Datafication and Energy: Platforming, Infrastructuring, Experimenting

Abstracts

Making flexible electricity consumers: a view from inside apps 

by Darcy Parks, Linköping University

As electricity systems become increasingly dependent on solar and wind power, the flexibility of electricity consumption has become increasingly important to keep electricity systems in balance. The concept of flexibility capital reflects the fact that not all electricity consumers have the same capacity for flexible electricity consumption. However, social science research on the flexibility of electricity consumption is largely based on studies of pilot projects. There is little knowledge about the importance of flexibility capital in the actual electricity market. 

The aim of this study is to better understand how electricity companies encourage flexibility electricity consumption. In the Swedish electricity market, many companies provide smartphone apps that encourage customers to be flexible in their electricity consumption. This study investigates how apps are used to make electricity consumers more flexible; in other words, it investigates the ‘flexibilization’ of electricity consumers. To do so, this study applies a novel methodological approach that draws on auto-ethnography and the walk-through method, which allows for the analysis of the ‘insides’ of apps. 

The study finds that apps encourage flexible electricity consumption through a variety of techniques. Two common techniques are the display of hourly electricity rates and the automation of vehicle charging and home heating. However, some apps encourage manual time-shifting in other ways, while others provide the capacity for automation based on carbon intensity. In conclusion, this study argues for a shift from studying flexibility capital to studying the varied practices through which flexibility is encouraged. 

Trading non-demand. Digital flexibility platforms in the UK energy market 

by Karol Kurnicki, Stanley Blue, Elizabeth Shove, Lancaster University

The energy sector in the UK is changing in response to decarbonisation goals, the rise of renewable energy sources and emerging crises that affect power supply. In recent years energy markets have been transformed by various forms of digitalisation: these have enabled new products, services, and places of exchange. In this context, energy platforms have a crucial role in reconfiguring energy markets.  

In the energy sector, shifting the timing of demand, and not consuming during peak hours has value – flexibilities of this kind are increasingly important part of balancing supply and demand. In this contribution we focus on data associated with the commodification of flexibility. What kinds of data are generated, managed and exchanged and what other elements – devices, vehicles, infrastructures, people, regulations, organisations and companies – and connections between them are involved? Finally, how does the digitalisation of energy-related data matter for organisations that provide, and that buy and sell flexibility? 

Inspired by Callon’s writing, we argue that energy platforms restructure energy markets by mediating between supply and demand. In essence they shape new markets by enabling new relations and connections between organisations. These market-making effects arise because the platforms we study make it possible to commodify and trade lack of demand in certain times and periods. 

Imagined energy futures and values in digital energy intermediaries 

by Hanne Cox, Linköping University

Energy is becoming digital in different ways. A commonly presented solution to the question how we will deal with the energy crisis is energy efficiency, including digital tools for energy efficiency. This brings up a lot of questions, of which one is central in this project: How is the energy future imagined in the development of digital tools that are designed for energy efficiency? 

In this ongoing project that focuses on three case studies in Sweden, digital energy intermediaries, in which mainly knowledge about energy efficiency solutions is exchanged, are the main empirical focus in which we study the imagined energy futures on which these intermediaries are based. In dealing with this question, this project focuses on the values that come together, and the relations between those values. We look at the future energy imaginaries, the values that are important in these imaginaries, and we study how these values are transposed into the design of energy intermediaries. An important focus is to study the value relations and interactions between those future energy values, and current values, but also between values related to energy and values related to the digital. Indeed, by digitalising energy, different value sets come together, and therefore it is interesting to study the relations between those values and value sets. Thus, we will delve deeper into the values associated with digitalisation, energy efficiency and imagined energy futures, and study how these values play out and interact in this new intertwined context. 

Greening the Cloud: Big Tech wind parks, colonial politics and “affected” publics in Sweden 

by Julia Velkova, Linköping University

Criticism towards the carbon emissions and energy intensity of data centers have prompted Big Tech corporations in recent years to contract large amounts of electricity produced by industrial wind power plants. In Sweden and Norway, such contracts have enabled and justified economically the construction of some larger wind power plants, but also encroached indigenous Sami reindeer herding lands. In this talk I discuss the politics of producing “the green cloud” through the interrelated governance of wind and Indigenous Sami land in Sweden. Drawing on fieldwork from a Google-enabled wind park in the county of Jämtland in Sweden, I describe how these politics operate through an assemblage of scientific models, local development plans, appeals, court cases and multiple understandings of “affected publics” through which multiple configurations of colonial politics are practiced and extended. 

Organizers

Caroline Anna Salling, Technical University of Denmark; Darcy Parks and Julia Velkova, Linköping University