Social implications of energy infrastructure digitalisation and decarbonisation

For mobility in Bergen, this concerned supply-side actors who managed aggregate issues of supply-side management to steer the urban mobility sector in terms of routing, rolling stock, fuelling needs and multimodality

For solar energy in Brighton & Hove, this concerned distribution operators, private households and businesses that wished to take advantage of subsidised installations, the local council installing panels across some of its social housing stock and supporting bulk-purchase schemes for homeowners, and two local energy cooperatives coordinating larger scale installations on partner buildings for members, all feeding the electric grid

For smart electric meters in Trento in their first generation (1G) in the early 2000s, this concerned wholesale electricity market actors, including regulators, larger consumers and distribution utilities, who traded electricity on spot and future markets to secure competitive tariffs

For mobility in Bergen, this concerns a widening set of actors who use electric vehicles such as e-buses, the expanding electric light rail, e-cars, e-bikes and e-scooters, and associated digital infrastructure for ticketing and parking

Digitalisation in Brighton & Hove has consisted of the national rollout of smart meters. A proposal to a national funding programme for ‘smart local energy system’ (SLES) trials around the city port and neighbouring residencies fell at the last hurdle. Photovoltaic (PV) rollout proceeds largely as for pre-digitalisation. The city council, network operator and community energy groups are keen on smarter demand management and local consumption. Households with smart meters can access flexibility tariffs offered by a national commercial utility

For smart electric meters in Trento, this concerns households receiving second generation (2G) smart electric meters, with widening applications for demand response, info apps and smart home energy devices. Meter replacement in homes aims to provide new and big data connected with user interfaces for better energy consumption information

For mobility in Bergen, this concerned supply-side actors including the city council, regional transport operator Skyss, and the national highways authority determining traffic flows in and out of and within the city

For solar energy in Brighton & Hove, this concerned the national ministry managing the energy portfolio, and solar developers and electric utilities operating in the municipality

For 1G in Trento, this concerned the regulator and wholesale electricity market actors, as electricity was centrally managed as a technical sector

For mobility in Bergen, this also concerns new companies leasing e-scooters, selling e-bikes and e-cars, and competing in public procurement processes for e-buses, as well as national and municipal actors devising mechanisms to promote electric vehicles and regulate movement of modes in the city

For solar energy in Brighton & Hove, this also concerns household solar self-consumers and prosumers, and ones keen to participate in SLES yet blocked by barriers, e.g. tenancy

For 2G in Trento, this also concerns those using electricity monitoring apps and in-home displays, dynamic tariffs and those flummoxed by changes as users of digitalising home electricity systems

For mobility in Bergen, this concerned users and providers of transport, the former for working within the centrally steered system, and the latter for abiding by service obligations based on terms of public tenders

For solar energy in Brighton & Hove, this concerned primarily small-scale solar actors blocked from installing plants, but also large actors governed by stringent rules on electricity service provision with fixed tariff structures

For 1G in Trento, this concerned primarily households as takers of conditions put in place by central regulators and executed by electric distribution utilities

For mobility in Bergen, this concerns a wide swathe of increasingly differentiated transport users who increasingly organise in social movements related to heavily politicised urban transport sector debates, as well as the formal decision-makers

For solar energy in Brighton & Hove, this concerns installers, developers and regulators as well as households who interact through new regulations for solar energy prosumerism

For 2G in Trento, this concerns new data infrastructures shaping electricity use, pricing and electricity management practices in unevenly understood and shaped ways across actors