Household roles in the future electricity grid

QC 20260206

Abstract

Our inhabitable world is heavily threatened by multiple ecological crises that are directly related to humanity’s use of resources and our fossil-fuelled energy systems. Transitioning to a system powered by renewable energy will also have social and political consequences. Sweden is a relevant context for studying these dimensions, as a nation with ambitious sustainability targets and a steady supply of hydro, nuclear, bio-energy and wind, while also supporting end-consumers through warm-rent apartments, district heating and smart meters. 

The residential sector accounts for a significant amount of global energy consumption and associated emissions. Households are also highly affected by technologies such as smart meters, expectations of flexible energy use, and rising energy costs. This thesis studies the roles of households in the future Swedish electricity grid. This involves exploring policy and industry expectations of households, how these expectations relate to households’ everyday lives, and how understandings of household roles can be renegotiated to be more just and inclusive. The empirical material was gathered within two research projects studying the roll-out of new smart meters in Swedish households and the development of a Swedish energy community. The material was mainly collected through a literature review of policy documents and interview studies with industry, households and energy community stakeholders. 

This thesis consists of a cover essay and four appended papers. Paper A critically analyses policy expectations on households to contribute to demand flexibility in the future smart grid. Expectations of policy and stakeholders on households are also examined in papers B, C and D. In papers B and C, stakeholder expectations are contrasted with household everyday lives and experiences of the smart meter roll-out. Paper D focuses on the framing and prefiguration of an energy community, and its proposed roles for households. Papers B, C and D aim to suggest how the roles of households can be renegotiated to be more inclusive and just. 

This thesis contributes by illustrating how Swedish policy and industry envision households as active and motivated actors in the smart grid. Narratives of desired energy futures describe aware and active customers on the one hand, and a willingness to automate consumption on the other. Households are expected to prioritise comfort, convenience and simplicity. Similar expectations exist in an energy community setting, where households are portrayed as consumers and shareholders, not to be disturbed. 

Household everyday life is incompatible with these visions, as the concept and importance of demand flexibility is unfamiliar to households. Second, households show scepticism towards using smart technology that potentially affects their everyday routines or gathers sensitive data. The energy community is primarily framed as an energy efficiency project and as a grid alleviator, prioritising financial benefits. These gaps and mismatches have several implications to be addressed for a just transition. First, a diversity within and between households needs to be acknowledged. Second, demand flexibility implemented through demand tariffs and automation risks excluding and punishing those with less capacity to be flexible. While energy communities are suggested as a way of decentralising power, our findings illustrate how such structures are governed by a small group of energy experts, echoing the centralised view of the system and households in it. This raises questions about what values drive the energy transition, which households are recognised, how they are invited to participate in the energy transition and how burdens and benefits can be distributed more justly.

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