The Social License to Automate Task has investigated 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. The rapid uptake of renewable energy systems will require new automated technologies to balance energy supplies. Some developers are looking to locate these in households where energy is being used. This saves moving the energy from centralised generation sites (remote hydro, solar or wind). This report details the findings from a 2 year project with 16 researchers in 6 countries, 26 Case studies spanning electric vehicles, home and precinct batteries, air conditioners and other heat pumps.

Demand-side management (DSM) is increasingly needed for answering electricity flexibility needs in the upcoming transformation of energy systems. Use of automation leads to better efficiency, but its acceptance is problematic since it is linked with several issues, such as privacy or loss of control. Different approaches investigate what should be done for building community support for automation for the purpose of DSM, but it is only recently that literature has shown interest in the application of social license as a concept merging several issues traditionally treated separately. The social license concept emerged in the mining sector before being adopted for other problematic resources. It serves to identify different levels of community support for a project/company as well as various factors that influence it, such as economic and socio-political legitimacy and interactional trust. This paper investigates, through empirical evidence from eight case studies, what has been done in different contexts to build trust and legitimacy for an automated DSM project. Our findings suggest that patterns exist in respect of benefits, risks and rationale presented, the retention of control, information gathered, and inclusion and that these factors differ according to appliances/devices automated, operators of automation, and end-users targeted.

Executive Summary of the final report of the Users TCP Social License to Automate Task findings from a 2 year project with 16 researchers in 6 countries, 26 Case studies spanning electric vehicles, home and precinct batteries, air conditioners and other heat pumps.