Please Mind the Balance. Using Design to Engage Households in the Smart Grid Scenario

Abstract

In the future Smart Grid scenario, load balancing is considered one opportunity to cut the peaks on the electrical grid, in order to reduce the negative effects of electricity production on environment. Load balancing can be performed by households, who actively shift their electricity-consuming activities to reduce peaks. Therefore, household customers need to become "active" concerning their electricity use. As smart grids are implemented into society, there is an increasing need to know how the transition into this new role should occur. There is also a prevailing view of households as rational mini-energy managers. The paper challenges this view by using a Research through Design (RtD) approach to explore the changing roles of households in the smart grid. As a first step, we performed 10 interviews with households. We used the interviews' outcomes to set a number of principles that guided the design of solutions aimed to encourage users being more flexible in their electricity use. The creation of emotional experiences was considered an effective direction to engage users in the smart grid scenario. With a RtD approach we developed four concepts, which were reflected upon in a focus group and further developed into two main design concepts. We describe those steps and how the concepts embody the knowledge we gained from the design and research activities and future possibilities and scenarios. This work gives insights about how design practice may be used in an explorative study to serve different goals, and how it can contribute to a wider explorative and interdisciplinary research.

“Mama, It’s Peacetime!”: Planning, Shifting, and Designing Activities in the Smart Grid Scenario

“…The process led to very different designs of information in relation to load management than suggested by [2,3,7]. For a full account of the design process, we followed a complete description of the final design of the Peacetime prototype [10,25].…”

“…The previously mentioned pre-study [10] informed the design of the probe. Through a participatory design process, designers, researchers, and end users were engaged in ideation sessions, conceptualization workshops, and focus groups to inform and enrich the development of the design.…”

“…In a pre-study [10], we interviewed 10 households about their domestic activities, their motivations for change, and the flexibility of their domestic activities. Interview results showed that informants thought themselves to be quite flexible in their use of electricity.…”

Challenging the image of the altruistic and flexible household in the smart grid using design fiction

“…There seems to be a lack of understanding the resistance to households engaging in load balancing. Although studies have indicated that people believe themselves to be quite flexible in their use of electricity, some activities might be non-negotiable in respect of the hours during the day they would be performed [23]. Shifting activities would involve a certain amount of planning and require information in advance about the periods of the day, during which they should avoid using electricity and how long that period would be.…”