Saving Electricity in Private Households: Results of a Field Trial with Smart Meter Based Feedback Systems and Innovative Electricity Tariffs in Germany

In response to the nuclear accident in Fukushima in 2011, the German government decided to withdraw from nuclear power. This turnaround accelerated the transition of the German electricity system from a fossil fuel and nuclear power dominated electricity system to a renewable energy dominated one. The national aim is to reach a share of renewable energy sources of 80% until 2050. However, the major disadvantage of power generation from renewable energy sources like wind or photovoltaic is that they are hard to predict and to control as the availability of these resources is unstable. The challenge is therefore to manage supply and demand of electricity efficiently. In order to meet this challenge, the development of an intelligent electricity grid (“smart grid”) has started. In this smart grid private households should play a role as adaptive consumers who shift their electricity consumption according to the electricity production (from periods with low production to periods with high production) and who safe a significant amount of electricity. 

Based on this development my research focuses on the following questions: How to enable private households to play this role as adaptive consumers? Is it possible to make electricity saving behaviours part of the household members everyday routines? To what extend are feedback systems and variable electricity tariff models able to support overall electricity savings?

The results of a field trial on advanced electricity meter (smart meter) with 650 private households from April 2011 to May 2012 in Northern Germany will be presented. Three different types of feedback systems (including an iPod Touch based feedback application) and two different innovative and flexible electricity tariffs were tested. To answer the research questions, multivariate longitudinal analyses with regard to their effect on overall electricity consumption of the participating households were conducted.