Smart grid: hope or hype?

The smart grid is an important but ambiguous element in the future transition of the European energy system. The current paper unpacks one influential national vision of the smart grid to identify what kinds of expectations guide the work of smart grid innovators and how the boundaries of the smart grid are defined. Building on data from a scenario exercise within a large Danish smart grid project, we examine how the smart grid and the conditions for its realization are defined and delimited. Our findings show that the smart grid hype embodies several implicit expectations that serve to guide research and development and to attract new players into the field. A scenario process such as that demonstrated in this article can serve to articulate some of these implicit assumptions and help actors to navigate the ongoing transition. On the basis of our analysis, European policy makers might consider how their (intentional or unintentional) choices serve to create or maintain certain boundaries in smart grid development: for example, an exclusive focus on electricity within the broader context of a sustainable energy system. As serious investment starts being made in the smart grid, concepts like the supergrid, flexible demand and a broader “smart” energy system will start competing with each other.