Design for Values in Smart Electricity Grid Components

Abstract

Long before the existence of today’s computer, information and communication technologies, the design of current energy grids has been set. Nowadays, ‘conventional’ energy grids – including electricity, gas and thermal grids – are being transformed into smart grids, which consist of various technological components such as smart meters, energy storage, distributed generation and smart homes. In the transition towards smart grids, the EU aims to replace 80% of all energy meters with smart meters by 2020 and the national Dutch rollout of smart meters has started at the first of January 2015. There have been – and still are – challenges, controversies, public resistance, consternation and concerns based on values during the design process of smart meters, legislative procedure of requiring smart meters in households, and rollout of smart meters. Academic literature is written regarding the importance of values in the design and development of technologies and its influence on public acceptance, resistance and consternation. Still, there are challenges concerning the incorporation of values into smart grid components, especially smart meters, since consumer perceptions and other social interest are excluded from the design process. The rollout of smart meters and successful operation of smart grids gets threatened if smart meters and other smart grid components are socially rejected.

In order stimulate the incorporation of values into smart grid components, this research has the objective “to provide input for the design for values in smart grid components by uncovering stakeholder interpretations of the values that are at stake for smart grid components”. The values that are affected by smart grid components are identified where after value descriptions and stakeholder interpretations of the values at stake are analysed to understand these values and their background. The perspective of two of the most important stakeholders – production chain organizations and end-users – is highlighted. Values are differentiated per smart grid component, stakeholder category, distinguished into supporting- or final values, and (potential) inter-value or intra-value conflicts are identified. This provides input to answer the main research question: “Which values are at stake for smart grid components according to academic literature, how are these values interpreted by Dutch stakeholders according to national newspapers and how are these values related?”.

After gaining a theoretical background regarding values in ethics of technology and smart grid components, an initial list of values, including their conceptualizations, is created. This has served as input for a literature review and content analysis which are done to identify and analyse values within smart grid components literature and within The Netherlands. The initial list of values is based on values that are often mentioned in value sensitive design literature. The literature review is done on academic literature articles that pay attention to the acceptance and acceptability of smart grid components and showed which values out of the initial list are actually affected by smart grid components and whether new values emerged. In total, twenty-five literature articles are reviewed and value-laden perceptions, barriers, motivators or factors for acceptance are uncovered, causing the initial list of values to be enriched with new values. In order to uncover stakeholder interpretations of the values at stake within The Netherlands, 56 Dutch newspaper articles have been analysed by means of a qualitative content analysis. Value-laden statements and citations are distracted, recorded and coded into values while using the list of values, their conceptualizations and coding principles that have been set in the methodology chapter. A distinction has been made between positive, negative or ambiguous attitudinal directions in which stakeholders have expressed value-laden statements towards smart grid components. Values are coded in a positive attitudinal direction when they are being enhanced or the stakeholder is in favour of using a smart grid component according to how the statement is being presented or cited. On the other hand, values are coded in a negative attitudinal direction when they are being hindered or the stakeholder is against the use of a smart grid component according to how the statement is being presented or cited. This provides insights on how these values are supported or hindered from the perspective of different stakeholders.

Within the literature review and content analysis results, values are differentiated per smart grid component, stakeholder category, and attitudinal direction. Barriers, motivator, factors or values-laden statements are explained in order to understand value descriptions and stakeholder interpretations. The literature review has shown that values are primarily expressed in a negative attitudinal direction within academic articles, meaning they are related to concerns based on values that are causing barriers for the design, development, and acceptance of smart grid components. This means that the majority of the values are being hindered due to the implementation of smart grid technologies, taking into account that the academic literature is merely representing the perspective of end-users. Values that have been most frequently recorded out the academic literature are economic development, privacy, autonomy, trust, environmental sustainability, and information cyber security. The content analysis does not only represent Dutch end-users but also stakeholders out of the production chain, research and consultancy, policy-maker and regulators, and the media, which can be considered as a stakeholder itself. Therefore, the values that are identified during the content analysis appeared to be more ambiguous, since both pros and cons were discussed and more stakeholder perspectives are represented within the newspaper articles. This means that for individual values, often, value-laden statements or interpretations are expressed in both positive and negative attitudinal directions, meaning values are supported or hindered depending on the stakeholder perspective that is taken. In general, production chain organizations report on values in a more positive attitudinal direction and end-users in a more negative attitudinal direction. Values that have been recorded most frequent within the content analysis are economic development, environmental sustainability, transparency, privacy, information cyber security, autonomy, and distributive justice. The academic literature includes the values security of supply, universal usability, and safety and health which are not mentioned in Dutch newspapers (yet), while the value of flexibility is mentioned in newspaper articles but not within the literature. This suggest that no events, incidents, or upfront concerns occurred or have been raised within The Netherlands concerning security of supply, universal usability, and safety and health. However, these values might become relevant in the nearby future within The Netherlands as well. Therefore, all values out of the literature review and content analysis are combined in order to identify supporting relationships or (potential) values conflicts.

Using the literature review and content analysis results, a network of related values is mapped that is based on overlapping value descriptions, stakeholder interpretations and interpretations of the results. The purpose of this network is to provide an overall overview of which values are connected through which descriptions or interpretations and it has helped to analyse the nature of some relationships after zooming in on these value connections. Depending on the stakeholder perspective that is being taken, final values have various supporting values, which are depicted in separated figures. The production chain and end-users are represented best within the content analysis and the most frequently mentioned final values include: economic development, environmental sustainability, reliability, privacy, distributive justice and security of supply. Three inter-value conflicts have been identified between: transparency and information cyber security, transparency and privacy, and economic development and autarky. Potential intra-value conflicts are identified based on controversies and concerns stated in the Dutch newspapers regarding the values of distributive justice, autonomy, privacy, and information cyber security. Since supporting relationships and value conflicts depend on the stakeholder perspective that is being taken, the overall network of related values can be used in future research and practical implications to identify more supporting and conflicting relationships from the perspective of other stakeholders, who may have different thoughts on which values are considered to be important or when new stakeholder interpretation for the values at stake arise. This research contributes in shaping design for values within the energy domain as well as delivering a method to map related values by means of overlapping descriptions and interpretations and to analyse the nature of these relationships thereafter. Stakeholders, especially policy-makers and production chain organizations are recommended to use this knowledge in the design- and governance of smart grid components in order to enhance the acceptance, implementation and deployment of smart grids and their components.