The precursors of acceptance for a prosumer-led transition to a future smart grid

ABSTRACT

Centralised electricity grids around the world are transitioning towards greater renewable distributed storage, and pivotal to transition is the relationship between prosumers and utilities. Evidence of this changing relationship is observed through a three-year (2016–2019) Australian smart grid pilot. This study investigates the precursors of technology acceptance of smart batteries, because a lack of acceptance presents risks to implementation. We draw on: scholarly literature, government documents, interviews and observations of the pilot implementation for a qualitative, exploratory, longitudinal and thematic analysis. We outline four findings: Firstly, we suggest a reframing of the influence of agency in IoT-systems: The concept of ‘behaviour’ might be conditionally substituted for ‘agency’ in the case of smart grids. Secondly, we reconfirm prosumers require different agency-focused engagement than is currently offered if private investment in batteries is to be encouraged. Thirdly, prosumers do not always desire increased agency – there is a trade-off between agency and trust under the duress of high system complexity. Finally, we extend a variation of the technology acceptance model (known as RITAM) to include Perceived Trust, Agency and Complexity in relation to smart grids, and note these acceptance precursors pose both a risk and an enhancer to smart grid implementation.

KEYWORDS:

• Trust
• agency
• technology acceptance model
• residential smart battery systems
• Consumer acceptance
• energy system transition

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the interviewees: the CONSORT participants, research partners, installers, and policy experts. This research was supported through a doctoral scholarship funded by ARENA.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Human Ethics

The householder interviews were conducted under the CONSORT project ethics, H0015886. The installers were interviewed and shadowed under a PhD ethics, as were the interviews of the CONSORT project partners under Human Ethics H0016022.

Additional information

Funding

This study was part of a project supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency [Project No 2015/RND006].

Notes on contributors

Veryan Patterson-Hann

Dr Veryan Patterson-Hann is currently an energy policy analyst with the State Government of Tasmania and holds a post-doctoral University Associate role in energy policy with the University of Tasmania, School of Social Sciences. Veryan’s PhD studied the implementation of a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) pilot (CONSORT, 2016–2019). Veryan was a Lead Country Contributor for Australia between 2016–2020 on the Global Status Report on Renewable Energy for REN21, under the UNEP.

Phillipa Watson

Dr Phillipa Watson is a Research Fellow in the School of Technology, Environments and Design at the University of Tasmania. She has worked to facilitate sustainable change in built environments for over 20 years, integrating design understanding with socially and environmentally focused research. Phillipa has research expertise across a number of topics including socio-technical transitions, household experiences, behaviour-change and distributed energy users.