The Impact of Economic and Non-Economic Incentives to Induce Residential Demand Response—Findings from a Living Lab Experiment

Armin Ardone,Leandra Scharnhorst,Wolf Fichtner,Thorben Sandmeier

doi:10.3390/en14082036

Abstract

This study assesses the impact of economic and non-economic incentives to induce demand response in private households. The experiment was realized by a three-months residential phase in which two tenants lived in the Energy Smart Home Lab, an experimental lab with the equipment of a modern smart home. The tenants received calls to action (CtAs) on a regular basis, incentivized economically or by moral nudges with a social or environmental background. A mixed-methods approach, consisting of smart meter data analysis, a value scale assessment, surveys and interviews, assessed the tenants’ reactions on their energy consumption behavior towards the CtAs. The smart meter data shows that the tenants performed the majority of CtAs, revealing no significant difference between economic or non-economic incentives. Results from the value scale, the interviews and the surveys indicate that this behavior might be due to the tenants’ high tendency towards biospheric and altruistic values and a high self-efficacy. Furthermore, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a 100% home-office situation, suggesting a higher flexibility of the tenants. Although the results are not representative and need further experiments to be confirmed, the incentives show a promising potential to evoke residential demand response.

Highlights

The transition from conventional to renewable energies as a reaction to the political will to minimize climate change and reduce carbon dioxide emissions is one of the great challenges in the modern era
Compared to the German average for a two-person household this is a low to moderate demand. This might seem odd since the tenants spent most their time at home due to the COVID-19 restrictions at that time, but you have to keep in mind that the electrical devices in our lab are state of the art and much more efficient than the devices found in an average German household
The study assesses the impact of economic and non-economic incentives to induce residential demand response by gathering evidence from a living lab experiment realized by a residential period in the Energy Smart Home Lab

Summary

Introduction

The transition from conventional to renewable energies as a reaction to the political will to minimize climate change and reduce carbon dioxide emissions is one of the great challenges in the modern era. One possibility to approach this goal is the expansion of renewable energy sources, resulting in a more distributed and volatile energy generation system (e.g., in Germany the share of renewable energies in the total electricity generation in 2019 increased to about 42% [2]) This transition brings a number of challenges with it. One possibility to make better use of the potential of renewable energies and reduce the stress in distribution grids is the so-called demand-side management (DSM), where consumers adjust their electrical load to the current state in generation and the grid. This way the need for additional energy storage systems, energy generation units and power lines can possibly be reduced. Besides the technical requirements, the willingness and acceptance of the private consumers to participate in programs such as demand-side management or dynamic electricity tariffs have to be met as well

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion