Air-conditioning Australian households: The impact of dynamic peak pricing

By Yolande A. A. Strengers. 2010

124 citations recorded by the source corpus.

International mandates for smart metering are enabling variable and real-time pricing regimes such as dynamic peak pricing (DPP), which charges 10-40 times the off-peak rate for electricity during short periods. This regime aims to reduce peak electricity demand (predominantly due to increase in residential air-conditioning usage) and curb greenhouse gas emissions. Although trials indicate that DPP can achieve significant demand reductions, particularly in summer, little is known about how or why households change their cooling practices in response to this strategy. This paper discusses the outcomes of a small qualitative study assessing the impact of a DPP trial on household cooling practices in the Australian state of New South Wales. The study challenges common assumptions about the necessity of air-conditioning and impact of price signals. It finds that DPP engages households as co-managers of their cooling practices through a series of notification signals (SMS, phone, in-home display, email, etc.). Further, by linking the price signal to air-conditioning, some householders consider this practice discretionary for short periods of time. The paper concludes by warning that policy makers and utilities may serve to legitimise air-conditioning usage and/or negate demand reductions by failing to acknowledge the non-rational dynamics of DPP and household cooling practices.

Subfields: Building and Construction, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f07c905e2184501052d6ad3168056c7883da4876

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Building and Construction

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

In Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

Citations in the corpus

Social implications of residential demand response in cool temperate climates (2012, background): “These changes in both supply and demand bring with them a need for measures to avoid network ll rights reserved. arby). congestion and maintain acceptable power quality—if possible, while avoiding costs of new generating capacity and network reinforcement (Strbac, 2008).”
Energy saving behaviours: Development of a practice-based model (2013, background): “, 2010), the weather and building characteristics (Lutzenhiser, 1993; Strengers, 2010), psychological factors (Abrahamse and Steg, 2009), as well as the economic and political climate (Press and Arnould, 2009).”
Peak electricity demand and social practice theories: Reframing the role of change agents in the energy sector (2012, background): “Utilities are legally obligated to upgrade electricity infrastructure in attempts meet this demand, despite the inefficiencies and costs it creates for networks and consumers (Strengers 2010a).”
A systematic review of motivations, enablers and barriers for consumer engagement with residential demand response (2020, background): “…users left the house to avoid electricity use at certain times (Strengers, 2010; Carmichael et al., 2014), changed which household member used appliances (Carmichael et al., 2014), or created a fun family occasion out of using less electricity (Strengers, 2010; Western Power Distribution, 2016).”
Negotiating everyday life: The role of energy and water consumption feedback (2011, background): “…received electricity traffic light feedback, although in this case the green light correlated with an off-peak rate, medium with the ‘shoulder’ rate, and red with a DPP ‘event’, where the price of electricity rose up to 40 times the off-peak rate for a period of up to four hours (Strengers, 2010).”
New needs for better understanding of household's energy consumption – behaviour, lifestyle or practices? (2014, background): “It is this line of thinking that has now led to the establishment of a practice theoretical framework for understanding energy consumption in everyday life (Gram-Hanssen, 2010a, 2010b, 2011; Hargreaves, 2011; Røpke, 2009; Røpke, Christensen, & Jensen, 2010; Shove &Walker, 2010; Strengers, 2010).”
Efficient technologies or user behaviour, which is the more important when reducing households’ energy consumption? (2013, background): “On the other hand, there is an emerging tradition of using practice theory in the study of households’ energy consumption, which follows the line from the cultural microanalysis and focuses on the collective physical and cultural structures of everyday life practices (see, e.g. Aune 2007; Hargreaves”