Paper long abstract:

The Smart Grid is often described as an obligatory passage point, that is, an essential sociotechnical configuration through which renewable energy sources are integrated in the electric grid. In this context and according to visions of Smart Grid gatekeepers, electricity users are portrayed as active participants in the electricity market who are anticipated to make rational choices regarding electricity use in their homes, depending on fluctuations in the electricity price. I study a Smart Grid project where this vision is put into practice, and where the portrayed smart grid users are made alive. In this project households participate in testing services described as components in the future Smart Grid. I follow professionals in their work to configure a techno-economic framing that performs rational electricity users. I seek to understand their negations on how to construct the project, and the various controversies that occur in their sense making process. I employ the notion of 'overflows' to identify and analyze challenges in the overall framing, and these overflows help me understand different tensions present in ongoing negotiations on how to introduce smart grid technologies to households. I identify several overflows that in different ways challenge the rational choice framing. These overflows are present in the selected technological solutions, the incentives that are being offered to convince users to participate, and in professionals' reflections on users' desires and needs.