Discourses on Energy Consumption through Customer Relationship Documents: Power to the People?
Résumé
Pursuant to a contract with the French largest energy supplier, I have studied the invoices and information letters sent by energy suppliers to customers for the purpose of understanding (1) how energy suppliers communicate with and provide information to their customers; (2) how customers use this information; and (3) how this information affects the customers’ understanding of energy issues and energy consumption. In this paper, I suggest that these routine documents do in fact have a significant impact on the customers’ understanding of the concept of energy and on their attribution of values to energy-savings. My research on energy-savings illustrates an “ideological fantasy of ‘empowerment” (Wright, 2012): while energy suppliers assert that they are willing to empower their customers to adopt energy-saving behaviors by providing more information, there is evidence that the information provided actually inclines power toward the energy supplier thereby disengaging customers and causing them to feel less concerned about energy issues.