Responsible innovation for smart metering standardisation: An illustrative case study

According to the extant literature on standards wars, when a regulator imposes a standard it automatically achieves market dominance. In the case of smart metering in the Netherlands, the regulator enforced a smart metering standard but it did not achieve dominance initially. Later, when changes were incorporated in the standard it did achieve dominance. One of the reasons for the fact that the standard did not achieve dominance at first lies in the fact that it was initially not accepted by consumers because important values were not taken into account during its development. Later, when those values were taken into account, the smart meter did achieve acceptance. For example, privacy and informed consent were initially not taken into account and, as a result, people did not accept the standard. Later, when changes were incorporated, people did accept the standard. The case of the development and rollout of the smart meter in the Netherlands which is presented in this chapter provides us with an illustration of where responsible innovation emerged in the standardisation process after an initial attempt at innovation failed due to a lack of value incorporation. Also, the chapter will present areas for further research.