The need for social profiling of domestic consumers for flexibility
Sonja Oliveira1, Anna Chatzimichali2 and Ed Atkins3
1 Department of Architecture, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
2 Department of Engineering, University of Bath, Bath, UK
3 School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
*Corresponding author
sonja.dragojlovic-oliveira@strath.ac.uk (S. Oliveira)
The roles of consumers in future domestic electrification and flexibility programmes are needing more nuanced discussion and engagement.
There has been long term established thinking in the energy field about residents as passive consumers. A lot of narratives and thinking in flexibility programmes promote the need to incentivise, inform and increase confidence of the consumer in new domestic energy technologies. This is without really understanding who the consumer is, their energy priorities, individual views on their roles in flexibility and more importantly what this may mean in context of neighbourhood and community.
A rethink is necessary: particularly in light of energy price rises making successive headlines and this week’s budget announcements for improving household energy efficiency and the decarbonisation of household heating.
Under the new government, net zero is an economic mission as much as it is a technical one. As a result, calls for flexibility and prioritisation of investment is not just a technical grid or energy market issue, it is a neighbourhood issue. Nor is it a policy development focused on fuel poverty exclusively. Instead, we must move to understand these topics as at he intersection of climate and net zero, social and environmental inclusion, and community-based approaches. Yes, much of academic research has been articulating this for some time but mostly in context of home as an individual unit somehow decontextualised and seen mostly as matter of construction type, income, demography, energy systems. It is more nuanced than that however.
A recent EPSRC funded project led by University of Strathclyde together with Universities of Bath, Bristol and UWE has found that consumers don’t just passively consume energy – they manage it (https://glow.arch.strath.ac.uk/). Their energy management strategies are not only about their priorities, lifestyles, demographics, income and individual home types (as found in research to date) – they are also about how they identified with their neighbours, neighbourhoods and attitudes to climate change.
It was found, through surveys and interviews with over 600 residents in Glasgow and Bristol, that some consumers proactively managed their energy and were willing to flex and shift use to benefit their neighbours. They identified strongly with their neighbourhood, knew their neighbours, socialised regularly. Others who did not strongly identify with their neighbourhoods, tended to be unwilling to flex and shift, had an ad-hoc approach to managing energy and didn’t view climate change as a priority.
What this project indicates, is a need to better understand consumers as active energy users, not just their metered use, income and demographics, but also their view of their neighbourhood and their value. More research is needed that contextualises consumers, not as users of a grid, but neighbours in a connected system – in this instance energy but similar thinking could be applied to other resources like water.
Greater nuanced policy and research discussion is needed to better implement planned programmes, to understand and simulate implications and better prioritise investment. As we witness a new impetus behind decarbonising our homes, we must remain aware of how the residents’ lives and connections (and with them drivers of energy demand) exist beyond bricks and mortar and are, instead, deeply embedded in the communities around them.
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