Analysis of the regional differentiation factors of indicators of electricity consumption by the population of Russia

Abstract

In the article, the attitude of the population to energy conservation is considered as one of the characteristics of human potential. A strong differentiation of the indicator of electricity consumption by the population by countries and Russian regions is shown, a number of factors influencing the identified differences are analyzed. Hypothetically, the following seven factors are identified: climate; average per capita income of the population; rate of poverty; proportion of people with higher education; ratio of urban and rural population; age structure of the population; level of gasification of the housing stock. The information for analysis was taken not only from the federal statistical collections, but also for each region, that made data collecting very difficult. Correlations between the per capita electricity consumption by the population and these factors are determined. It is shown that people are more inclined to save their electricity costs than the electric energy itself, i.e. electricity tariffs for the population play a decisive role in stimulating energy saving. Per capita electricity costs have a positive relationship with average per capita income and a negative relationship with poverty rate. The rural population consumes less electricity per capita than the urban population. The impact of the population age structure on per capita energy consumption was found: the higher the proportion of the able-bodied population, the lower the electricity consumption, and vice versa, energy consumption is higher in regions with a larger proportion of the older generation. Due to the different levels of gasification by regions, the sample, formed from the regions with approximately the same level of gasification of the housing stock, was separately studied. The results of the correlation analysis of this sample turned out to differ little from the results obtained for all 85 regions. The exception was the relationship between the volume of electricity consumption and the level of higher education — in the sample there was a much closer negative relationship between these indicators.