Traditionally vulnerable customers are most smart technology savvy

Traditionally vulnerable energy consumers are the most sophisticated technology “hackers” and will be one of the most valuable contributors to community energy projects, Goldsmiths has said.

Goldsmiths innovation research director Dr Chris Brauer said the traditionally vulnerable have unparalleled knowledge of how to use less energy, including the products and services that can further lower they’re use, but that knowledge is currently undervalued.

Brauer said: “Our work on the Smart Lives report with the classically vulnerable found that they are the most sophisticated hackers in the entire community. They’re knowledge of how to gain prepaid energy, how to work through the various models and instruments available to them is incredibly sophisticated but all of that knowledge is burnt off in the system.”

“It is not being rolled back into it because they are on the fringes on the federated market and as such their knowledge isn’t valued, but inside community energy projects, I would say that the classically vulnerable in this context have more knowledge and more expertise to bring to that conversation about how adaptive practises can emerge than almost anybody in the discussion.”

The Smart Lives report launched on Friday by Goldsmiths and the Energy Saving Trust warns that technology creates “a risk for certain parts of the population to become isolated or for this process to exacerbate already existing isolation.”

It says that younger consumers are at risk of being left isolated from technological developments due to the high proportion of the age group living in rented shared accommodation. This means they have little exposure to, or control over, smart technologies and no control over installation.

Brauer said: “We have learnt that the vulnerable to this are the young, they don’t have the exposure to smart home technologies and we learnt that from our study as well, they don’t have access to these technologies, yes they have desire and the literacy to engage with it but they are vulnerable without their access.”