Self-consumption choice of residential PV owners under net-metering

This paper studies the decision to synchronize household electricity consumption and production. While this behavior is beneficial for the energy system as a whole, it is not encouraged by a net-metering system. Relying on a large-scale survey conducted among households with solar PV in Wallonia, we investigate the factors impacting their decision to self-consume. As many as forty percent of our respondents declare to do so, notwithstanding the lack of incentives. The multivariate regression analysis shows that female and older residents, who tend to spend more time at home during daytime, are more likely to adapt their electricity usage by displacing their load. Prosumers with high environmental motives tend to synchronize more no matter the size of their installation. We conclude that prosumers will be further encouraged to self-consume by (1) setting monetary incentives to make consumption at the time of production more attractive, by (2) providing information to prosumers relative to their consumption/production profile and (3) by encouraging the adoption of smart devices that facilitate load shifting. These policies would lead to a higher degree of synchronization that would be beneficial for the energy system.