Toward the Development of a Techno-Social Smart Grid

Advancement in communication and computing technology is driving the next-generation electrical smart grid, SG. SG envisions developing user-centric distributed systems to offer cost-effective and reliable power supply. Its effectiveness depends highly on consumer awareness and engagement. SG deployments and programs have been found to be lacking in active consumer participation. We address this by proposing a techno-social framework for SG, TSSG, wherein technologies related to energy infrastructure interface with social activities of consumers. Social interactions play a crucial role in preferences of consumers and the decisions they make. The rapid evolution of social networks now enables us to model and capture these interactions. The proposed framework combines social networks with energy networks to understand individual and collective behavior of consumers in order to change the energy demand patterns. We describe several mechanisms to enable harnessing useful data from such a framework, including its applicability to various SG applications. Specifically, we illustrate the benefits of collective modeling of techno-social aspects by developing goal-oriented virtual communities. This is one of the first articles to consider both energy consumption information and characteristics of consumers to determine such communities. We employed data from a real-world SG deployment with more than 4000 households along with their preferences, opinions, and interests to evaluate our proposal.