Abstract
This thesis examines innovation processes where flexible electricity consumption of households is constructed as a solution to constrained grid capacity in Norway. The transition to flexible electricity systems has been under construction for the past decades, as smart electricity metering infrastructure has been rolled out in many countries, and a growing number of policies, experiments, and demonstrations of smart energy technologies have aimed to engage electricity users in adjusting their electricity consumption. The thesis examines flexibility innovation processes at a point where early expectations for end-user flexibility and flexible consumers have already been tried out, and the number and variety of people involved in flexibility innovation has grown. Theoretically, the study draws on approaches from the field of science and technology studies (STS).
The thesis is based on three articles, each addressing different aspects of flexibility innovation processes. The first article analyzes how the strategies to produce end-user flexibility are shaped by expectations for flexible consumption, and conceptualizations of electricity users embedded in these expectations. The second article unpacks how household electricity users interpret and enact flexible electricity consumption. The third article examines market-making processes whereby flexibility from decentralized sources is framed as a market good and distribution grid companies as new buyers of flexibility. Together, the articles can be used to examine both how a diverse set of actors construct flexible consumption, and to observe how the way that flexibility innovation processes unfold shapes what flexible consumption entails.
The cross-cutting analysis shows that although many of the conditions that had previously been expected to lead to the emergence of active, load-optimizing flexible consumers were in place, flexible consumption was not expected to become mainstream without further innovation. This outcome can be understood to be shaped by a combination of changed expectations, electricity users’ (in)actions, and the emergence of alternative strategies for how electricity users could be engaged. These innovation dynamics are examined in depth, and the analysis suggests that the innovation network that is based on electricity user activation as flexible consumers has become de-stabilized. Household electricity users were instead expected to become flexible consumers by delegating flexibility work to automated technologies, aggregators and algorithms. This passive role of an aggregated user is expected to be enabled by innovation on new flexibility markets. The analysis shows that in market flexibility innovation, both flexibility and the world surrounding it are articulated in new ways, and that many more actors and entities need to be interested in order to construct flexibility as a market good. The analysis proposes that market flexibility innovation can be characterized as construction of flexibility as a discrete and controllable agent that can be proven to be both active and passive. Overall, the study provides nuanced insights to how activeness and passivity play out in flexibility innovation processes.
The thesis documents how flexibility innovation is being re-configured and explores which innovation dynamics are driving this re-configuration. The constructivist methodology employed in the analysis allows for addressing gaps in the literature on end-user flexibility, because flexibility is not conceptualized as a pre-existing entity but as an entity that is constructed in innovation processes. The analysis also accounts for diverse agencies that shape flexibility innovation – notably, the thesis argues that the role of electricity users should be conceptualized as participants in innovation, not merely as its passive targets. Finally, the thesis highlights that flexibility innovation processes need to account for the diversity of both electricity users and flexible consumption enactments.