Waste not, want not: How can a utility help customers save energy?
Abstract
Waste not, want not: How can a utility help customers save energy? - Frank Hemmes
Residential energy use constitutes a large part of global energy demand and consequent greenhouse gas emissions. Much research in many different fields, including behavioral sciences, economics and sociology, has been carried out to understand and possibly influence domestic energy consumption patterns. For this research project, a field experiment of an online application, jointly developed with Dutch energy utility Greenchoice, was conducted. During one month, a sample of customers was requested to record and submit the readouts of their electricity meter. These readouts were then converted to easily comprehensible information that was fed back to the customer. Performance was also compared to a control group which did not receive any feedback and served as a baseline. The results suggest that feedback through the web application does indeed increase perceived consumer awareness and reduces electricity consumption. Experimental groups consumed on average 6-7 percentage-points less electricity compared to the control group.
Furthermore, consumers' experiences during the trial and appreciation of the new application were measured to determine their influence on customer performance and participation. It was found that customers' appreciation and understanding of the application influenced their participation, but not their performance. Nonetheless, this suggests that not only the method of feedback, but also the mode of presentation has an influence on its effectiveness.
The results of this project are therefore congruent with current literature, though perhaps not as astounding as those reached in other experiments. Nonetheless, the trial has proven to be sufficiently successful for Greenchoice to continue further development and deployment of the new application. In that regard, this project has at also facilitated a transfer of knowledge from the scientific to the practical domain, possibly providing its own, limited, contribution to the effort of reducing global energy demand.
