Consider ethical and social challenges in smart grid research

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are increasingly seen as key technologies for buildin g more decentralised and resilient energy grids, but researchers must consider the ethical and social implications of their use E nergy grids are undergoing rapid changes, requiring new ways both to process the large amounts of data generated from the power system, but also - increasingly - to take smart operational decisions [1]. On the data side, the UK and most EU countries have committed to a target of offering a smart meter to every home by 2020 [ 2 ], with similar monitoring being installed in other parts of the energy network. This has led to some to refer to a "data tsunami", requiri ng development of new machine learning techniques to deal with the e nsuing challenge of extracting useful information from this data - often in real time. Another trend is the use of AI techniques (such as those from multi - agent systems, computational gam e theory and decision making under uncertainty) to take autonomous allocation and control decisions. This is driven increasingly by the moves towards more decentralised energy systems, where prosumers (consumers with own micro - generation and storage) can g enerate and source their own electricity through peer - to - peer (P2P) trading in local energy markets and community energy schemes.