# Users Empowered in Smart Grid Development? Assumptions and Up-To-Date Knowledge
## 4 Discussion  
A need for user involvement in smart grids is often proclaimed. Users should be involved, among other things, for a good performance of smart grids, for the development of good SEPS, or a valuable contribution of this innovation to the renewable energy transition. The state-of-the-art knowledge on user involvement was identified here on the basis of a literature review of findings regarding four user roles. Current knowledge predominantly concerns the user role of demand shifting. The results of the studies on this issue both confirm and contradict the assumptions about how users would respond to incentives. They provide some rules of thumb for triggering active responses. The results are somewhat scattered about subthemes due to the high diversity in energy systems in smart grid projects. The studies steer away from the socio-psychological and economic theories that have dominated studies on energy users for decades. Sociological theories about social practices are shown to befruitful to understand the complexity of changing practices involving energy use at the household or community level, especially regarding demand shifting. On energy saving, the literature provides some limited dispersed knowledge. No valid conclusions regarding energy saving could be drawn. Nonetheless, it is a very important role in the eyes of users themselves and hence should be investigated further. Regarding co-design, it seems that users are hardly involved in the design of the technology and the projects, which means that knowledge on this type of involvement is lacking. Yet, there are indications of feedback loops from users to developers in running projects. Co-provision can be recognized in the emergence of LEIs. However, the findings on user involvement are ambiguous, and smart grids are not a priority of energy cooperatives. An additional limitation of current research is that the relationships between users and stakeholders in the energy and other relevant sectors, such as ICT, are often disregarded. These relationships typically differ in the diverse pilot projects and influence user roles. Moreover, most studies that do focus on users do not investigate them in light of a wider renewable transition process and the role of smart grids therein. The question of whether and to what extent users are empowered remains unanswered. This may well be related to the optimism among smart grid advocates that smart grid transitioning itself guarantees a sustainable future. Further empirical research evaluating the four user roles in current smart grid development is crucial. In such research, it is recommended to keep an open eye for unanticipated and unintended responses of users. This is very relevant in this early phase of smart grid introduction to society, which involves many uncertainties. Furthermore, it would be good to conduct further empirical research on standardization and smart grid policy and their influence on the decision-making process of the organizations initiating smart grid projects (particularly grid operators) and ultimately on user involvement. A major implication of the findings for smart grid products and services is that they should take into account people's practices and relationships within the households and with their neighbors. [PERSON] et al. (2013) suggested to not only invent ways to let people be more flexible in the timing of their practices but to also reconfigure their practices in novel ways, especially those restricted by time constraints or social conventions. Slow cookers, for instance, would enable people to continue to eat together while shaving peak demand. Another proposed practice-aligned intervention is a launderette that uses stored, solar-heated hot water to clean clothes, which could provide services to both communities and those managing the distribution network.