It’s only a matter of time: Flexibility, activities and time of use tariffs in the United Kingdom

Abstract

In current academic, policy and industry debates there is significant emphasis on the importance of enhancing the level of flexibility of electricity demand. Flexibility is considered critical in order to improve balancing with renewables, reduce costs of electricity generation and make the most of smart systems and battery storage. There remain questions around how flexibility is delivered, and which portions of demand will take part in different aspects of flexibility markets. The aim of the paper is to identify activities in the home for which people may either gain or lose following the introduction of Time of Use (ToU) tariffs. It uses 2014–2015 UK Time Use Survey data to cluster households in terms of similarities in activities at peak time and identify households differently affected by ToU tariffs across several socio-demographic parameters (i.e. work status, income, family structure). Findings show that sociodemographic distribution did not demonstrate any significant dominant parameter. Instead, clustering based on similarities in the timing of activities has provided distinctive patterns and can shed light on groups of people who might be either advantaged or disadvantaged from the introduction of ToU tariffs.