26th International Association for Management of Technology Conference - IAMOT 2017

Smart energy systems are considered an important enabler in the transition to more sustainable energy systems, because they support the integration of rising shares of renewable energy sources into energy systems. “Smart” means that energy networks are equipped with ICT technologies to account for higher volatility and a larger number of decentral production sites that come with wind and solar energy (Mathiesen et al. 2015). However, they are not yet adopted on a large scale. One barrier is related to social challenges that might lead to a lack of acceptance amongst end users (Xenias et al. 2015). These challenges may be related to ethical values, which might or might not be fulfilled in specific designs of smart energy systems. In this paper, we explore the effect of fulfilling ethical values for enhancing the social acceptance of smart energy systems. We strive to understand which values are at stake for smart energy systems and how their fulfillment might be related to social acceptance. We identify a research agenda to give design recommendations for increasingly value-robust smart energy systems. We conduct a literature review covering the fields of technology management and ethics of technology and a case study on smart energy systems. The literature review provides an overall definition of social acceptance and an overview of values that might influence acceptance. The case study gives a first indication of which values influence acceptance of smart energy systems. Our findings show that ethical values can form a barrier for the social acceptance of smart energy systems. We provide examples of such values. We argue for a systematic inclusion of relevant values into studies of social acceptance of smart energy systems. We propose that a complementary approach of normative evaluation and descriptive/empirical investigations is suitable to give design recommendations for increasingly value-robust smart energy systems. A normative evaluation of the relevance of different values can be done from the perspective of the contribution of smart energy systems to well-being in a society. The descriptive/empirical investigations are related to the impact of value fulfillment on social acceptance of existing smart energy systems by different actor groups. The paper closes with a research agenda for a complementary normative and descriptive approach to investigate the societal impact of smart energy systems. Our paper contributes to the conference theme 'economic and societal impact of technology', because it deals with societal concerns connected to technological change and increased ICT implementation in energy systems. References Mathiesen, B. V., et al., 2015. Smart Energy Systems for coherent 100% renewable energy and transport solutions. Applied Energy, 145, pp.139–154. Xenias, D., et al., 2015. UK smart grid development: An expert assessment of the benefits, pitfalls and functions. Renewable Energy, 81, pp.89–102.