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.

Background

Typically, demand side management (DSM) for private homes treat households as a homogeneous group and neglect the different motivations, needs and scope of action potential of different consumer groups. This was one of the core results of the previous Task SLA 1.0 and has led to a lack of target group-specific incentive mechanisms and participation opportunities. How diversity of consumption and decision-making patterns of different user groups can be taken into account in the context of DSM, addressed in a gender- and diversity-specific manner, and integrated via participation offers for different flexibility potentials. In this regard, energy communities could be a powerful concept for addressing a great diversity of citizens collectively and foster trust towards energy efficiency applications and demand side management mechanisms. Therefore, in this project, community-based energy projects are analysed as a promising instrument for promoting acceptance through incremental participation.

Objectives

The aim of the Task ‘Social License to Automate 3.0’ (SLA 3.0) is to provide in-depth knowledge and stakeholder-specific recommendations on how to promote user acceptance and the granting of a social license to automate in the context of DSM programs.

Methodology

By building and sharing knowledge through case study analysis and expert collaboration across the participating countries, the Task constitutes a platform for reflective, cutting-edge interdisciplinary research to facilitate exploiting the full potential of energy communiites regarding the obtaining of a social license.

Benefits

Phase 3

Austria:

Philipp Novakovits holds degrees in Environmental and Bioresource Management, in Energetic Exploitation of Renewable Raw Materials as well
as in Building Technology. Before joining Burgenland Energie, he worked in consulting and research on renewable energy and energy efficiency projects at national and international level. As Innovation Manager at Burgenland Energie, he leads the development and implementation of the company’s innovation strategy and manages its portfolio of research and innovation projects. His work focuses on digitalisation, flexibility, and customer-centred energy solutions, bridging the gap between technical innovation and practical application. He has a strong interest in integrating new technologies, business models, and community-based approaches to drive the energy transition in practice.”

Tanja Jurasszovich is a researcher at Forschung Burgenland. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics. For many years, she worked as a macroeconomic expert specializing in specific areas of national accounts and distribution-related issues at the intersection of macroeconomic and microeconomic income data. Her current research activities focus on macroeconomic questions as well as quantitative and qualitative socio-economic and social aspects related to the energy transition.

Monika Millendorfer is a research assistant at Forschung Burgenland. She has been a member of the Energy Transition research group since 2020, where she focuses on quantitative and qualitative social science research. Her work focuses in particular on data collection, the design and implementation of focus groups and interviews, needs analyses, and the development and evaluation of questionnaire studies.

Christian Pfeiffer is a senior researcher at Forschung Burgenland and a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences Burgenland. He holds a Master’s degree in Statistics and leads the interdisciplinary research area Energy and Society at the Center for Energy Transition. His research focuses on quantitative methods at the intersection of social sciences, economics, and engineering, with an emphasis on statistical modeling, experimental design, and predictive as well as prescriptive analytics.

Australia:

Bahareh Berenjforoush Azar is a lecturer and researcher in natural resource management at the University of Technology Sydney. Her work focuses on the social, economic, and behavioural dimensions of the energy transition, with particular emphasis on consumer trust, energy literacy, and equitable policy reform. She leads research involving mixed-methods data collection, including community-based consultations, focus groups, and co-design sessions with diverse consumer groups, contributing to a deeper understanding of how households interact with evolving energy systems.

Belgium: 

Mojtaba Eliassi (Th!nk)

Leen Peters (Th!nk)

Switzerland:

Selin Yilmaz is an assistant professor in the Institute of Geography and Sustainability at University of Lausanne. She is an experienced STS researcher with competencies in both theoretical and applied research in the field of energy with inter- and trans-disciplinary methods, with a strong interest in environmental issues and sustainability transitions. She conducts forward-looking research with in-depth analyses of institutions and governance and practice changes in the energy transition experiments to explore the possibility of how these processes and practices can be improved and promoted to accelerate just and inclusive energy transition towards sustainability. She zooms in and zooms out onto micro and macro processes to culminate in more holistic research strategies that help offer more comprehensive and valid explanations for energy transformations.

Devon Wemyss is based at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland and conducts research at the intersection of society and technology to advance sustainability. Adopting an inter- and transdisciplinary approach, she works across disciplines and perspectives, collaborating closely with partners from research and practice to co-create solutions for a sustainable future. Recent projects include developing energy flexibility solutions for residential areas in living lab settings and supporting the integration of societal perspectives into energy system modelling. Earlier work has focused on understanding the potential of digital tools for sufficient and efficient energy consumption, co-creating behavioural interventions with household consumers, and collaborating with energy startups for new energy system innovation.

Ange Martin’s is a PhD student in environmental sciences at the Institute of Geography and Sustainability, University of Lausanne. In his PhD, Ange adopts a sociotechnical perspective, focusing on identifying socio-technical innovations and the resulting socio-technical changes in energy communities in Switzerland Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. Employing an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary methodologies, his key research questions include understanding social
processes, socio-technical dimensions of renewable energy communities and their indicators, strategies and scales of governance, citizen empowerment to organize energy communities, in which local populations appropriate the question of energy.

United States:

Dr. Edy MacDonald is a Principal Market Research Specialist at the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), serving the capital region of California. SMUD aims to achieve carbon zero by 2030, and Edy conducts research to support customers in electrification efforts, particularly in transitioning to heat pump water heaters and HVAC systems. She has also conducted research and published on social license to operate, exploring the public’s perceptions of novel technologies for environmental benefits.

Phase 1

Norway: Marianne Ryghaug, Ida Marie Henriksen

Netherlands: Zofia Lukszo, Rishabh Ghotge

Switzerland: Selin Yilmaz, Christian Winzer, Julien L. Michellod

Austria: Tara Esterl, Lisa Diamond, Regina Hemm and Peter Fröhlich

Sweden: Cecilia Katzeff

Australia: Declan Kuch, Sophie Adams

2021

Final report launch webinar

2020

Australian UsersTCP Social Science Workshop (Invitation Only), 3-4 December 2020.

Seminar presentation – ANU Battery Grid Storage Integration Project Willing to Participate in VPP – user report 1 December 2020

Monash Energy Institute webinar on Participation (or not) in automated energy systems, 19 November 2020. Full session on Youtube here

Conference presentation, MoneyLabX Economythologies, 6 November, Canberra, Australia, ‘Thinking Energy As Money’

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 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

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 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. (See report in publications tab)

Conference presentation introducing the Annex at Symposium Energieinnovation, Graz, Austria,12-14 February 2020

2019

UsersTCP Workshop at the Asia-Pacific Solar Research Conference, December 2019, Canberra, Australia. 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.

‘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’.

2024

2023

2021

• Social License to Automate Final Report – October 2021 (208 pages)  https://doi.org/10.47568/4XR122
• Social License to Automate Executive Summary – October 2021 (32 pages) https://doi.org/10.47568/4XR123

• Adams, S., Kuch, D., Diamond, L., Fröhlich, P., Henriksen, I. M., Katzeff, C., … & Yilmaz, S. (2021). Social license to automate: A critical review of emerging approaches to electricity demand management. Energy Research & Social Science, 80, 102210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102210 (preprint)

2020

• Solar Analytics Australian research collaboration: VPP Solar + Battery report. November 2020
• 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
• ‘Towards a Social License to Automate Demand Side Management: Challenges, Perspectives and Regional Aspects’ paper 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
• ‘Towards a Social License to Automate Demand Side Management: Challenges, Perspectives and Regional Aspects’ presentation slides  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

2019

• Social License to Automate Task Launch Event Slides –  contains slides from the presentations at the Social License to Automate Task launch event held at UNSW in Sydney on 25 October 2019