It's smart, but is it sustainable? A study of circular and social sustainability in smart grids.

Abstract: Smart grids are often advertised as more environmentally sustainable compared to their “conventional” counterparts. What is highlighted then is their potential to save energy and integrate more renewables into the grid, thus decreasing CO2-emissions. This thesis investigates two less discussed aspects of smart grids, those of circular economy and social sustainability. An initial literature review was conducted to investigate how these topics have been covered in the academic discussion, whereafter interviews with smart grid developers and experts were held to understand how they perceive these issues. The results show that smart grid resource issues have been scarcely discussed in the academic literature, the articles found were mainly LCA studies. Most interviewees thought that smart grids are resource efficient since they can be realised with small material inputs and reduce the need for physical grid infrastructure, but to what extent is uncertain. The overall awareness of resource issues in the energy sector seems relatively low, but there are indications that awareness is rising among energy sector professionals, also regarding smart technologies specifically. Social sustainability and user aspects have been covered to a much greater extent in the literature than resource issues. While the literature review showed a relatively big variation regarding how smart grid users were imagined, most interviewees thought that automation was key to allow for extensive user participation. The dominating user role was that of offering demand flexibility and economic incentives was seen as the strongest motivator. Privacy and security risks were deemed as the most important issues of smart grid technologies by many respondents, but societal concern for these issues seem relatively low in Sweden. Although interviewees acknowledged that some smart grids technologies are not accessible for lower-income households, and affluent people may stand to gain more than others, most believed that smart grids are socially beneficial overall.