Carrots, Sticks, and Other "Smart" Tricks in Making Energy Consumption Smarter
Channel: New Mexico EPSCoR
Date: 2020-09-30

Capturing human behavior in engineering models is challenging, in part because humans
themselves are challenging. This talk will discuss a series of pilot experiments run with
utilities in Vermont, the goals of which were to understand how investments in a
smarter grid—primarily advanced metering and distribution systems—could help
residential customers conserve energy during peak demand periods. Quantitative and
qualitative data from this experiment revealed substantial randomness in the response
of consumers to time-varying electricity prices, consumers exhibited preferences over
rate structures that did not align with conventional views of economic costs or rewards,
and that consumers place a very different value proposition over advanced distribution
system investments than utilities might. The lessons from these experiments are that
people need technology to make smarter energy consumption decisions, and that the
promise of monetary gains may make energy consumption decisions harder rather than
easier.