Segmentation of Residential Gas Consumers Using Clustering Analysis

Marta Fernandes,João Sousa,Susana Vieira,Joaquim Viegas

doi:10.3390/en10122047

Abstract

The growing environmental concerns and liberalization of energy markets have resulted in an increased competition between utilities and a strong focus on efficiency. To develop new energy efficiency measures and optimize operations, utilities seek new market-related insights and customer engagement strategies. This paper proposes a clustering-based methodology to define the segmentation of residential gas consumers. The segments of gas consumers are obtained through a detailed clustering analysis using smart metering data. Insights are derived from the segmentation, where the segments result from the clustering process and are characterized based on the consumption profiles, as well as according to information regarding consumers’ socio-economic and household key features. The study is based on a sample of approximately one thousand households over one year. The representative load profiles of consumers are essentially characterized by two evident consumption peaks, one in the morning and the other in the evening, and an off-peak consumption. Significant insights can be derived from this methodology regarding typical consumption curves of the different segments of consumers in the population. This knowledge can assist energy utilities and policy makers in the development of consumer engagement strategies, demand forecasting tools and in the design of more sophisticated tariff systems.

Highlights

The energy sector constitutes the source of at least two-thirds of greenhouse gas emissions, which means action must be undertaken to reduce energy consumption and the associated greenhouse gas emissions
We propose a methodology to determine the segmentation of residential natural gas consumers using clustering techniques
The gas consumption data, as well as the socio-economic features of consumers and household characteristics were provided by the Irish Social Science Data Archive (ISSDA) [55]

Summary

Introduction

The energy sector constitutes the source of at least two-thirds of greenhouse gas emissions, which means action must be undertaken to reduce energy consumption and the associated greenhouse gas emissions. As the cleanest fossil fuel, can be considered as an important adjunct to renewable energy sources [2]. It is expected that gas consumption will increase worldwide, where the potential for demand growth will be significant in Asia, while Japan will fall back as nuclear power is reintroduced [1,3]. The European Commission adopted measures aimed at achieving savings of 20% in primary energy consumption until 2020 [4]. Some of these measures strongly focus on the residential sector, an important target of energy policy where potential energy savings can be achieved [4,5,6]

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