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Paper short abstract:

This paper draws upon the newly opened records of the UK energy users’ consultative council in the late twentieth century to enrich the ongoing discussion on just energy transition by contributing a longitudinal perspective to the debate.

Paper long abstract:

This paper draws upon historical research on the domestic energy transition in late twentieth-century Britain to consider the issue of just energy transition in the past and present. Using oral history databases and archival records related to the UK’s national energy suppliers and consumer organisations, this paper argues that the UK energy system underwent an unjust energy transition caused by the distinct material configurations of modern energy and its associated energy vulnerability—both of which emerged during the 1960s–1970s. In this sociotechnical process, the existing technological artefact (e.g. the pre-paid metre), billing cycles, consumer credit provisions and domestic practices and habits amplified the vulnerability of certain energy user types, who included those belonging to low-income, elderly, single-parent and ethnic minority families. To fully understand this crucial historical episode, this paper will survey the newly opened records of the UK energy users’ consultative council (EUCC), which illustrates how vulnerable energy users experienced the transition process, as their hardships were reported by local and regional EUCC committees and by users themselves.

The paper has three aims. First, it will highlight the value of a user-centred perspective to energy transition, especially in illuminating the experience of marginalised users. Second, it will consider the methodological issues related to the use of oral history and other qualitative evidence in researching the lived experiences of energy users. Third, it argues that revisiting the experience of unjust transition in the past will enrich our discussion of how to realise a just energy transition in the current century.