Changing How People Think About Energy

Marjorie Isaacson, Larry Kotewa, and Anthony Star, Community Energy Cooperative
Michael Ozog, Summit Blue Consulting

Keywords

Abstract

What happens when people pay for electricity using market-based prices that vary hour-by-hour and day-by-day? What behavior does hourly energy pricing elicit? What opinions drive these behaviors? How does energy efficiency factor into investments and decision-making? Three years of hourly consumption and qualitative survey data on over 1400 participants in the Energy-Smart Pricing PlanSM (ESPP) were analyzed to answer these questions.

The Community Energy Cooperative developed and has managed the ESPP program for three years. An essential component of administering ESPP is educating participants to adopt energy efficient technologies and behavior. The process of communicating these concepts and how participants responded is discussed. This experiment included two years of relatively cool summer weather and one year of atypically high temperatures and high electricity prices. Participants’ energy use fluctuated as well. While only minimal behavioral responses in the first two years resulted in net savings on energy bills, more effort and conservation behavior was required to be successful in saving money in the third year. Changes in levels of satisfaction and success in reducing electricity use between the two time periods are explored.

ESPP represents an alternative electricity rate for mass market residential consumers, regardless of their electricity provider. Therefore, the lessons learned here are relevant to those electricity providers who are considering providing new pricing choices to their customers.