Week 4 Lecture I

Question 1

While valuable, these measures do not provide a holistic approach to the energy reduction challenge

Answer 1

Improvement of building shells for higher thermal efficiency, the installation of energy efficient appliances and the adoption of renewable energy.

These include energy efficient building envelope design and low carbon materials, energy efcient appliances and renewable energy systems. The social system, on the other hand, is not so well understood and is often ignored.

Question 2

Previous research has shown that highly energy efficient or net zero energy buildings

Answer 2

(i.e. buildings that produce as much energy through onsite renewable energy generation as they consume) do not achieve their full potential despite performing better than conventional buildings (Watson 2015).

Question 3

Practice theory:

Answer 3

Rather than targeting the individual in isolation, practice theory emphasises people’s daily activity patterns and interactions with their technology, dwelling and urban infrastructure contexts. Practice theory also considers skills and abilities and intrinsic motivations for undertaking certain practices (Eon et al. 2018a).

Question 4

The home is a complex environment which can be conceived as a combination of three systems:

Answer 4

the physical, the metabolic, the social

Question 5

the physical systems

Answer 5

ensemble of objects; technologies and infrastructure that make up the building.

Question 6

the metabolic systems

Answer 6

The metabolic system involves the movements of materials, water and energy, which fow through pipes and cables and are internally processed through the daily operation of appliances and fttings.

The metabolic system is affected by its interactions with the physical and the social systems

Question 7

the social systems

Answer 7

The social system consists of the building occupants, who are affected by their cultural beliefs, values, knowledge, skills, their personal networks and wider society

Question 8

Home system (PICTURE)

Answer 8

picture

Question 9

Conventional methods for shifting occupant behaviour are grounded in four major psycho-social theories:

Answer 9

cognitive dissonance, planned behaviour, normative conduct, habitual behaviour

Question 10

cognitive dissonance, -

Answer 10

individuals are conficted when they recognise that their values and their actions are inconsistent and work to realign them, resulting in either a change in behaviour or a change in attitude

Question 11

planned behaviour -

Answer 11

behaviours are a product of attitudes, social norms and the perceived control individuals have over the outcomes of their own actions;

A change in behaviour would therefore require an alteration of these three factors.

Question 12

normative conduct -

Answer 12

individuals are infuenced by wider societal norms and unspoken judgements;

Information about customary community behaviours and expectations is believed to shift individual behaviours.

Question 13

habitual behaviour -

Answer 13

behaviours become automatic and unconscious when repeated regularly;

breaking established habits would require either a drastic change in context or frequent prompts (

Question 14

Common interventions are based on the above theories and include:

Answer 14

the provision of information and feedback to increase awareness;

the delivery of social norms to make accepted and unaccepted behaviours explicit;

the request for a clear commitment or highlighting of hidden personal values to promote cognitive dissonance; and

the delivery of prompts to break established undesirable habits

Question 15

The most successful interventions

Answer 15

often integrate social, technical and knowledge-based methods together, such as through real-time feedback, coaching and information campaigns; however, there are few long-term studies of the kind.

Question 16

Social psycho-social theories

Answer 16

address resource use from a top-down perspective, persuading home occupants to change individual attitudes, perceptions and behaviours based on information being provided through the methods on Table 23.1.

Nevertheless, behaviours are infuenced by the wider society and culture and changing them entails a societal transition, being based on a more systemic approach

Question 17

The Home System of Practice

Answer 17

The concept of HSOP (Eon et al. 2018a) emerged from practice theory, which ofers an alternative to understanding and shifting actions by focusing on everyday practices as opposed to resident behaviour, knowledge and attitudes

t individuals do not use energy resources directly, but rather as instruments to achieve specifc outcomes (

Question 18

Practices conducted by users are afected by three elements: meaning, skill and technology

Answer 18

Meaning is the reason behind the execution of a practice;

skill is the understanding of how to execute the practice; and

technology encompasses the objects and infrastructure necessary to undertake the practice.

It follows that affecting one or more of these elements should result in a modifcation of the practice and subsequently the resource use, enabling (as opposed to persuading) occupants to save energy while continuing to meet their needs

Question 19

Practices are place, time and circumstance dependent

Answer 19

As technologies and infrastructures evolve and are adopted, existing social practices become obsolete and are replaced by new ones

Question 20

The repetition of practices in a habitual routine become interdependent and interlocked (i.e. interconnected) in a system of practice (SOP)

Answer 20

In a home occupied by multiple individuals, each individual possesses a unique SOP.

These SOPs interlock with each other as some practices are shared between individuals (e.g. eating a meal), occur sequentially (e.g. showering) or take place as a consequence of another set of household activities (e.g. cleaning up after children).

This network of SOPs in the home forms a HSOP which is a part of the social system of the home

Question 21

interlocked practices and routines in the HSOP

Answer 21

picture

Question 22

Shifting domestic energy consumption requires

Answer 22

a deep understanding of the HSOP; that is, the interconnections that exist between an individuals’ own practices as well as within the HSOP as a whole and incorporating the meanings, skills and technologies-in-use behind those practices that use energy.

Question 23

Practices work days/weekends

Answer 23

practices occurring during workdays usually happen within tight timeframes as they are limited by predetermined activities, such as work or school and their timetables

Tis means that altering these practices, their times, duration or order, can prove hard as not only the practices themselves need to be afected, but all other interlocked practices in the HSOP.

Conversely, practices that occur during non-working days or that are not bound to recurring scheduled activities, are deemed to be lightly interlocked.

These are usually more fexible, have varying timetables and durations and are less dependent on the household routine, being therefore potentially easier to modify

Question 24

Whenever a new practice is introduced in the home

Answer 24

interlocked practices need to be re-aligned so that the new practice becomes incorporated in the HSOP

Question 25

more than one meaning can be attributed to the same practice

Answer 25

For example, research has shown that the practice of using a heater can be associated with multiple meanings or associations; for example, warmth, comfort, health and habit

Question 26

Diferent meanings impact diferently on the resources required for the execution of a particular practice.

Answer 26

For showering, it has been shown that meanings such as cleanliness or refreshment are associated with shorter showers and thus less energy and water consumption. Meanings such as warmth and relaxation, on the other hand, are associated with longer showers and therefore higher resource use

Question 27

Individuals who assign multiple meanings to the same practice

Answer 27

and thus use varying amounts of resources at each instance may be able to make a conscious decision to only adopt one of its more resource-efcient meanings and associated consumption patterns.

Conversely, individuals who have one sole meaning for a practice may not be willing or may not have the skills to reduce the associated resource use.

Question 28

Requesting that occupants change the meanings of their practices without providing a suitable alternative to meet the same need is challenging

Answer 28

Information campaigns that have urged consumers to reduce their shower lengths, for example, have failed as they have not properly addressed the meaning behind the practice.

In this case, the adoption of an alternative technology, such as a more efcient shower head or water heating appliance, may be a more suitable solution for the purpose of reducing energy consumption in the home

Question 29

To enable change to consumption patterns in the home, one of three scenarios needs to take place:

Answer 29

a new practice needs to be incorporated in the HSOP leading to a new home equilibrium;

one of the elements of the targeted practice needs to be modifed; or

a practice needs to be dis-interlocked or disconnected from the HSOP in order to act independently of the other occupants

Question 30

Practice theorists posit that rather than persuading individuals to change behaviour and realign existing routines, the elements of practice should be targeted

Answer 30

A change in meaning can be challenging as it is the reason behind the execution of a practice;

that is, meaning relates to a need that an individual wants to fulfil and that directly impacts on the perceptions of lifestyle, comfort and wellbeing.

The skill associated with a practice is learned through the observation of other practitioners over the years, being family, society and culture dependent

Afecting skills might therefore entail a shift in an individual’s perception; which is also problematic to achieve in the short term

In contrast, the technology element of the practice can be more easily adjusted as it usually consists of a one-of change that does not afect the HSOP nor has a major impact on established habits and comfort (Eon et al. 2018b).

This is supported by research that suggests that consumers are favourable to more efcient technologies but perceive convenience, practicality and cost as factors in take-up (Dolnicar & Hurlimann 2010).

Technology changes can often be made when an individual is moving to a new house or purchasing new appliances

Innovative technologies must be designed to meet occupant needs and be properly understood to avoid the risk of generating undesired rebound efects

Question 31

conducted through practice-oriented design, comprising the following steps:

Answer 31

understanding the baseline practices; c

challenging the status quo by identifying alternative solutions; and

co-creating solutions with the users.

This process encourages the development of innovative technologies capable of meeting users’ needs including more efcient use of resources.

Question 32

Another solution to enable energy reduction in the home is through unlocking practices from the HSOP; that is, making them independent of other occupants or other systems of (low carbon) energy supply

Answer 32

This can be achieved through the use of automation that can be built into the physical systems of the home. For instance, the practices of dishwashing, clothes washing and pool cleaning can be automated to occur at times when renewable energy is being generated but when occupants are not necessarily present to carry out the task themselves

Battery storage will expand the opportunity here.

Similarly, appliances on standby can be programmed to be switched of when not in use and air conditioners can be controlled to function optimally in line with external factors such as temperature.

While the aforementioned practices can be executed manually, they are considered a hassle by occupants and seldom integrated into established routines

Question 33

key demand management strategy in many governments’ energy policies.

Answer 33

Variable, cost-reflective or dynamic pricing

Question 34

tariffs

Answer 34

The concept refers to tariffs in which the cost of electricity varies throughout the day, week or year, in line with peaks and troughs in electricity’s supply and demand

Question 35

smart grids

Answer 35

Nonetheless, peak demand pressures and investment in ‘enabling technologies’ such as smart grids and meters mean that variable and dynamic tariffs are receiving heightened attention as a way to ‘smooth’ peaks and troughs in electricity demand and supply

Question 36

A somewhat obvious but important assumption is that the key variable in variable pricing

Answer 36

price

The magnitude of demand response is thought to depend primarily on the degree of price difference, with higher prices resulting in more substantial demand shifting

For example, contrary to cost-benefit predictions, residential air conditioned cooling becomes increasingly negotiable with hotter temperatures and when more households own or use these devices, regardless of price

Similarly, some ‘information-only’ trials, which notify householders of an impending peak event but do not change the price of electricity during this time still achieve significant demand response

Question 37

Price features here as one of the tools to reorient human action through individual choices.
Why does pricing not work so well?

Answer 37

Common ‘confounding factors’ that help explain why price may not operate as expected include low household energy use knowledge (CSIRO, 2013) and the problematic value-action gap (Blake, 1999), where motivations (to save energy, for example) do not match what people do

Question 38

What if we focused on (about pricing)

Answer 38

What if we focused on the duration, frequency and regularity of pricing as a means to explore its effectiveness as an instrument of demand management?

This approach leads away from economic questions of price points, utility maximisation and costbenefit analyses, instead inviting us to explore how the temporalities of electricity pricing intersect with the routines and rhythms of everyday life.

Question 39

reconceptualisation of tariffs

Answer 39

from economic or market signals to modes of sustaining and potentially disrupting the everyday temporalities which constitute energy demand

Question 40

two distinctive variable pricing arrangements:

Answer 40

time-of-use (TOU) tariffs, dynamic or critical peak pricing (CPP), peak alerts

Question 41

time-of-use (TOU) tariffs

Answer 41

– involves charging households different rates during fixed time points on the weekdays and weekends

Question 42

dynamic or critical peak pricing (CPP)

Answer 42

charges a very high rate for electricity on a small number of short peak ‘events’, which are called up to 24 hours in advance in response to anticipated changes in supply or demand

f CPP events partly explained their success, associating a sense of urgency, importance or ‘crisis’ with these occasions

Question 43

peak alerts

Answer 43

which embody the temporal dynamics of CPP, but without changing the price of electricity

the price is not needed to achieve significant demand response.

Question 44

TOU aim to

Answer 44

TOU tariffs, characterised by their predictability and stability, aim to permanently move routines normally conducted during the peak tariff period into offpeak and shoulder tariff times.

In focusing on financially motivating consumers to regularly shift their energy demand, TOU achieves modest demand shifting.

Question 45

CPP aims to

Answer 45

CPP aims to occasionally and irregularly disrupt household routines, mimicking and often coinciding with normal everyday disruptions, such as extreme weather events.

In contrast, peak alerts and information-only CPP trials unintentionally reposition the problem of peak demand as a community, health and/or national issue, similar to the ways in which blackouts, droughts and natural disasters are often approached: that is, with a focus on community concern and ‘common good’, rather than an individualistic assessment of ‘what’s in it for me’.

Question 46

A second complementary approach is to

Answer 46

incentivise or enable those practices already performed during seasonal disruptions which help to reduce residential peak demand.

Demand management strategies in this situation might involve providing better and free access to cool spaces during critical peak demand days, such as extending library and pool opening hours, providing ways for people to spend time in shopping centres without needing to spend money, or providing free or discounted movie tickets during peak times

Question 47

these strategies are not all nonfinancial or uneconomic

Answer 47

providing households with free movie tickets still involves an economic transaction. The distinction is one of scale. Whereas prices appeal to individual consumers and their electricity consumption, free movie tickets appeal to different ways of spending time. The cost-benefit equation is no longer about how to save money – it is about how to make, shift and take time for different activities in ways that support peak demand reduction.

Question 48

The most popular reasons selected for wanting to respond to a peak alert were

Answer 48

‘to help prevent electricity outage (blackout)’ (64%),

‘to be part of a community effort’ (59%) and

‘to reduce stress on the electricity grid’ (52%). A

37% of respondents selected ‘to help other people or places that need the electricity more than us’.

‘it would be fun or educational for my child(ren)’.

Thus, peak alerts were an opportunity to generate ‘slow time’ for some.

Over a third of households (35%) said they would respond to a peak alert simply because they were asked

Question 49

These responses indicate

Answer 49

social or community interest in (and shared responsibility for) the electricity system, which runs counter to current market-based propositions that position householders as ‘consumers’ or ‘customers’ of energy as a market commodity.

In other words, these findings challenge the dominant assumption that householders’ primary (and only) relationship to energy is an economic transaction, in which the cost of electricity is the key variable.

Question 50

While TOU tariffs are tied to average peaks and troughs in daily demand,

Answer 50

they do not reflect the high price associated with providing electricity during the critical or network peaks (top 1% of hours), when many electricity systems struggle to provide enough supply to meet demand

Question 51

CPP main points:

Answer 51

high CPP rate is only applied on a limited number of irregular peak demand days which normally coincide with very hot or cold weather

Consumers are usually notified of these critical peaks via a range multiple communication channels (SMS, email, automated phone message, in-home display) approximately one day in advance

CPP trials demonstrate substantial and sustained reductions in household electricity demand during events – between 13–20% or much more (27–44%) when combined with energy feedback and enabling technologies such as smart thermostats

During Winter and summer

Question 52

A variation of CPP

Answer 52

the critical peak rebate (CPR), also known as the peak time rebate or a dynamic peak rebate, which financially rewards customers for reducing electricity during these critical peaks with a rebate or incentive on their bill (Faruqui, Hledik and Tsoukalis, 2009)

Question 53

higher demand response compared to TOU is generally thought to be

Answer 53

a product of the higher peak price generating greater demand ‘elasticity’.

In one Australian trial of CPP, the information-only group reduced their peak consumption by an average of 13% in the summer and 11% overall (Strengers, 2010).

This was much higher than the demand response achieved through TOU pricing in the same trial, but still substantially lower than the CPP response

Question 54

One way of understanding this blackout-like response is to think of CPP

Answer 54

is to think of CPP as transforming a ‘hot spot’ of consumption into a ‘cold spot’, where the normal harriedness of everyday life calms down and practices are temporally suspended in favour of ‘family time’ or ‘quality time’

Question 55

the normal intensity of energy demand during a critical peak

Answer 55

does not necessarily reflect or map on to the normal rhythms of regularly occurring practices

Question 56

namely that demand response commonly increases when the temperature becomes more extreme. In neoclassical economics, this response is viewed as irrational, the assumption being that the benefit of air conditioning on a hot day will increasingly outweigh the cost of providing it as the temperature rises

Answer 56

However, in many instances, the opposite occurs. Trials indicate that the demand response (cutting down on electricity consumption) increases with higher temperatures and air conditioning penetration, because householders simply turn this appliance off

Put another way, on the hottest days of the year, which are arguably when people are most likely to want to use air conditioning, householders are more likely to turn their thermostat up, adopt alternative cooling strategies or turn their air conditioner off (if there is a meaningful reason to do so

Question 57

A TOU tariff differentiates between off-peak, shoulder and peak periods.

Answer 57

It is a routinised form of pricing, in which the daily breakdown of rates is known, predictable and rarely changes.

These different breakdowns are synchronised with predictable peaks and troughs in daily demand, such as the early pre-work and pre-school rush and/or the afternoon/early evening post-school, post-work routines

Question 58

TOU prices

Answer 58

Prices are lowest during the off-peak period and highest during the peak, reflecting the extra costs of supplying electricity during these times

Different in each country

Question 59

TOU tariffs have been found to promote a drop in peak demand of

Answer 59

Internationally, TOU tariffs have been found to promote a drop in peak demand of 3–6%

Many claim it is the low price volatility which keeps the demand shifting modest

Question 60

TOU depends on

Answer 60

‘depend[s] on the proportion of electricity demand that is capable of being shifted between peak and off-peak periods and the change in the price of peak and off-peak tariffs compared against original flat tariff’

Question 61

capability

Answer 61

Capability’ is the key term here, referring to consumer decisions and choices to shift energy demand to other times of the day, which is assumed to be a direct outcome of the change in price.

Question 62

determine opportunities for TOU demand shifting.

Answer 62

In other words, it is the routinised temporalities of practices, rather than individual choices and price, which determine opportunities for TOU demand shifting.

Question 63

Regularly or permanently changing these routines was not dependent on price

Answer 63

but on the availability of household members, children’s needs (for food and sleep) and desires to create shared familial experiences during dinnertime and generate downtime at the end of the day (

Question 64

‘flat tariffs’ have proved problematic in countries where

Answer 64

short bursts of electricity supply are needed to cope with increasing air conditioning, heating and other demand, particularly on very hot and cold days.

consumers, including many in developed nations, are still billed for their electricity using a flat multiplier – the cents/kWh – multiplied by the volumetric consumption for the period

Question 65

peak demand creates both

Answer 65

From the electricity industry’s perspective, peak demand creates both network and economic inefficiencies in the electricity system, whereby expensive infrastructure is built, but only used for a few days of the year to meet peaks in demand

This means that billions of dollars of electricity assets sit idle for the majority of the year, a cost which is passed onto all electricity consumers through their bill.

Question 66

Alternatively, where demand cannot be smoothed, the aim is to ensure

Answer 66

that consumers who use electricity during peak periods pay disproportionately more during these times, in order to cover the extra infrastructure and generation costs involved.

Variable pricing is one of the key instruments by which this smoothing of demand, or more equitable distribution of costs, can be achieved

Question 67

In previous work, I argued that is the ‘meanings’ that prices convey

Answer 67

and the way these intersect with everyday practices, which account for variation in tariff demand responses

I suggested that prices can convey meanings of scarcity and abundance, which in turn reposition some practices as wasteful or normal during different pricing scenarios.