5 October 2011 – Amsterdam
You may download the “Empower Demand” report here
ESMIG, the European Smart Metering Industry Group, chose VaasaETT Global Energy Think Tank to conduct the largest comparative study of residential smart-meter enabled feedback and pricing programs ever undertaken.
The aim of the “Empower Demand” research project has been to discover the potential and limitations of a range of feedback and dynamic pricing programs enabled through smart metering technologies to lower household electricity consumption and peak usage using a large comparative sample to ensure robust findings. VaasaETT gathered and analysed an unprecedentedly large pool of pilots gathered around the world. Findings and conclusions are based on analyses of 100 pilots with about half conducted after 2005, and involving a total of over 450,000 residential participants.
Results show that providing real-time electricity consumption data on in-home displays led to an 8.7% average reduction in consumption. Lower but still significant average reductions of 5-6% were achieved through informative billing and access to a website. Regarding dynamic pricing, Time-Of-Use peak reductions are the lowest at 5%, but occur daily, Critical Peak Pricing and Critical Peak Rebate produce the highest peak clipping (16 and 12% respectively) but only for critical peak periods.
That said, results vary widely within a given program type. The research findings confirmed the assumption that technology is an important enabler but in itself does not lead to peak clipping nor to consumption reduction. The results demonstrate the critical role of customer involvement through “education” and interaction; the quality of which depends on how well the participants are known and understood.
