IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2018 - 30

mentioned activities of lowering thermostat settings and switching off lights) and can involve the loss of associated amenities
(e.g., less heating and lower lighting).
research has shown that behavioral changes are a key element in reducing greenhouse gas emissions through energy conservation. research also indicates that it is difficult to encourage the adoption of energy-conservation behaviors. commonly
used policy instruments such as the provision of information,
technological innovations, and financial incentives have had
mixed success and uptake. For example, the demand response
by end-use consumers in response to electricity price increases
is not always in line with what economic models would predict.
the social sciences have much to offer in terms of providing
insights about how to communicate with energy consumers to
reduce energy demand, and recent decades have seen increasing recognition of the fundamental role that social sciences
play. this article briefly outlines key areas where social science
research provides such contributions, including interventions and
policy instruments that are often used to encourage consumers to
change their behavior: the role of technological innovations, the
use of incentives, and the provision of information and feedback.
we then describe how a sociotechnical approach can better communicate with energy consumers to reduce energy demand.

Three Fixes for Environmental Problems
environmental sociologist thomas heberlein writes about
"three fixes" that can address environmental problems: technological, cognitive, and structural. each of these fixes has a different way of approaching human behavior change. technological
fixes, such as motion-sensor lighting in the case of energy use,
try to bypass the human element by modifying the surroundings instead of changing people's behaviors or changing social
structures. Structural fixes, such as fuel-efficiency regulations or
reduced pricing for solar panels, try to modify human action by
regulating the social setting or "structures" in which these actions
occur. By changing the context in which people make decisions,
people's choices are assumed to change (e.g., a higher uptake of
solar panels due to a lower up-front cost). cognitive fixes, such as
information campaigns geared toward connecting an individual's
energy use with greenhouse gas emissions, directly attempt to

Technological Fix

Energy
Consumers
Cognitive Fix

Structural Fix

figure 1. A visual display of approaches to communicate
with energy consumers (modeled after Heberlein, 2012).
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ieee power & energy magazine

modify human behavior by targeting the attitudes, beliefs, and
values that affect those behaviors. Figure 1 provides an illustration of these fixes, and next, we reflect on some of the thinking
behind them and explain why none of them, alone, sufficiently
addresses energy conservation needs.

Can a Technological Fix Save the Day?
the prospect of technological fixes to solve energy problems
is certainly enticing, and there are plenty to choose from.
while the most striking examples of technological fix thinking may be associated with nuclear fusion or carbon capture
and storage, we can also see it in the energy-efficiency literature when technical advances are seen to offer the main hope
of a sustainable energy future and in much of the smart grid,
building automation, and autonomous vehicle literature.
But it is striking how rarely (if ever) technical "solutions"
work as planned. For example, households with programmable
thermostats can use more heat energy than those without, and
there is evidence that only a minority of householders with central heating fully understand their controls, let alone use them in
the way intended by the designers. one response to this situation is to try to edit out human misunderstandings/shortcomings
through automation and ever-purer technical fixes. Yet automated
energy management raises concerns about the additional energy
and materials required for the sensors and associated hardware
and also about what happens when a system fails or is hacked.
in technology, as elsewhere, one solution is likely to generate
another problem, and any dream of a big technical fix for complex energy and climate dilemmas is not realistic; any technical
fix is likely to have unpredictable emergent effects.
For this reason, a more promising alternative to the technical fix is a "technical and..." approach that recognizes and
embraces complexity and pays attention to communicating
how and why technology works. as sociologist elizabeth
Shove notes, "technical change is an unremittingly social...
process" and one that takes place in particular times and places.
it is in these times and places that (to return to our theme of
communication) technology has to be communicated or to
communicate itself. a simple piece of energy technology like
an open hearth and chimney tells its own story and needs only
basic skills to operate successfully. a modern wood-burning
stove or a heat pump will be more efficient but more complex,
and a heat pump will need a reliable electrical infrastructure.
examples of the communication we often take for granted
in modern energy systems are the electricity flows themselves
between switches, billing systems, monitoring and alarm systems, traffic signals, and appliance efficiency labels that send
"messages" we can read in the design of buildings and transport
systems. You can work by daylight here but not there, or charge
your vehicle faster if you pay a higher price in this place; here is
a cool room for food storage, and there is an outdoor space for
drying laundry.
often a building gives away little about what is going on
inside it in terms of energy flows. Pipes, wires, and radiators
are painted over or hidden. the small lights and digital clocks
january/february 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2018