Demand response and smart technology in theory and practice: Customer experiences and system actors

Energy transitions change the relationships between technologies and human actors. Demand response (DR), the matching of demand to available electricity supply, is a relatively new activity, important for systems that rely on distributed renewable generation. Price-based DR is spreading among residential and small business customers, along with direct control of distributed and aggregated small loads, mostly thermal. In both types of DR, information and communication technology plays a part. This paper contributes to the debates on implementing electricity system transition and on adoption of smart technologies. Through analysis of a large-scale demonstration of highly-distributed smart thermal storage in three European countries, using mixed methods, it supports the claim that DR can usefully be seen as an outcome of interactions between technologies, activities and service expectations. Adopting a broad scope of enquiry to take in customer experiences of DR and the contributions from a range of actors, the paper shows how it was possible to achieve useful levels of aggregated DR in some circumstances. The quality and quantity of DR were influenced by customer experiences of taking part in the demonstration, which in turn were affected by three types of communication: connectivity, control and care. Outcomes also depended on contributions from a range of actors, especially the 'middle actors' who had some direct contact with both customers and programme leaders. Mainstream theory of DR has concentrated on deploying technologies, controls and price signals. The paper demonstrates how, in practice, effectiveness relates to social and organisational as well as technical and economic features of energy systems. It concludes with some implications for design and implementation of DR programmes, and for smart energy policy in general.