Social Impacts of Smart Grids: The Future of Smart Grids and Energy Market Design explores the significant, unexplored societal consequences of our meteoric evolution towards intelligent, responsive and sustainable power generation and distribution systems—the so-called ‘smart grid’. These consequences include new patterns of consumption behavior, systems planning under increasing uncertainty, and the ever- growing complexities involved. The work covers the historical impact of the transformation, examines the changing role of production and consumption behavior, articulates the principles and options for socially responsible smart grid power market design, and explores social acceptance of the smart grid.
Where relevant, it examines adjacent literatures from P2P electricity markets, electric vehicles, smart homes and smart cities, and related ‘internet of energy’ developments. Finally, it provides insights into mitigating the likely social consequences of our integrated low-carbon energy future.

• Evaluates the connections between the concept of sustainability and the social impacts of the smart grids
• Analyzes emerging trends in smart grids connected with trends towards the sharing economy
• Investigates environmental degradation awareness and environmental stewardship goals associated with smart grids
• Explores how to mitigate social challenges with effective smart grid power market design
• Integrates energy stewardship and social acceptance literatures into the discussion of the smart grid