The diffusion of smart meters in France: A discussion of the empirical evidence and the implications for smart cities

Adnane Kendel (1) , Nathalie Lazaric (1)

1 GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion

This article studies Business Models (BM) for Smart Meters (SM) and discusses related issues in the French institutional context. Because SM introduce deregulation on both the demand and supply sides, we argue that they represent an opportunity to 'unlock' the system by enabling feedback to consumers. We discuss the empirical findings from the TICELEC (Technologies de l'Information pour une Consommation Electrique responsable-Information Technology for Sustainable Electricity Consumption Behaviors) project which is an experimental initiative to measure potential energy savings through the implementation of SM, and to test behavioral change. We suggest that the opportunities provided by SM have to be compared with other kinds of intervention such as self-monitoring procedures. Our results show that any intervention is important for moderating the sole impact of SM. Our findings on the importance of changes to " energy habits " relate mainly to " curtailment " and " low efficiency " behaviors, which represent less costly changes. The lessons learned for BM developments linked to SM include incentive systems, smart tariffs, and technologies to increase potential behavior changes and energy savings in this field. Acknowledgements:

Mots clés: Business models; Feedback; behavior consumer; habits; residential consumption

Domaines: Economies et finances

Adnane Kendel, Nathalie Lazaric. The diffusion of smart meters in France: A discussion of the empirical evidence and the implications for smart cities. Journal of Strategy and Management, 2015, 8 (3), pp.231-244. ⟨halshs-01246427⟩