for social acceptance can benefit from an interdisciplinary approach bridging literature in ethics of technology with technology acceptance models.

Smart grid systems are considered as key enablers in the transition to more sustainable energy systems. However, debates reflect concerns that they affect social and moral values such as privacy and justice. The energy justice framework has been proposed as a lens to evaluate social and moral aspects of changes in energy systems. This paper seeks to investigate this proposition for smart grid systems by exploring the public debates in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Findings show that smart grids have the potential to effectively address justice issues, for example by facilitating small-scale electricity generation and transparent and reliable billing. It is a matter of debate, however, whether current smart grid designs contribute to cost and energy savings, advance a more equitable and democratic energy system, or reinforce distributive and procedural injustices. The increased use of information and communication technology raises value conflicts on privacy and cyber security, which are related to energy justice. This research contributes by conceptualizing energy justice in the context of smart grids for the first time. The energy justice framework is broadened by including values and value conflicts that pertain directly to the increased use of information and communication technology. For policy makers and designers of smart grids, the paper provides guidance for considering interconnected social and moral values in the design of policies and smart grid technologies.

Smart grid technologies are considered an important enabler in the transition to more sustainable energy systems, because they support the integration of rising shares of volatile renewable energy sources into electricity networks. However, they are not yet adopted on a large scale. Societal concerns are among the barriers which might lead to a lack of acceptance among end users. In this paper, we show that many societal concerns are related to moral values such as privacy, justice, or trust. We explore the effect of societal concerns in terms of moral values on the acceptance of smart grid technologies. Our results indicate that moral values can be both motivators and barriers for smart grid acceptance. We argue for a more systematic inclusion of relevant values into studies of smart grid acceptance.

Smart grid systems are considered an important enabler in the transition to more sustainable energy systems. However, societal concerns with these emerging technologies reflect core moral and social values such as privacy, security, or justice. In this paper, we conduct a qualitative content analysis to explore the broad range of values underlying arguments used in the public debate on smart grid systems in the Netherlands. Our results show that publicly available documents contain value-laden statements suitable to derive values and their relevance to different societal groups. A wide range of values underlie arguments pro and contra smart energy systems in the Dutch public debate. Our findings provide a basis for including social and moral dimensions into system design and balance value concerns with the goal to achieve a more sustainable energy system both from a political and a technological perspective.

The transition to a more sustainable personal transportation sector requires the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. However, a dominant design has not yet emerged and a standards battle is being fought between battery and hydrogen fuel cell powered electric vehicles. The aim of this paper is to analyze which factors are most likely to influence the outcome of this battle, thereby reducing the uncertainty in the industry regarding investment decisions in either of these technologies. We examine the relevant factors for standard dominance and apply a multi-criteria decision-making method, best worst method, to determine the relative importance of these factors. The results indicate that the key factors include technological superiority, compatibility, and brand reputation and credibility. Our findings show that battery powered electric vehicles have a greater chance of winning the standards battle. This study contributes to theory by providing further empirical evidence that the outcome of standards battles can be explained and predicted by applying factors for standard success. We conclude that technology dominance in the automotive industry is mostly driven by technological characteristics and characteristics of the format supporter.

Drawing from international branding literature and schema incongruity research, the present study (a) assesses foreign brand communication effectiveness by juxtaposing three alternative advertising approaches based on local, foreign and global consumer culture imagery, and (b) investigates the mechanism underlying consumers' responses to foreign brand communication. In a 2 (foreign brand schema vs. control). ×. 3 (local vs. foreign vs. global ad type) full-factorial, between-subjects experiment with a consumer sample, we find that ads portraying global consumer culture imagery only moderately violate consumer perceptions of brand foreignness and lead to more favorable ad attitudes. Furthermore, moderated-mediation analysis shows that when the global ad imagery is meaningfully linked to the foreign brand, perceptions of credibility increase and positively influence ad attitude. However, if consumers cannot make sense of the ad, this effect is reversed and negatively influences subsequent responses. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed and future research directions identified.