Overall goals
- to create an awareness of, and thus pave the way for, the relevance of smart grids among various societal actors, especially those who have so far neither been involved in research efforts nor involved in their development and implementation (eg households).
- to increase societal benefits by including more perspectives in the continued understanding and development of the phenomenon of smart grids.
As part of the realization of the above goals, the purpose of the research program is to:
- understand smart grids in a larger context of existing and new, emerging, actors, roles, behaviors, interests, perspectives, services and infrastructures and their interaction and intertwining.
- develop a long-term and interdisciplinary research agenda on smart grids that integrates societal perspectives with a technology informed and constructive understanding of energy systems.
- from a social and behavioral science perspective, ask new, generative, questions in relation to smart grids. These can, for example, be about society's purpose with smart grids and what societal, technical and individual values are realized with smart grids.
- contribute to smart grids being developed to a greater extent, matter for many actors and develop knowledge that contributes to a developed understanding of the technology reaching these players.
- contribute to the development and introduction of smart grids and related services in society based on a diversity of user groups, such as different types of households, different types of buildings, in rural as well as in urban environments, different forms of digitized services and so on.
- collaborate actively and broadly with business, municipalities, interest groups, authorities and political bodies to contribute to a broader knowledge base, usefulness, implementation, communicate research results and raise new relevant research questions during the project and for the future.
Building combined competence
A prerequisite for achieving these goals is that the research program constitutes a platform for researchers who in a multifaceted way understand the technology and its various expressions, but are not guided by it in questions and analyzes. Instead, together they open up a broader understanding of energy systems in general and smart grids in particular. There must be an understanding of possible technical conditions and choices, but the group has and will continue to develop an insightful and comprehensive competence and know-how to ask complementary and innovative questions regarding technological development. Through the research program's collective activities and goals, we also build a combined competence and capacity in the area of smart grids.