Where are we at on demand flexibility?
Energy users in Ireland feel positive about demand flexibility and smart energy services, but are largely unaware of the environmental benefits
New research from SEAI’s Behavioural Economics Unit
Over the last two years, our team has carried out a programme of research on behavioural aspects of demand flexibility and smart energy services.
Among many other things, our findings show that:
- Householders want to know about their own electricity consumption and are willing to be flexible in its timing. Just 13% of our study participants felt smart energy wasn’t relevant to them personally, and 9% said it was unimportant generally.
- Only a quarter of people are aware that demand flexibility helps cut reliance on fossil fuels.
- Flexibility differs between household activities and between individuals. For example, many are willing to sometimes change how they cook, even more are willing to time-shift laundry and dishwashing, but some people have little opportunity to change anything.
What is demand flexibility and smart energy, and why do they matter?
Most people will have heard of the smart meters that are being rolled out nationwide, even if they aren’t sure what exactly they do.
One advantage of smart meters is they allow people to sign up for a “smart” tariff, including “time-of-use” or “time-based” tariffs on which a user pays different amounts for electricity depending on the time of day. The idea is to encourage people to use less electricity at times when demand is high, instead, shifting consumption to other times of day when demand is lower, and electricity cheaper.
Periods of high demand force us to rely disproportionately on fossil fuels to generate electricity. Renewable sources are less flexible than fossil fuels. Wind and sun can’t be increased when there’s a peak in demand. So, by avoiding demand peaks, we can use more renewables and fewer fossil fuels, which is one of our most important national goals.
This time-shifting of consumption is what’s called demand flexibility.
Aside from peaks, the overall amount of electricity we need is growing as we install more heat pumps and switch to electric transport. While these changes are important to ramp up, they make meeting our electricity demand using renewables more difficult – and demand flexibility more important.
What research did we do and why?
So far, there has been little concerted effort to communicate demand flexibility to the public. Efforts to engage people have focused on financial incentives such as the time-based tariffs mentioned above. While these can play a useful role, there are other pressing factors to consider.
We conducted a few pieces of research to investigate these factors, including:
- An analysis of data from our Behavioural Energy and Travel Tracker (BETT) survey looking at the timing of electricity-consuming household activities.
- An online experiment looking at factors influencing engagement and intentions related to demand flexibility and smart energy services.
- A literature review used to generate a “taxonomy” of behaviours relevant to demand flexibility and several behaviour-change roadmaps.
So how flexible are we?
Typically, tips on flexibility have focused on shifting the time of use of big appliances like the washing machine, tumble dryer and dishwasher. As expected, we found most people are willing to time-shift these activities (only 6-7% were unwilling to do so at least occasionally). But we were surprised by how many people were willing to reduce their consumption from cooking at peak times – be that through batch cooking, using more efficient appliances, or a straightforward time-shift. Fewer than 1 in 5 people were not willing to sometimes cook in bulk. We were also surprised by the large proportion of peak-period electricity consumption cooking is responsible for – much more so than laundry appliances. These things combined mean that, despite being a bit harder to change, cooking is the household load with most flexibility potential.
It is important to stress here that we’re not suggesting everyone can or should time-shift household activities. This is about people moving or reducing what they reasonably and comfortably can in the context of their own daily lives. For some, that will be little or nothing. But many people, when you ask them, are able and willing to time-shift something. Being aware of the environmental reasons for doing so makes people even more willing. Only a quarter of the population are aware of the environmental aspect, however. This is unsurprising given that up to now, the financial rewards for flexibility have been the main benefit advertised to the public.
What are the best ways to be flexible?
There are lots of ways to be flexible, and no one size fits all.
Anyone with an EV or a heat pump should focus primarily on these. The amount of electricity they require is greater than anything else in the household. Charging an EV overnight instead of during the evening is a relatively easy way to make a large impact.
For the majority without these technologies, cooking and large appliances are the largest consumers of electricity and reducing their use between roughly 5 and 7 pm will have the largest impact.
Importantly, flexibility is not a substitute for using less electricity overall. A first principle of using the smallest amount of electricity needed can be complemented by flexibility; but shouldn’t be replaced by it.
How to get started
A great way to start is by having a look at your own smart meter data to see how much you use and when, to get an understanding of your own patterns.
If we can begin to think about timing our electricity-intensive activities to coincide more with sunshine or wind, and less with the evening peak – while maintaining the primary principle of using only what we need – we’ll be on a solid footing to integrate renewables more fundamentally as our use of electricity grows.
