The Social License to Automate Annex investigates the social dimensions of user engagement with automated technologies in energy systems to understand how end-user trust to automate is built and maintained in different jurisdictions and cultural settings.
Who would you trust to control your air conditioner, battery or washing machine? This question is becoming increasingly important as grid operators and aggregation firms trial automation projects to participate in markets, stabilise electricity delivering during peak periods and build flexibility in power grids increasingly characterised by distributed sites of generation, storage and consumption. Automation technologies facilitate load shifting and shaving in peak demand periods through direct load control and pre-programming of appliances in the home. Their automated character ultimately requires trust in organisations.
As policy and market drivers of decarbonisation accelerate the uptake of distributed energy resources, the need for rapid electricity system responsiveness to the variability of wind and solar supply and variable demand increases. Leveraging the full capacity of this growing, but highly distributed resource requires real-time automated access to the energy sources situated within residential and small-scale commercial systems. Without automation, demand side management is unlikely to provide the electricity system with the fast-acting response needed to manage changing network and system requirements.
The Annex seeks to understand the dynamics of trust and related social dimensions which determine user engagement with automation technologies in demand side management.
By building and sharing knowledge through case study analysis and expert collaboration across the participating countries, the Annex constitutes a platform for reflective, cutting-edge interdisciplinary research and stakeholder engagement on how trust is built and maintained between different energy users and suppliers.
The Annex will identify what is required to build and maintain the ‘social licence’ – which includes user understanding, acceptance and trust – essential to the success of automation technologies for demand side management.
The deliverables include an international report of all cases analysed, individual country case study reports, briefing papers, conference presentations and journal articles.
Confirmed participating member countries include Austria, Australia, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States of America
Annex duration: 25 October 2019 – 25 October 2021
| Country | Role | Name | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | Operating Agent | Dr Declan Kuch School of Humanities and Languages University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia | d.kuch@unsw.edu.au |
| Australia | Operating Agent | Dr Sophie Adams School of Humanities and Languages University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia | s.m.adams@unsw.edu.au |
| Australia | National Expert | Dr Declan Kuch School of Humanities and Languages University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia | d.kuch@unsw.edu.au |
| Australia | National Expert | Dr Sophie Adams School of Humanities and Languages University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia | s.m.adams@unsw.edu.au |
| Netherlands | National Expert | Zofia Lukszo Deft Univeristy of Technology Jaffalaan 5 2600 GA Delft The Netherlands | z.lukszo@tudelft.nl |
| Switzerland | National Expert | Christian Winzer Zurich University of Applied Science (ZHAW) Center for Energy and Environment Bahnhofplatz 12 CH8400 Winterthur | christian.winzer@zhaw.ch |
| Switzerland | National Expert | Selin Yilmaz University of Geneva, Institute for Environmental Sciences (ISE) and Department F. -A. Forel for environmental and aquatic sciences (DEFSE) Faculty of Science Uni Carl-Vogt CH1211 Genève 4 | selin.yilmaz@unige.ch |
19 November 2020: Webinar with Monash University researchers on UsersTCP findings
UsersTCP Workshop and Social Science Roundtable at the
Conference panel, ‘Socialising the automation of flexible residential energy use’ at the Social Studies of Science Society/European Association for the Study of Science and Technology’ Virtual Conference, 18 August 2020.
Conference presentation ‘Insights from the social sciences to understand the customer’s engagement with variable pricing and the prospects for the automation of demand’ at St Gallen Forum for Management of Renewable Energies, St Gallen, Switzerland, September 10-11, 2020
Conference presentation introducing the Annex at Symposium Energieinnovation, Graz, Austria,12-14 February 2020
UsersTCP Workshop at the Citizens of which country claim to trust their energy providers most and why? What are the most successful business models for distributed energy provision? Dr Declan Kuch and A/Prof Iain MacGill address these questions and many more to introduce the newly relaunched User-Centred Energy Systems Technology Collaboration Programme (UsersTCP), outlining the Annexes Australia is involved with and leading. The mission of the UsersTCP is to provide evidence from socio-technical research on the design, social acceptance and usability of clean energy technologies to inform policy making for clean, efficient and secure energy transitions. The workshop will be suitable for industry, government, civil society and consumer stakeholders working on market design and reform, automation, storage, consumer engagement and related issues.
‘Homing in on the keys to DER integration’, PV Magazine Australia – Natalie Filatoff reports on the relaunch of the User-Centred Energy Systems Technology Collaboration Programme (UsersTCP) at the All Energy conference in Melbourne, Australia in October 2019, and the remit of the new Annex ‘Social Licence to Automate’.
EASST/4S August 2020 session ‘Socialising the automation of flexible residential energy use’
A conference session report by Sophie Adams, University of New South Wales; Line Kryger Aargaard, Aalborg University; Ingvild Firman Fjellså, Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Ida Marie Henriksen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Declan Kuch, Western Sydney University; Sophie Nyborg, Technical University of Denmark; Marianne Ryghaug, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Joint Social Science Researcher submission to Australia’s Technology Investment Roadmap paper
Joint submission to Australia’s ‘Technology Investment Roadmap’. Authors: Sophie Adams, University of New South Wales; Sangeetha Chandra-Shekeran, Melbourne University; Rebecca Colvin, Australian National University; Kari Dahlgren, Monash University; Adrian Ford, Melbourne University; Declan Kuch, Western Sydney University; University of New South Wales; Hedda Ransan-Cooper, Australian National University ; Yolande Strengers, Monash University; Hugo Temby, Australian National University; Phillipa Watson, University of Tasmania; Lee White, Australian National University
A Symposium Energieinnovation conference paper by Peter Fröhlich, Tara Esterl, Sophie Adams, Declan Kuch, Selin, Yilmaz, Cecilia Katzeff, Christian Winzer, Lisa Diamond, Johann Schrammel, Zofia Lukszo and Tony Fullelove
A Symposium Energieinnovation conference presentation by Peter Fröhlich, Tara Esterl, Sophie Adams, Declan Kuch, Selin, Yilmaz, Cecilia Katzeff, Christian Winzer, Lisa Diamond, Johann Schrammel, Zofia Lukszo and Tony Fullelove
Social License Launch Event Summary
This document contains notes from the Social License to Automate Annex launch event held at UNSW in Sydney on 25 October 2019.
Social License Launch Event Slides
This document contains slides from the presentations at the Social License to Automate Annex launch event held at UNSW in Sydney on 25 October 2019.
