Move it! How an electric contest motivates households to shift their load profile
Photovoltaic systems generate electricity around noon, when many homes are empty. Conversely, residential electricity demand peaks in the evening, when production from solar sources is impossible. Based on a randomized control trial, we assess the effectiveness of alternative demand response measures aimed at mitigating these imbalances. More precisely, through information feedback and financial rewards, we encourage households to shift electricity consumption toward the middle of the day. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that financial incentives induce a significant increase of the relative consumption during the period of the day when most solar radiation takes place. Information feedback, however, pushes households to decrease overall consumption, but induces no load shifting.
Who is sensitive to DSM? Understanding the determinants of the shape of electricity load curves and demand shifting: Socio-demographic characteristics, appliance use and attitudes
To date, research on demand side management has mostly focused on the determinants of electricity consumption and stated preference experiments to understand social acceptability. Further experimental research is needed to identify the determinants for demand response schemes. This paper contributes to addressing this gap by making use of data from a randomised control trial which contains 15 months of smart meter electricity data combined with household characteristics and differences in incentives to shift their electricity use between 11am and 3pm. Cluster analysis performed on electricity data identified three distinct electricity daily load profiles. Each cluster was then linked to household characteristics by means of a multinomial logistic regression to identify the determinants of the load curves' shapes. Findings show that occupancy presence at home, age and appliance ownership were strong predictors. Finally, this paper is among the first to provide experimental evidence on the determinants of load shifting. We find that households with head aged above 65, households who belong to the cluster exhibiting a load profile characterised by a relatively high peak at noon and a low peak in the evening, and those who received money incentives were more likely to shift electricity use towards middle of the day (11am-3pm).