Residential | VaasaEtt Global Energy Think Tank

How to Create Energy Efficient Behaviour in the City of Växjö

Early results from a small scale Demand side management program used in Växjö
resulted in interest about how energy efficiency by means of changed behaviour can be
achieved all over Växjö. If this can be achieved in Växjö, it should also be able to be
achieved all over Europe, where the same prerequisites can be found. By management
concentrated on the people living in Växjö city, their energy awareness will change in a
way which will create consumption patterns that lower electricity consumption. The aim
of this required awareness is to decrease the total electricity consumption of all
inhabitants of the city of Växjö by 5 %.
In order to create communication channels that cover the whole city, and to succeed with
the members’ environmental work, four different members are included in the Sams
project. An important aspect of this is to make it possible to use four different channels
of communication. Collaboration between the Energy Company and Housing Companies
ensures that all inhabitants are included, both as tenants and as energy customers.
For creating the desired behaviour it is of great importance to understand the correlation
between lifestyle and consumption patterns. The main goal with the strategy used is to
get people to take an interest in and enjoy using energy in a sustainable way. When
looking at energy saving and climate change issues, there tends to be a lack of interest.
Instead, people feel forced to do something they do not know much about, or perhaps
feel bad about not doing. EnergiKollen uses collected data from energy meters around
Växjö and gives direct feedback to consumers via an Internet web site. EnergiKollen is a
smart metering based feedback system that visualises energy usage in a pedagogical and
interesting way to foster greater understanding by customers of their energy
consumption. The logic behind the system is that when customers and other consumers
see how easy it can be to understand their energy consumption, they will be encouraged
to behave in a more energy efficient way.
Results come from analysed energy data in Veabs smart metering system and show a
decrease in electricity consumption of 450 MWh/year. Notifications from customers and
Sams members are mentioned and discussed, in order to give a holistic view of the
difficulties and possibilities of a large scale energy efficiency project, through behavioural
changes. Results show that electricity consumption has decreased by 0.97 % in
apartments and by 0.19 % in private households. Changing behaviour in large scale
projects does work and it is cost-effective, by comparison to other actions. People show
very positive reactions to EnergiKollen and competitions for saving energy and would like
to compete again against neighbours and friends.

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AMI Pilot Project Phase 1 Technology Report

This report summarises the key findings and testing results of EnergyAustralia’s Advanced
Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Pilot Project Phase 1 Technology Trial. This AMI Pilot Project Phase 1 Technology Trial was undertaken to gain an understanding of
the level of technical development achieved in the market and the practicalities of installing
and operating the meters, communications and data management systems that make up
much of AMI.
The scope of AMI technology trialling included, testing and assessing the performance of
the communications systems from the meter to the Meter Management System (MMS)
and back, the capability and functionality of the meters and the integration of the meter
to the MMS.

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Demand Response in the UK’s Domestic Sector

The purpose of this paper is to assess the current level of demand responsiveness among domestic loads. The paper first studies different load profiles of domestic consumers which are composed of power consumption of end-use appliances. Afterwards, it differentiates those loads which could become responsive and evaluates the aggregated effect of these loads and the margin which could be derived from them. The area which has been considered is a residential area; consists of results have been demonstrated on a real residential network in southwest of the UK; small residential area in city of Bath.

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Demand Response Pilot Project: Final Report Prepared for the CCET

The Demand Response (DR) Pilot Program of the Center for the Commercialization of Electric
Technologies (“CCET”) was a collaboration between three Retail Electric Providers (REPs Direct Energy,
Reliant Energy, and TXU Energy), three Transmission and Distribution Service Providers (TDSPs American
Electric Power, CenterPoint Energy – Houston Electric, and Oncor Electric Delivery), and demand
response-enabling technology providers (Comverge and Corporate Systems Engineering) that began in
early 2007. It was undertaken in order to explore the opportunities and challenges associated with
implementing residential demand response programs in the restructured Electric Reliability Council of
Texas (ERCOT) market. The ERCOT market structure, as well as the use and integration of the latest
technologies for advanced metering, intelligent grid operation, and in-home controls, make this pilot
program unique.
Residents of the Dallas and Houston service areas living within the broadband over power line (BPL)
footprints of Oncor Electric Delivery (OED) and CenterPoint Energy – Houston Electric (CEHE) – the areas
in which BPL communications capacity were in place – were recruited for participation in the pilot by the
REPs from among their existing customers. The Pilot involved the participation of 213 households in the
OED service territory and 133 households in the CEHE service area. In addition to bill rebates or similar
incentives offered by the REPs, customers were given free programmable, communicating thermostats in
exchange for their participation in the program, which involved allowing their air conditioners (and, where
applicable, pool pumps and electric water heaters) to be controlled remotely for a limited number of test
curtailment events. While a number of challenges (from technological and legal holdups to hurricanes)
limited the success of the CCET DR Pilot in terms of measured demand reduction, overall the Pilot
accomplished its objectives of demonstrating the technical and operational feasibility of residential
demand response in Texas’s deregulated market. The major findings of the CCET DR Pilot are
summarized in the following paragraphs.
Proven Technology. It is possible to successfully integrate many of today’s most advanced technologies
for monitoring electricity usage, communicating with thermostats controlling air conditioner operation at
homes, networking devices within homes, and controlling customer appliances through a voluntary
residential demand response program. This pilot program has also demonstrated that demand response
programs may be successfully implemented in an “unbundled” competitive electricity market where
separate organizations are responsible for the various activities that must be coordinated in order to
operate a voluntary demand response program.
kW Impacts. In curtailments called in the late summer and fall of 2008, an average demand reduction of
0.6 kW was estimated for participating homes in Dallas. The demand reduction that was achieved varied
depending upon the curtailment strategy employed and customer-specific factors. Had Hurricane Ike and
some equipment delays not prevented the deployment of the program during the hottest period of the
summer, and had more effective curtailment strategies been employed, we believe that an average
demand reduction closer to 1 kW per home would have been attained.
Settlement Implications. Despite the fact that not all curtailment events for this pilot were timed to
coincide with daily or seasonal demand peaks, comparison of averaged participant load shapes to the
ERCOT load profiles for curtailment events showed that, during modeled curtailment events, participant
energy use averaged between 1 and 2 kWh less than that predicted by the load profile. As load control
and DR programs are brought to scale, the potential savings on marginal purchases on the balancing
energy services market may become significant, particularly when curtailments are timed to coincide with
periods of peak prices.
Demand Response in Off-peak Seasons. Given the importance of timing curtailment to periods of peak
prices, it is important to note that many of the significant price spikes that have occurred in recent years in the ERCOT market have been due to constraints occurring in the fall and spring “shoulder” months.
Because curtailments were called for this project in September and October, including some of the more
successful curtailment events (in terms of estimated load reduction), the findings of this study indicate
that DR programs in Texas could provide additional value if market participants contract with participant
customers not only for a certain number of summer peak hours, but also for additional hours in the
shoulder months. For shoulder month curtailments to be successful, curtailment strategies will need to be
adapted to the ambient conditions (e.g. cycling strategies must be more aggressive on cooler days for
load reduction to occur).
Market Effects. Had a “commercial-scale” demand response program been in effect during spikes in the
price of balancing energy during the summer of 2008, wholesale prices could have been reduced by over
60% during the period of the spikes. This calculation assumes that reduced demand would have enabled
ERCOT to “slide down the bid stack,” thus permitting a much lower supply side offer to set the market
clearing price of balancing energy (MCPE) during those periods. Under some plausible assumptions, the
total value of the reductions in the MCPE during peak periods that could be provided by demand
response is estimated to be $160 million.
While this pilot program demonstrated that the technology works and the necessary coordination is
possible, many of the challenges inherent in reaching a successful program were underestimated when
this pilot was originally designed. Some of the brand-new technologies selected for this pilot had not yet
been fully tested in the field, resulting in significant equipment-related delays. Coordination among all the
entities involved in this project required the negotiation of numerous contracts to address many issues
that had never previously been addressed. Many activities required “manual” efforts, since meter data
management systems and procedures for the sharing of data were still under development at the time
the pilot was undertaken. Fortunately, many of the problems that this pilot experienced are now being
resolved through various projects at the Public Utilities Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Electric
Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and through implementation of systems at the respective utilities.

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Evidence from Two Large Field Experiments that Peer Comparison Feedback Can Reduce Residential Energy Usage

By providing feedback to customers on home electricity and natural gas usage with a focus on peer
comparisons, utilities can reduce energy consumption at a low cost. We analyze data from two large-scale,
random-assignment field experiments conducted by utility companies providing electricity (the Sacramento
Municipal Utility District (SMUD)) and electricity and natural gas (Puget Sound Energy (PSE)), in
partnership with a private company, Positive Energy/oPower, which provides monthly or quarterly
mailed peer feedback reports to customers. We find reductions in energy consumption of 1.2% (PSE)
to 2.1% percent (SMUD), with the decrease sustained over time (seven months (PSE) and twelve months
(SMUD)).

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Impact Evaluation of OPOWER SMUD Pilot Study

Information technologies designed to assist and encourage customers to use less energy are increasing in
the industry. OPOWER offers an information program to help customers manage their energy use by
providing reports comparing their energy use to the energy use of other similar households. These energy
reports provide customers with normative comparisons of their current energy use compared to their
neighbors and suggest actions that they can take to reduce their electric use. It is believed that there is a
social driver at work in the presentation of energy use in this comparative fashion. If households learn
they use more energy than their neighbors, it is assumed they will be motivated to reduce energy use and
possibly do more than their neighbors.
OPOWER put this theory to the test with an aggressive experimental design across the Sacramento
Municipal Utility District (SMUD). Census blocks were randomly assigned to treatment and control
groups. Thirty-five thousand single-family residential customers in the treatment group received regular
reports over the period of a year on how their energy use compared to their neighbors’ energy use. Fifty
thousand single-family customers in the control group did not receive any reports. The pilot began in
April 2008. Billing data has been collected for all customers since the start of the program, including one
year of billing data from before the test began, to support the impact evaluation of the program.
This report presents Summit Blue’s independent third-party impact evaluation of the SMUD experimental
design pilot conducted by OPOWER. The updated impact evaluation focuses on answering four basic
research questions:
1. Does receiving the reports lead to energy savings?
2. Can the characteristics of large savers be identified?
3. What is the distribution of savings across customers?
4. What is the observed trend for energy savings in the second year of the pilot?

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Billing Feedback As A Means To Encourage Household Electricity Conservation: A Field Experiment in Helsinki

The aim of this experiment was to determine the effects of consumption feedback on residential electricity consumption. About 700 families living in detached houses heated with electricity participated in the experiment. The households were divided into four similar groups: three experimental groups and one control group. During the experiment all experimental groups received bills based on actual consumption –not average bills as before. During the second year groups 2 and 3 received also comparative feedback about their electricity consumption, which included saving tips for group 3. The consumption of all groups increased because of cold weather. However, the increase of the experimental groups was clearly smaller than that of the control group. From the year 1989 to 1991 the consumption increase in the control group was 1%-units more than in group 1 and 3 – 4.7% – units more than in groups 2 and 3. The consumption changes suggest that the billing for actual use did not have some effects on consumption, and that feedback further increased the savings. However, the saving tips did not have effects on consumption any more than the feedback alone. In addition, the final interviews and questionnaires suggest that the new billing system and feedback made people more aware of their consumption. Customers’ responses to the new system were also positive. The two and a half years experiment (1990-1992) was carried out jointly by the Helsinki Energy Board and the Department of Social Psychology at the University of Helsinki.

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Advances in the Use of Consumption Feedback Information in Energy Billing: The experiences of a Norwegian energy utility

Over the past three years Stavanger Energi (recently merged with four other companies to form the Lyse Energi
Group), with support from the Norwegian Water and Power Authority (NVE), has made significant
improvements in the layout and information content of its bills. Historical feedback, which shows how much the
recipient consumes in every billing period of the current and previous years, is now incorporated in graphic
format on all residential bills. Two other types of consumption feedback have recently been tested with positive
results. One is normative feedback, which provides households with information on how much energy it uses in
relation to other households of similar type and size. The other is desegregation of end use into categories such
as heat, light, kitchen appliances, etc., based on questionnaire and consumption data. These efforts are important
for two reasons, one to make households aware of their energy use and thereby provide a better platform for
energy savings, the other to improve communications between the energy utility and the energy customer. The
latter is particularly important in Norway’s completely open competitive electricity market where every
customer can freely choose its supplier. In order to avoid migration of customers, positive consumer relations
and good communication are essential characteristics of a successful utility. These developments in billing
information in Stavanger Energi should be of interest for a wide audience, as information-poor bills are still the
norm in much of Europe.

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An Evaluation of a Promotional Campaign By the ESB, Offering Energy-Saving Devices to Night-Saver Electricity Customers

This paper deals with a promotion made by the ESB in 1993, aimed at customers who were using night-saver electricity (both domestic and dairy farmers). They were offered a number of devices at subsidized prices, most of which had an energy saving element.

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Do Savings from Energy Education Exist?

This report provides the first thorough examination of the persistence of energy savings from energy efficiency education. It does so by comparing gas savings for low-income utility customers who received weatherization to similar customers who also received in-home education and a setback thermostat. Enegy use data is analyzed for savings both the first year after treatment and the third year after treatment to compare savings and determine persistence of savings.
This study compares the energy savings for two treatment groups. Weatherization Group households received traditional weatherization based on New York State’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). The Education Plus Group received comprehensive energy management including weatherization, energy education and a setback thermostat; they also participated in an affordable payment plan.
The original first year analysis of the Niagara Mohawk Power Partnerships (PP) Pilot (Harrigan 1992) showed savings of 16.3 percent for the Weatherization Group and 25.5 and 25.9 percent for the two Education Groups. Because some households in the original analysis moved or had data that did not meet certain screening criteria, fewer households were included in this analysis, which changed the first year savings. Based on this new analysis, the Education Plus Group saved 456 therms (23.9 percent) of normalized annual consumption (NAC), and the Weatherization Group saved 255 therms (13.8 percent).
In the third year, the Education Plus Group saved 396 therms (20.1 percent) compared with 220 therms (12.6 percent) for the Weatherization Group. When third year savings for the Education Plus group are compared with the Weatherization Group, savings for the Education Group are almost 60 percent higher. First and third year savings for both groups are significant compared to their pre-treatment consumption. The differences in percent savings (heating and NAC) between the Education and the Weatherization Groups are significant in the first and third years.
Persistence of savings is approximately the same between the two groups. Eighty-five percent of first year savings were still evident in the third year for the Education Plus Group, and 90 percent of the Weatherization Group’s first year savings were evident the third year. The difference in persistence of savings between the groups was not significant.

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