American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Experiences from the Consumer Behavior Studies on Engaging Customers
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Scheer Ventures, Takoma Park, MD (United States)
One of the most important aspects for the successful implementation of customer-facing programs is to better understand how to engage and communicate with consumers. Customer-facing programs include time-based rates, information and feedback, load management, and energy efficiency. This report presents lessons learned by utilities through consumer behavior studies (CBS) conducted as part of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) program. The SGIG CBS effort presents a unique opportunity to advance the understanding of consumer behaviors in terms of customer acceptance and retention, and electricity consumption and peak demand impacts. The effort includes eleven comprehensive studies with the aim of evaluating the response of residential and small commercial customers to time-based rate programs implemented in conjunction with advanced metering infrastructure and customer systems such as in-home displays, programmable communicating thermostats, and web portals. DOE set guidelines and protocols that sought to help the utilities design studies that would rigorously test and more precisely estimate the impact of time-based rates on customers’ energy usage patterns, as well as identify the key drivers that motivate behavioral changes.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 1236782
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-182975; ir:182975
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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