How infrastructures and consumers interact: insights from the interface (9-319-15)
Catherine Grandclement, EDF R&D, FranceMagali Pierre, EDF R&D, France
Elizabeth Shove, University of Lancaster - DEMAND Center, United Kingdom
This is a peer-reviewed paper.
Keywords
practices, sociology, smart grid, electric vehicles, consumer construction, infrastructures of consumption, marketsAbstract
This paper is concerned with the process through which energy consumption is “infrastructuralized” into stabilized layers of road networks, buildings and appliances. By “infrastructuralization” of energy consumption, we mean that it is possible to consider that our homes, cars, computers, phones and stoves form part of an infrastructure of consumption linked to systems of production and transportation. As this infrastructure of consumption stabilizes over time, certain levels of consumption get “locked-in”. Energy consumption is embedded into layers of equipment and into the practices they support, constituting an ensemble that is difficult to remove once it is put in place. We postulate that the influence of this infrastructuralization process on energy consumption is not recognized as such because parts of this system, e.g. appliances, are often provided through markets. Markets are often seen as depoliticized worlds where choices are exerted by an individual (“the consumer”) and guided by “objective” and non-controversial criteria such as price, product characteristics and consumer preferences. But are markets such depoliticized worlds? This is what we will discuss in this paper through an examination of how certain things are left to consumer choice depending on how markets are actively constructed and how the infrastructure/appliance boundary is configured. We will use examples from the current development of electric vehicles and their network of charging stations, from the development of smart meters and smart thermostats and from the regulation of the use of infrastructure through “demand side management” measures. In each case we will reflect on the distribution of responsibility and agency that goes alongside these divisions between infrastructures and appliances with a special emphasis on how practices affect and get affected by these divisions. Our aim in this paper is to offer a conceptual move towards replacing markets into larger processes through which energy consumption and practices get infrastructuralized.
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Panels of the eceee 2015 Summer Study on energy efficiency:
Panel 1. Foundations of future energy policy
Panel 2. Energy efficiency policies – how do we get it right?
Panel 4. Mobility, transport, and smart and sustainable cities
Panel 5. Energy use in buildings: projects, technologies and innovation
Panel 6. Policies and programmes towards a zero-energy building stock
Panel 7. Appliances, product policy and the ICT supply chain
Panel 8. Monitoring and evaluation: building confidence and enhancing practices
Panel 9. Dynamics of consumption
