Power Control to the People? Private Consumers' Acceptance of Smart Meters

The increasing diffusion of renewable energies which underlie significant daily and seasonal fluctuations increases grid operations’ complexity. For the effective use of renewable energies, innovative information and communication technologies (ICT) and concepts are necessary to efficiently balance power generation and consumption. An ICT-based innovation in this context is the smart metering technology. High-end smart meters, like advanced meter management (AMM) solutions, comprise a broad range of new services which are vital to an ICT-based energy system (eenergy) by enabling the bidirectional transfer of timely and reliable information between components of an energy system. However, to date the acceptance of smart meters has not been investigated. Using a context-specific extension of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) of Davis (1989), our study investigates smart meters’ acceptance based on the attitude toward use and the salient beliefs perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and subjective control. Results support the theorized relationships indicating that the attitude toward use fully mediates the relationship between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and subjective control on intention to use. In the conclusion a detailed discussion of the study’s findings is provided and the implications for research, practice, and policy are highlighted.