Signalling green power: shaping electricity use Patrick Devine-Wright, Phil Taylor and YS Lim Presentation to the IAPS Conference July 7 th 2004 Institute

Signalling green power: shaping electricity use

Patrick Devine-Wright, Phil Taylor and YS LimPresentation to the IAPS Conference

July 7th 2004Institute Of Energy And Sustainable Development

Summary• Electricity loads: feedback devices to

signal behaviour (e.g. Becker and Seligman, 1978) plus automated devices to match demand and supply

• The E-Connect/DTI study: Findhorn Foundation community (1962), managing demand for intermittent local renewable electricity supply

• Two stage design: feasibility and evaluation

Institute Of Energy And Sustainable Development

Research Aims

• To develop, test and evaluate innovative technical devices for local load management

• Voluntary: ‘traffic-lights’ signalling ‘green’/’red’ power supply

• Automated: enabling/disabling power systems • Both kinds in continual wireless communication

with local wind turbine (75kW/15-20%; plans for 660kW) and private-wire mini-grid

• Local utility owned by the community supplying all site users, including commercial businesses


Methodology• Website and publications• Site visit and walk-through• Focus group discussion with key stakeholders• 14 face-to-face, in-depth interviews with a

representative sample of the local community

• 6 female; 8 male. Average age 47 years (30-60 yrs). 8 UK nationals. Living in and outside; typically low income (e.g. £4k p/a)

• Interview data content analysed for significant themes


Results

• Social and personal norms (e.g. community sustainability; attitudes to renewables and technology)

• Willingness to change habitual behaviours• Personal and contextual circumstances (e.g.

busy lifestyles; non-domestic activities)• Expectations (e.g. concerns about personal

control, (in)convenience v.s. environmental benefit)

• Device beliefs (e.g. risk, complexity/ease of use, trialability)


Norms and values

• Environmentally aware, concerned and committed to local renewable energy generation and supply BUT tensions between environmentalism and low incomes

• “…I would like it (RE supply) to go up but I would rather that didn't have a huge impact on my electricity bills. …it’s about balancing principles and reality - saving the earth and saving the bank balance.”


Signalling electricity use

• ‘What if’ thinking 1. Adjusting daily routines and habits• “…if you're an aware person you might

notice that the wind turbine's turning and say right OK this is a day to use the washing machine.”

• “I expect …if I saw a red light I would go 'whoa'. I would think 'well, do I really need to do it…?”


Expectations 2. Expectations: would the lights go out?3. Hassle: behaviour flexibility vs. sharing of

appliances 4. Control, complexity and risk:• “…I would need to understand it well enough to not get

frustrated.”• “I would prefer systems which still leave choice, it's

important that you don't remove choices totally, by deciding everything for some system because things can go wrong…”

• “…at the moment I would be sceptical that it would work. It’s adding an extra element of complexity to the building or to the systems that are in the building – something extra that could go wrong. It just seems to be something that could be difficult to successfully manage.”


Device beliefs • Control and occupant co-management:• “There would need to be a way for me of knowing whether

it had worked or not…I wouldn't easily be able to tell ….. so I would need to put something on which says ‘O good I'll have lots of water”

• Trialability and compatibility:• “I would like to hear more about them. I would like to see

them and see if it fits. But I would make an effort to make it fit and to support that experiment because it is one of those things that would lower our ecological footprint”

• Scepticism about potential for non-domestic loads: inflexible electricity use in kitchen, shop, bakery and pottery studio



Community norm: pro-innovation

Community norm: pro-sustainable development & technical innovation

Individual attitude: pro-renewable energy

Individual attitude: pro-local management of electricity supply

Perceptions of electricity load management

Concerns about complexity, cost, risk and trial-ability

Concerns about personal control, interference and inconvenience

Schematic diagram indicating factors shaping perceptions of load management devices

Personal and contextual circumstances: lifestyle, other household occupants; type of dwelling or workplace etc.

Thank you

Full report available!

[email protected]


Documents

Signalling green power: shaping electricity use Patrick Devine-Wright, Phil Taylor and YS Lim Presentation to the IAPS Conference July 7 th 2004 Institute