The perverse impact of calling for energy conservation

•Emergency calls for energy conservation on high usage days do not result in lower energy generation over superpeak hours.•Overall usage and CO2 emissions are higher on emergency days relative to a set of observationally similar control days.•Consumers may be attempting to load shift – pre-cooling in the morning hours – but without an associated drop off in usage later in the day.

In periods of high energy demand, utilities frequently issue “emergency” appeals for conservation over peak hours to reduce brownout risk. We estimate the impact of such appeals using high-frequency data on actual and forecasted electricity generation, pollutant emission measures, and real-time prices. Our results suggest a perverse impact; while there is no significant reduction in grid stress over superpeak hours, such calls lead to increased off-peak generation, CO2 emissions, and price volatility. We postulate that consumer attempts at load shifting lead to this result.