Divergent imaginaries? Co-producing practitioner and householder perspective to cooling demand response in India

With the rise in cooling demand and the permeation of decentralised renewable energy resources in electricity networks, electricity demand-side management (DSM) has become a major tool for electricity planning and decarbonisation in the Global South. In India, the commercial application of DSM is no...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy policy 2021-05, Vol.152, p.112222, Article 112222
Main Authors: Osunmuyiwa, Olufolahan O., Peacock, Andrew D., Payne, Sarah R., Vigneswara Ilavarasan, P., Jenkins, David P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adoption of innovations
Co-production
Consumers
Cooling
Cooling flexibility
Cooling systems
Decentralization
Demand side management
Electric power demand
Electricity
Energy management
Energy policy
Energy resources
Energy sources
Households
India
Perceptions
Policy
Renewable energy
Residential demand response
Southern Hemisphere
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Summary:With the rise in cooling demand and the permeation of decentralised renewable energy resources in electricity networks, electricity demand-side management (DSM) has become a major tool for electricity planning and decarbonisation in the Global South. In India, the commercial application of DSM is not new, yet utility-driven residential-scale demand response (DR) remains an unexplored area. This paper contributes on two fronts – to explicate householders and practitioner's perceptions of DR: disjunctions between these perceptions and its implications for the acceptance of residential DR. Using a co-production approach, this paper draws insights from two sets of stakeholders in India - 25 DR policy and utility experts and 24 household consumers. Our results show that technological saviourism pervasively underscores practitioners understanding of DR and householder agency, a crucial factor in the adoption of DR at the residential scale remains a missing piece. The paper concludes that without considering householder agency, delivering a decarbonised future based on demand response will be challenging and consumers may remain locked into-existing socio-cultural practices that negate the adoption of DR. •India's residential scale DR remains an untapped area.•Practitioners perception of DR is coloured by technology saviourism.•Agency and negotiations are key issues that will determine householder's acceptability of DR.•Future residential DR policy must be driven by a co-production process.
ISSN:0301-4215
1873-6777
DOI:10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112222