ABSTRACT
Aude Danieli (0000-0002-6974-1830)
The introduction of smart meters coincided with new ideas about the role of metering related to the ambition of liberalising energy markets and growing interest in the ‘smart grid’. In France, between 2005 and 2017, there was significant media debate and much negotiation about the precise definition of smart meters called ‘Linky’. Examining the evolution of meters in the digital age depends on paying particular attention to the figure of the customer that professionals in the energy industry and unions construct and mobilise in defining the service relationship. How are the roles of domestic customers and of energy professionals imagined and understood and what features shape innovation processes regarding the smart meter? To what extent did the changing conception of the smart meter and its users correspond with the ‘real’ uses of this technology? These are the questions that guide this chapter and inform an analysis of empirical data collected from technical designers, professionals, activists and consumers (90 interviews and observation) and through four years of close interaction and research within the French energy industry EDF Lab.
