Analysis of Electricity User Behavior: Case Study Based on Results from Extended Household Survey

Greater emphasis on the individual consumers’ engagement in energy efficiency has been integrated into the concept of a comprehensive European energy policy. Households, as well as the people living there are very different and one of the important factors is to assess a consumer's behavioral aspects. Conducting surveys is the most common way to obtain this type of information. Our research is based on JSC “Latvenergo” pilot project “Promoting energy efficiency of household using smart technologies” (further – pilot project) where 500 Latvian households were installed with smart meters at the beginning of 2013. The first results have shown that the average electricity consumption in the target group decreased by 23%. In order to explain the results, research was carried out by analyzing 1) what kind of behavioral and motivation factors influenced changes in electricity consumption; and 2) to what extent changes in electricity consumption were affected by smart meters. Three multiple linear regression models were tested on the basis of first survey data of 430 households and 8 selected households, who were re-interviewed in March – April, 2014. The results show that changes in electricity consumption are not influenced only by technical aspects, but also by users’ psychological aspects, such as subconscious and belonging to the social group.