Electricity Conservation Research Articles

Research on the Driving Factors and Policy Guidance for a Reduction in Electricity Consumption by Urban Residents

The urgency of mitigating climate change and the challenges it poses to ecosystems and human systems are highlighted in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). In order to achieve sustainable development, it is imperative to adopt a series of adaptive measures to enhance the resilience of various sectors to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This article analyzes the driving mechanism behind the reduction in electricity consumption by urban residents based on 302 valid questionnaires from 18 communities in nine districts in B City. Using a method that combines qualitative and empirical research, the study proposes policy recommendations aimed at guiding urban residents toward reducing their electricity consumption. These recommendations serve as a policy reference for cities striving to achieve sustainability and low-carbon targets. The primary innovations and conclusions of the study are as follows: (1) this study summarizes the primary factors and processes influencing the reduction in electricity consumption among urban residents, examined from the following three perspectives: residents’ characteristics, psychological understanding, and external environment. (2) On the basis of the research data, empirical analysis and hypothesis testing are conducted using a variety of mathematical and statistical methods. The results indicate significant differences in the electricity consumption reduction behavior of heterogeneous urban residents in both public and private areas. Subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and knowledge of electricity conservation have significant direct influences on residents’ willingness to reduce their electricity consumption. Among these factors, subjective norms have the most significant impact, while the impact of attitude is negligible. Economic incentive policies have a significant positive regulatory effect on the relationship between “willingness (intention)” and “private area electricity consumption reduction behavior”.

Electricity Conservation among Rural Households in Bunkpurugu-Nakpanduri District in the Northeast Region of Ghana

Residential energy use contributes significantly to the world's energy demand. It makes up 20% of all energy use. It is expected to rise by 40% by 2040 in developing nations due to urbanization. The adoption of energy conservation measures presents the possibility of reducing electricity consumption by reducing the price and quantity of electricity required by households. This paper examines the nature of electricity conservation among rural households in Ghana. The study was conducted through the administration of questionnaires to 156 households in six rural communities. The findings revealed that the average household size in the study area is above the national average, which affects electricity conservation practices. Level of education was found to have an influence on conservation practices; those who have attained some form of formal education adopted conservation practices. Many of the households did not know that a change in electricity saving behaviour reduces electricity consumption. Therefore, there is a need for the Ghanaian government and the electricity service providers to conduct periodic awareness campaigns in rural areas to educate them about electricity conservation and save energy waste.

Who engages in electricity conservation and to what effect after real-world, high-resolution feedback? An empirical analysis of Korean households with smart meters

Engagement with households to fully realize the potential of demand-side solutions has attracted policy attention. The potential of feedback has been understudied, especially regarding who engages more in electricity conservation. Furthermore, most studies have been limited to the Western context, with only a few that explore Asia. This study fills these gaps by investigating changes in household hourly electricity consumption patterns after its members receive high-resolution feedback. After data balancing, we partitioned 63 households into distinct groups using K-means clustering and investigated consumption changes after the provision of high-resolution electricity feedback through a mobile application. The results indicate mixed effectiveness of feedback: some households reduced consumption by about 13 %, while others increased it between 7 % and 20 %. In addition, statistical analysis using survey responses revealed that households with greater awareness of electricity costs and a stronger interest in climate change were more receptive to feedback. Demographic and housing attributes such as age, building type, and floor count also influenced the feedback effect. The findings recommend enhancing awareness of electricity costs and climate change and developing a better understanding of individuals’ challenges with changing conservation behaviors based on their demographic and housing characteristics.

Changing Culture through Pro-Environmental Messaging Delivered on Digital Signs: A Longitudinal Field Study

Delivering effective messages is critical to creating a more sustainable and resilient culture. The explosion of social media has enhanced information access but has often reinforced and polarized pre-existing viewpoints and norms. In contrast, digital signs are an “in your face in your space” technology that have the potential to deliver common content to a diverse local audience. Environmental Dashboard (ED) is a communications platform and set of content applications that combines information on current environmental conditions, real-time resource consumption, positive actions being taken by community members, and a community calendar. We conducted a longitudinal study to assess whether ED content delivered via digital signs in public locations would result in desirable psychological changes within a community. Participants completed surveys in six designated signage locations prior to installation (N = 174) and following two years of continuous exposure (N = 133). We observed increases in pro-environmental social norms among people of color (a demographic emphasized); enhanced awareness of and sense of connection with the local community and ecology; increased self-reported electricity conservation; and increased perception of youth engagement (another demographic emphasized). Changes were mediated by exposure to digital signage. These findings support the hypothesis that content delivered through digital signs can strengthen pro-environmental and pro-social culture within communities.

A peer-and self-group competitive behavior-based socio-inspired approach for household electricity conservation

This paper proposes a knowledge-based decision-making system for energy bill assessment and competitive energy consumption analysis for energy savings. As humans have a tendency toward comparison between peers and self-groups, the same concept of competitive behavior is utilized to design knowledge-based decision-making systems. A total of 225 house monthly energy consumption datasets are collected for Maharashtra state, along with a questionnaire-based survey that includes socio-demographic information, household appliances, family size, and some other parameters. After data collection, the pre-processing technique is applied for data normalization, and correlation technique-based key features are extracted. These features are used to classify different house categories based on consumption. A knowledge-based system is designed based on historical datasets for future energy consumption prediction and comparison with actual usage. These comparative studies provide a path for knowledgebase system design to generate monthly energy utilization reports for significant behavior changes for energy savings. Further, Linear Programming and Genetic Algorithms are used to optimize energy consumption for different household categories based on socio-demographic constraints. This will also benefit the consumers with an electricity bill evaluation range (i.e., normal, high, or very high) and find the energy conservation potential (kWh) as well as a cost-saving solution to solve real-world complex electricity conservation problem.

Non-price energy conservation information and household energy consumption in a developing country: Evidence from an RCT

We use a randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh to test three types of non-price energy conservation strategies that influence electricity consumption of households: (i) advice on electricity conservation methods (knowledge treatment); (ii) (median) electricity consumption of others in the suburb (suburb comparison); and (iii) (median) electricity consumption of neighbors (neighbor comparison). We find that providing advice on saving energy could reduce households' electricity consumption and bills significantly. The effects are stronger for advice on electricity conservation methods than neighbor and suburb comparisons. The effects of providing information about own electricity consumption relative to neighbors’ electricity consumption is similar to the effects of giving information about own electricity consumption relative to electricity consumption of households in the same suburb. The effects among households who were inefficient users in neighbor and suburb comparison groups are almost as strong as those in the knowledge treatment group. The effects across all treatment groups become stronger over time as they receive repeated information.

Urban 3D building morphology and energy consumption: empirical evidence from 53 cities in China

The impact of building morphology on building energy consumption has been extensively studied. However, research on how 3D building morphology affects energy consumption at a macroscopic scale is lacking. In this study, we measured the mean building height (BH), mean building volume (BV), and mean European nearest neighbor distance (MENN) of the city to quantify the 3D building morphology. We then used a spatial regression model to analyze the quantitative impact of urban 3D building morphology on per capita electricity consumption (PCEC). Results indicate that at the macroscopic scale of the city, the BH and the MENN have a significant positive impact on the PCEC, while the BV has a significant negative impact on the PCEC. Moreover, the inclusion of the 3D building morphology greatly improves the model’s ability to explain building energy efficiency, surpassing the impact of traditional economic factors. Considering the 3D building morphology indicators together, buildings with a lower height, a larger volume, and a more compact 3D morphology have greater potential for energy savings and are more conducive to electricity conservation. This study offers valuable insights for the energy-efficient arrangement of buildings.

Understanding visual feedback mechanism from three-dimensional of information, time and display: A meta-analysis of feedback research for household electricity conservation

Visual feedback, which refers to the provision of energy information through visual interfaces to households, has emerged as a crucial approach for promoting energy conservation and addressing climate change. However, existing experimental studies lack a unified standard framework design for visual feedback, and have significant divergences in its effectiveness. Hence, we first propose a design framework for visual feedback on household electricity consumption, including information, time and display. On this basis, this study provides comprehensivemeta-analytic evidence on the effectiveness of visual feedback from 156 articles between 1976 and 2024, and finds that visual feedback has a moderate energy-saving effect. Further considering the interaction of 3D influencing factors, we explore the optimal combination of visual feedback using multilevel meta-regression. The results show that information, time and display are all important factors for visual feedback. When designing informational interventions, it is important to choose effective feedback frequency and feedback media. The optimal strategy of 3D visual feedback combination is “self-comparison + monetary incentives + low frequency + digital media”. These findings can help policy makers and utilities to develop effective feedback measures to promote household energy conservation.

Does news propaganda really affect residents’ electricity rebound effect: New evidence of non-price information

The average electricity consumption per capita in China still has significant room for growth. Under the current rigid residential electricity pricing, it is very important to study how factors other than price can promote electricity conservation among residents. This paper uses micro-survey data of 2018 and 2020 to analyze energy efficiency and the rebound effect through a stochastic energy demand frontier model, as well as to examine the role of news propaganda in this context. The research conclusions are as follows: (1) News propaganda promoting electricity saving can weaken the rebound effect of electricity use, which can lead to better electricity savings. (2) The energy efficiency of residential electricity has improved significantly compared to previous years, and the rebound effect has decreased. (3) Electricity prices have a negative impact on electricity consumption, while income, household size, home area, and extreme temperatures have a positive impact. Based on these conclusions, we propose policy recommendations to address the current inflexibility in residential electricity pricing and to improve the efficiency of electricity use among residents.

Antecedents of Electricity-Saving Behavior in Mountain Road Tunnel-Construction Sites: A Multi-Level Modeling Analysis

The electricity-saving behavior of construction workers is helpful in reducing construction costs, protecting the ecological environment, and preventing global climate change. However, there is insufficient research on the electricity-saving behavioral mechanisms of tunnel-construction workers, and their behavior is influenced by their surrounding people including supervisors and co-workers because they are nested in various construction sites and isolated from other acquaintances. This study aims to develop a hierarchical linear model that explores the interrelationships between tunnel-construction workers’ electricity-saving behavior and four influencing factors theoretically and empirically. An organizational-level factor, electricity-saving climate, and three individual-level factors, including attitude, perceived behavioral control, and moral norms, are considered, and 1567 tunnel-construction workers from 41 construction sites mainly located in the southwest of China participated in this study. A six-step procedure for statistical analyses is adopted to test eight hypotheses using questionnaire survey data. The results supported all the hypotheses within the multi-level model and showed that the organizational-level factor played a leading role in predicting workers’ electricity-saving intentions with three individual-level factors positively associated with workers’ electricity-saving intentions. Further, the organizational electricity-saving climate also indirectly affects workers’ electricity-saving intentions through three mediators (individual-level factors), and electricity-saving intention is positively associated with electricity-saving behavior. Consequently, cultivating an electricity-saving climate within an organization is of great benefit to electricity conservation and environmental protection, and several recommendations are provided to improve the practical operability of results. The findings enable a better understanding of electricity-saving behavioral mechanisms and promote a low-carbon lifestyle among tunnel-construction workers.

Promoting electricity conservation through behavior change: A study protocol for a web-based multiple-arm parallel randomized controlled trial.

As a part of the framework of the EU-funded Energy efficiency through Behavior CHANge Transition (ENCHANT) project, the present paper intends to provide a "Research Protocol" of a web-based trial to: (i) assess the effectiveness of behavioral intervention strategies--either single or in combination--on electricity saving, and (ii) unravel the psychological factors contributing to intervention effectiveness in households across Europe. Six distinct interventions (i.e., information provision, collective vs. individual message framing, social norms, consumption feedback, competitive elements, and commitment strategies) targeting electricity saving in households from six European countries (i.e., Austria, Germany, Italy, Norway, Romania, and Türkiye) are evaluated, with an initial expected samples of about 1500 households per country randomly assigned to 12 intervention groups and two control groups, and data is collected through an ad-hoc online platform. The primary outcome is the weekly electricity consumption normalized to the last seven days before measurement per person per household. Secondary outcomes are the peak consumption during the last day before measurement and the self-reported implementation of electricity saving behaviors (e.g., deicing the refrigerator). The underlying psychological factors expected to mediate and/or moderate the intervention effects on these outcomes are intentions to save electricity, perceived difficulty of saving energy, attitudes to electricity saving, electricity saving habit strength, social norms to save electricity, personal norms, collective efficacy, emotional reaction to electricity consumption, and national identity. The intervention effectiveness will be evaluated by comparing psychological factors and consumption variables before and after the intervention, leading to a 14 (groups including 2 control groups) × 6 (time) mixed factorial design, with one factor between (group) and one factor within subjects (time)-6 measurements of the psychological factors and 6 readings of the electricity meters, which gives then 5 weeks of electricity consumption. Data collection for the present RCT started in January 2023, and by October 2023 data collection will conclude. Upon establishing feasibility and effectiveness, the outcomes of this study will assist policymakers, municipalities, NGOs, and other communal entities in identifying impactful interventions tailored to their unique circumstances and available resources. Researchers will benefit from a flexible, structured tool that allows the design, implementation and monitoring of complex interventions protocols. Crucially, the intervention participants will benefit from electricity saving strategies, fostering immediate effectiveness of the interventions in real-life contexts. This trial was preregistered in the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/9vtn4.

Assessment of the energy saving potential by regions of Ukraine (methodology and predictive assessment)

The purpose of the research is the develop methods and tools for long-term forecasting of electricity consumption based on the improved comprehensive method of demand for energy resources, taking into account the peculiarities of electricity use in the regions of Ukraine and their impact on the country's electricity consumption. The scientific novelty of the obtained results is the consideration of the technological potential of regional electricity conservation by means of electricity conservation measures typical for the regions. Thus, a complex method, a mathematical model, and a methodology for determining the forecast demand for electricity for three hierarchical levels of the economy were further developed. In these levels, the following groups of indicators are distinguished for forecasting electricity consumption: country, region, local level, or types of economic activity in the region. The formed three-level model (level I, level II, level III) takes into account both the general potential of electricity conservation (from structural and technological changes) in the country as a whole, and peculiarities at the regional level (region, city, village, settlement, territorial community) in certain (selected) types of economic activity in production (service provision). In the course of the work, material was collected on energy-saving measures in energy-intensive industries and forecasts of the development of certain types of production and service provision. These estimates determined the technological potential of energy saving in the regions. The 12 regions with the largest electricity consumption are highlighted, and the other regions are combined. In the region, the potential of electricity saving was distributed according to the structure of electricity consumption according to the types of economic activity inherent in this region. The technological potential of electricity conservation in the country will reach 10.35 billion kWh. Keywords: region, electricity-saving, electricity-saving potential, forecasting, energy efficiency, electricity.

Electricity conservation intention among university students in northern Ghana: An assessment of the drivers for some electrical appliances

University students are among those associated with high energy consumption but with low conservational practices. Such behavior has serious implications on energy sustainability and emission of greenhouse gases. For developing countries, low electricity conservation increases the burden on utility companies and the government as a whole. Efforts to promote electricity conservation have led to an increased number of studies. However, such research have not given much consideration to the role of emotions as well as religion in energy conservation. Evidence from Ghana is also limited. This study examines the factors of electricity conservation intention among University students in Ghana. With the lens of the theory of planned behavior, electricity conservation intention associated with the usage of laptops, refrigerators, light and electric fans was assessed. Emotions and religion were included in the model to assess their effect. Data was collected through the administration of questionnaires to 204 university students. The findings from ordered probit regression indicate that subjective norms, perceived behaviourial control, attitude, emotions and religion influence the extent that students intend to conserve electricity. However, their effects were somehow found to be appliance-specific. The results suggest that continuous teaching of the need for electricity conservation at religious centers or among religious groups could generate some guaranteed levels of electricity conservation among students and may be, even among the larger population. Individuals that assume considerable importance in society should act as conservation leaders to promote such behavior among students and the general public.

Field Experimental Evidence on the Effect of Pricing on Residential Electricity Conservation

This study examines how electric utilities and regulators can encourage residential consumers to conserve electricity during the hottest summer days and shift electricity load from the day to off-peak, nighttime hours. We analyze a two-year field experiment involving 280 Texas households that explores approaches to conservation and load-shifting to enable emission reductions and reduce generation costs. Our critical peak pricing intervention reduces electricity consumption by 14% on the peak hours of the hottest days, leading to greenhouse gas emission reductions of about 16%. A key contribution of this study is the use of high-frequency appliance-level data. We show that 74% of the critical peak response is from reducing air conditioning. In a complementary nighttime pilot program, consumers respond strongly to lower prices by programming the timing of electric vehicle charging. Our work highlights how automation can influence the consumer tradeoffs relating to effort costs, discomfort, monetary incentives, and warm glow. This paper was accepted by Rajesh Chandy, Special Section of Management Science on Business and Climate Change. Supplemental Material: The data and online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2020.02074 .

Incentive based emergency demand response effectively reduces peak load during heatwave without harm to vulnerable groups

The incentive-based emergency demand response measure serves as an important regulatory tool during energy system operations. However, whether people will sacrifice comfort to respond to it during heatwave and what the effect on heat vulnerable populations will be are still unclear. A large-scale emergency demand response pilot involving 205,129 households was conducted in southwestern China during continuous extreme high temperatures in summer. We found that the incentive-based emergency demand response causes a statistically significant decline in electricity use with no additional financial burden on vulnerable groups. The electricity conservation potential of urban households was higher than that of rural households. Households with children did not respond to the emergency demand response, while the response of households with elderly individuals proved to be more positive. The repeated and frequent implementation of this policy did not result in an attenuation of the regulatory effect. This research can serve as a reference for countries with similar regulated power markets.

An exploration of nudging towards transformative environmental behaviour changes prior to a values-crystallization event

Reduction of environmental problems needs durable transformative changes in behaviour, and developments in Transformative Learning are increasingly called for, to achieve them. Only recently has a method been demonstrated to routinely produce transformations in behaviour - a significant step forward - but they are not focused in specific thematic directions, and rarely environmental, which leaves the research need still unanswered. Here, we present an exploration of the use of that method (which involved values-crystallization of groups) with prior Nudging, with the aim of increasing the environmentally-themed transformed behaviours. The Nudging used was one open question about the environment in participants’ current roles, plus a short questionnaire about current environmental behaviours, which also provided baseline data. Comparison with 3–4-days post-event interviews revealed most of the reported transformative behaviours were indeed environmental, such as waste sorting, water and electricity conservation, found retained via further 14-56-days post-event interviews. These results, from two separate groups of participants, suggest that the Nudging_Plus_Values-crystallization approach may be useful for pro-environmental practitioners in sustainability. Furthermore, the process involved of influencing choice spaces via Nudging, in values-crystallization events, deserves further studies to confirm causation and understand linkages between Nudging, reflection, values-crystallization, and Transformative Learning because it is likely that the process can be easily transferred to many different types of behaviour change programs, which will be of interest to a wide range of researchers and practitioners.

Optimizing Power Exchange Cost Considering Behavioral Intervention in Local Energy Community

In order to encourage energy saving and the adoption of renewable sources, this study provides a comprehensive experimental framework that integrates socioeconomic and behavioral objectives for the local energy community. The experiment aims to find out how successfully using behavioral interventions might encourage customers to save electrical energy and encourage them to adopt renewable energy, e.g., solar photovoltaic energy, in the present case. Using this method, we can calculate the causal impact of the intervention on consumer participation in the local electricity sector. The study uses consumer data on the import and export of electrical power from retailer electricity utilities at a predetermined power exchange price and a midmarket price for local energy community power transactions. The local energy community model simulates the consumption, storage, and export of 20 residential customers who, in different scenarios, are the test subjects of an empirical experiment and embrace electricity conservation and renewable energy. We address the optimization issue of calculating the power exchange cost and revenue in various scenarios and comparing them with the base case cost. The cases are built on the customers’ behavioral interventions’ empirical response. The findings demonstrate that the interaction of socioeconomic and behavioral objectives leads to impressive cost savings of up to 19.26% for energy utility customers. The policy implication is suggested for local energy utilities.

НАВЧАЛЬНО-ДОСЛІДНИЦЬКІ ЗАВДАННЯ ДЛЯ УЧНІВ У ФОКУСІ STEM-ОСВІТИ

The article examines educational and research tasks for students in the focus of STEM education. The work presents an overview and comparative analysis of the latest publications on topical issues of the introduction of STEM education. It is emphasized that during a comparative analysis of scientific sources, it was found that there is no single definition for STEM education, but its characteristic features are that such an education system prepares a child for life in the real world, which is constantly changing, teaches to respond to these changes. The organization of teaching STEM disciplines takes place on the basis of educational and research activities of schoolchildren. It reorients students to mastering educational and research skills, which will contribute to faster adaptation of socio-economic life. Educational and research tasks are a means of forming educational and research skills. The article shows the factors that increase the effectiveness of educational and research tasks, such as: the child's personal interest; simplicity, practical significance; social or personal orientation; originality; time factor. The current issue is the implementation of energy-saving activities in everyday life. In Ukraine, the state of implementation of energy saving measures is insufficient, and in the housing and communal economy - critical. Therefore, it is advisable to use practical tasks related to energy saving and energy-saving technologies and adapt them for consideration with students in the process of STEM education. The author emphasizes that tasks should be formulated in an accessible language, involve students' current scientific vocabulary. The work presents the author's problems in mathematics, containing the problem of electricity conservation, developed for students of grades 6-9. Solving educational and research tasks related to the basics of green energy and the basics of family-type financial calculations give students a practical result in the form of partial recommendations on the feasibility of establishing sources of renewable energy and its use.

Capabilities Analysis of Electricity Energy Conservation and Carbon Emissions Reduction in Multi-Level Battery Electric Passenger Vehicle in China

The battery electric passenger vehicle (BEPV) has the potential to conserve electric energy and reduce carbon emissions, making it an effective tool for achieving low-carbon development in the road transport industry by replacing the internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV). Several factors, such as comprehensive electricity power generation efficiency, proportion of thermal power, vehicle technical performance, regional mileage credibility and low temperature, affect the BEPV’s electricity energy consumption and carbon emissions. In this study, an electricity conservation index model and a carbon emission reduction index model for multilevel BEPVs are established to evaluate their capabilities of electricity energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction, considering the electricity supply chain, including the generation and transmission of electricity. The research shows that the electricity energy conservation ability of BEPVs is not outstanding, but their carbon emissions reduction ability is strong. When the composition of energy for electricity generation is transformed from 2025 to 2035, with a 10% increase in comprehensive electricity generation efficiency, all levels of BEPVs show fruitful electricity energy conservation ability. When the proportion of thermal power decreases to 10%, the carbon emissions reduction is exponentially reduced to 1/25 to 1/30 of ICEV’s total carbon emissions. However, the regional mileage credibility weakens the BEPVs’ ability to save energy and reduce emissions in most Chinese provinces except for the southwest and the south regional provinces, where the regional mileage credibility parameter can increase the energy conservation and carbon emission reduction performance of A00+A0 level BEPV. Low temperatures make BEPV models lose their electricity energy conservation advantage, but most models still have the characteristic of carbon emissions reduction. On this basis, the electricity energy consumption and carbon emissions of all BEPV models are higher than those of ICEVs when the low temperature endurance mileage accuracy is added.

Environmental effects of smart city investment: evidence from China

Understanding how smart city investment influences the environment has valuable implications for increasing the environmental performance of smart cities. This study adopted spatial econometric models to explore the environmental impacts of smart city investments using data from 100 smart cities in China for the period 2014–2019. Smart city investment includes investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) and human capital. Environmental performance was measured in terms of air quality, green space and energy consumption. The results reveal that smart city investment can produce spatial spillover effects and that the environmental quality of cities is spatially correlated. ICT reduces air quality but increases green space and electricity consumption. In addition, human capital contributes to electricity conservation but does not influence air quality and green space. The impacts of smart city investments on the environment vary according to economic development level. Moreover, policy implications for the implementation of smart city investments that increase environmental performance are proposed.