Smart technologies, energy demand and vulnerable groups; the scope for ‘just’ metering?

Dan Van der Horst

Astract

To what extent could vulnerable groups benefit from ongoing technological advances in smart metering and remote monitoring? This chapter attempts to consider those rapid ICT (information and communication technology) advances holistically, paying attention to not only domestic energy consumption but also environmental conditions around the home and the health conditions of its inhabitants. The chapter illustrates that smart metering could help to better identify certain vulnerability conditions, but that more can be achieved if ICT is also judiciously deployed in digital health, assisted living and peer-support. In essence, digital and remote metering and monitoring represent a technological advancement that could (eventually) bridge the disconnect between the energy we consume in our house and the actual physical benefits we may experience from affordable energy services. Recent examples of the utilisation of this technological advancement suggest that state interventions are required to safeguard the provision of ‘pro-poor’ solutions through smart metering and highlight the great moral dilemmas that come with the automated collection of granular data about our daily and domestic lives.

Banner photo credit: Alireza Attari on Unsplash