Leveraging automated demand response for the clean energy transition: Evidence from urban India
This policy brief explores how a combination of incentives and smart technologies can shift household power demand over time in India.
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Khanna et al. Policy Brief October 2024.pdf
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- In partnership with a large electricity supplier in India, we study the extent to which a combination of incentives and smart technologies can shift household power demand over time.
- We find an 8.5% reduction in household-level electricity consumption during automatic switch-off events that we trigger to a single household appliance connected to a smart switch controller. The effects increase to a 15% load reduction in the evening hours when aggregate electricity consumption is the highest.
- The level of the incentive offered has virtually no effect on the load reductions we observe, indicating that incentives have a limited impact on user behaviour once demand response is automated.
- Appliance-level electricity use does not return to pre-event levels after the switch-off event, and the absence of compensatory effects indicates a degree of wastage in how electricity is used.
- Demand-side management programmes can benefit the energy system while helping to improve the efficiency of household energy usage.