Design for values in smart grid systems

Abstract

Smart grid systems (SGSs) are often considered as enablers to the transition to a sustainable economy and power system, because they integrate ICT with renewable energy into the electricity grid. Seemingly, there are societal concerns regarding the impact of SGSs, which underlie ethical values. Due to a lack of understanding and thus consideration of public values in the design of SGSs, these emerging innovations are not adopted on a large-scale yet. This research project argues that public values can be acknowledged as relevant factors (i.e. social barriers and drivers) for the adoption of smart grid technologies. As such, contestation of public values might lead to deadlock of technology implementation. This thesis aims to provide insights about ethical values that can be associated with SGSs. For this purpose, a literature review is carried out related to this topic in order to identify and conceptualise values at stake for smart grids and their related technologies. Thereafter, a qualitative content analysis of the British public debate on SGSs (assumed to be represented by national newspaper reports) is carried out in order to empirically uncover the normative stances (i.e. ethical values) of smart grid stakeholders and how those values are related. The result is a network of related values and conceptualisations. This network can be used by the energy industry and policy-makers to tackle challenges in designing for values in SGSs, from both a technical and institutional perspective. As a result, ethically and socially better energy systems can be reached. Additionally, the findings serve as a basis for future research regarding the relative importance of the identified values, the dynamics of the public debate, translation of values into design requirements, and to expand value sensitive design into the energy domain through case studies on SGSs in different countries.