Paper long abstract:

Technologies, infrastructures and associated institutional arrangements both reflect and contribute to the reproduction of their wider social and political context. In the case of energy, the sociotechnical systems of provision through which the 'end use' of energy is enabled, and energy services are provided, can embody both notions of basic need and inclusion, as well as unevenness and inequality in the quality and security of energy services that people can achieve. In this paper we analyse UK regulatory, institutional and infrastructural arrangements to reveal where, explicitly or implicitly, forms of individual and collective protection of access to energy and energy services are to be found - and by implication also where they are absent. These include metering and payment arrangements, infrastructural connection and disconnection, standards of service, collective provision of light and heat, subsidy and affordability measures. We reflect on these arrangements to consider what sociotechnical asymmetries are revealed - where are patterns of universal access, or protection of those most vulnerable or most in need located; and where are inequalities and patterns of differentiation enabled or actively being (re)produced?. Justice implications for both the ongoing patterning and dynamics of energy demand and for strategies of change in the energy system are explored.