Flexibility in practice: the importance of the everyday to energy flexibility in Australian households with solar PV and battery storage

In renewables-based grids it is increasingly important for energy demand to follow supply. Sector visions of flexibility, typically involve householders’ use of distributed energy resources to shift and shed energy consumption, so that demand aligns with renewable generation. But flexibility can also be understood in other terms: as the dynamic and diverse ways in which real people live everyday life, and in the process consume energy. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted with 50 participants across 30 Australian households, using solar PV and battery storage, this presentation explores two simultaneously conflicting and complementary notions of flexibility – one as envisaged by the energy sector, the other as experienced day-to-day by householders. In doing so, the presentation considers how the sector’s pursuit of flexibility could benefit from better incorporating householders’ perspectives and lived experiences.

Format:

• 2.00 pm – Introduction by Hedda Ransan-Cooper, Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program, Australian National University
• 2.05 pm – Presentation by Rex Martin, Monash University
• 2.35 pm – Audience Q&A
• 2:50 pm – Close

About the speaker

Rex Martin is a PhD candidate at Monash University’s Emerging Technologies Research Lab. His PhD project investigates the social, cultural and sensory experiences of households using rooftop solar PV and battery storage. Drawing on theories of social practice, Rex’s research examines how everyday people understand and use generation and storage technologies, engage in practices that result in energy consumption, and deal with the weather-dependent nature of renewable generation. By exploring and accounting for lay understandings and experiences, Rex’s research seeks to promote the integration of intermittent and decentralised forms of (renewable) energy generation and storage. Rex holds a Master of Environment (Advanced) and Bachelor of Arts (European Studies) from the Australian National University.