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Nudging electricity consumption using TOU pricing and feedback: evidence from Irish households

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  • Cosmo, Valeria Di
  • O’Hora, Denis

Abstract

This paper analyses the electricity usage of 5000 Irish residential consumers in response to the introduction of Time Of Use (TOU) tariffs and three different forms of financial feedback: immediate feedback from in-home displays (IHD), monthly billing and bimonthly billing. Half-hourly data on consumption collected during the trial indicated that TOU tariffs reduced consumption at peak, with some reductions lasting beyond the end of the peak period and post-peak spikes in usage were not observed. IHD feedback resulted in the most reliable reductions and bimonthly billing the least. Moreover, consumers slightly increase the electricity usage during the first hours of the night and early in the morning. Households with greater education react to the information associated to the TOU tariffs slightly more than the average.

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  • Cosmo, Valeria Di & O’Hora, Denis, 2017. "Nudging electricity consumption using TOU pricing and feedback: evidence from Irish households," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1-14.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:61:y:2017:i:c:p:1-14
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2017.03.005
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    Cited by:

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    2. Hofmann, Matthias & Lindberg, Karen Byskov, 2024. "Evidence of households' demand flexibility in response to variable hourly electricity prices – Results from a comprehensive field experiment in Norway," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    3. O'Neill, E. & Weeks, M., 2018. "Causal Tree Estimation of Heterogeneous Household Response to Time-Of-Use Electricity Pricing Schemes," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1865, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    4. Andruszkiewicz, Jerzy & Lorenc, Józef & Weychan, Agnieszka, 2020. "Seasonal variability of price elasticity of demand of households using zonal tariffs and its impact on hourly load of the power system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    5. Kang, Jieyi & Reiner, David M., 2022. "What is the effect of weather on household electricity consumption? Empirical evidence from Ireland," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    6. L. (Lisa B.) Ryan & Sarah La Monaca & Linda Mastrandrea & Petr Spodniak, 2018. "Harnessing electricity retail tariffs to support climate change policy," Open Access publications 10197/9911, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    7. Nikolaos Iliopoulos & Motoharu Onuki & Miguel Esteban, 2021. "Shedding Light on the Factors That Influence Residential Demand Response in Japan," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-23, May.
    8. Hari Agung Yuniarto & Nur Mayke Eka Normasari & Sella Friscilla Silalahi & Irene Clarisa Gunawan & Deendarlianto & Indra Ardhanayudha Aditya & Arionmaro Asi Simaremare & Fajar Nurrohman Haryadi, 2024. "Customer behaviour towards energy usage with time of use tariff: a systematic literature review," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(1), pages 44-61, February.
    9. Sulaima, Mohamad Fani & Dahlan, Nofri Yenita & Yasin, Zuhaila Mat & Rosli, Marlinda Mohd & Omar, Zulkiflee & Hassan, Mohammad Yusri, 2019. "A review of electricity pricing in peninsular Malaysia: Empirical investigation about the appropriateness of Enhanced Time of Use (ETOU) electricity tariff," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 348-367.
    10. Chen, Xiao & Zanocco, Chad & Flora, June & Rajagopal, Ram, 2022. "Constructing dynamic residential energy lifestyles using Latent Dirichlet Allocation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    11. Barjaková, Martina & Belton, Cameron & Purcell, Karl & Lunn, Pete, 2021. "Efficient ways of communicating time-of-use electricity tariffs in Ireland: Plain and simple," Papers WP704, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    12. McAndrew, Ryan & Mulcahy, Rory & Gordon, Ross & Russell-Bennett, Rebekah, 2021. "Household energy efficiency interventions: A systematic literature review," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    13. Eoghan O'Neill & Melvyn Weeks, 2018. "Causal Tree Estimation of Heterogeneous Household Response to Time-Of-Use Electricity Pricing Schemes," Papers 1810.09179, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2019.

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