ABSTRACT
One of the dominant narratives in the energy field is that the inflexible and intermittent nature of renewable electricity supply will require more flexible energy demand. The accepted wisdom is that energy demand has been inflexible for a long time, but will need to be flexed. The historic view of inflexibility has been developed in physical–technical–economic modelling work, household economics and energy economics literature, which assume that the move towards greater flexibility (in demand) will take place through price and technology intervention. This rests on a rather rigid view that focuses on volumes of demand and makes assumptions about causal factors, such as economic growth. This chapter challenges the proposition that there is a seemingly immobile baseline of demand and explores the potential for reconceptualising the time-related implications of flexible technologies, new pricing regimes and higher automation along with and as part of the transformation of social–temporal orders.
