IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2017 - 55

basic comfort. Figure 1 shows how consumers' acceptance of
remote control of their appliances' energy use increases if they
have the ability to override this outside control and thus feel
personal control over the decision making.
Overall, consumers perceive the risks related to new technologies and DLC to be much higher than any benefits they
may provide. And, while a positive experience with one smart
technology may increase a consumer's acceptance levels of
smart technologies generally, this is unlikely to occur if the
consumer's experience is frustrating due to unrealistic expectations or a lack of policy and market support.
The characteristics of energy use partly depend on
household structures and socio-demographics. For example, energy consumption increases with the number of
inhabitants in the house, the age of the head of the household, and the number of unemployed household members. In
addition, homeowners usually have higher energy consumption as compared to renters. The extent to which interventions are effective to change consumers' behavior depends,
to some extent, on such household characteristics.

Your Electricity Provider Can Remotely Limit the Use of
Certain Major Home Appliances and You Cannot Choose
to Reverse This Course of Action

29%

m.
2a

1 a.

14 Day
Ce Ra
nt te
/kW
h

8 p.

Peak Rate*
20 Cent/kWh

7 p.m

te
Ra h
ht
W
Nig ent/k
C
24

p.
m

11 p.

p.m

Midnight

figure 1. The influence of consumers' sense of personal
control on their likelihood of accepting programs allowing
utilities to control their appliances' energy use. (Data derived
from Accenture, Understanding Consumer Preferences in
Energy Efficiency, 2010.)

5 a.

6 p.m.

6 a.m.

.
5 p.m

7 a.

1 p.m

a.m

11 a.m.

2p
.m
.

p.
m

.m
4p

Noon

january/february 2017

19%
% of Savings in Energy Bill

Time-of-Use Tariffs
ToU tariffs are price instruments
that support consumer flexibility
by realigning price signals in favor
of more flexible energy use. ToU
tariffs are aimed at encouraging
energy use during off-peak hours
(when energy supply is high and
demand is low) by setting lower
energy prices compared to highpeak hours. The overall objective is
to shift energy demand from highto low-peak hours, rather than to
reduce overall energy use. ToU
tariffs are designed to better reflect
the "true" energy generation costs
at a certain time of the day. However, this also implies that energy
prices will vary more, which may
cause uncertainty among consumers about how much energy will
cost. Generally, consumers prefer
certain outcomes over uncertain
outcomes; hence, they may initially object to ToU tariffs. However, in the longer term, if average
energy costs go down, resistance
may decrease.
ToU tariffs have already beenput in place in various countries,
such as France, Italy and Sweden.
Figure 2 represents an example
of ToU tariffs designs for a smart
meter trial in Ireland. Studies

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

% of Sign Up
(Certainty + Probably)

Your Electricity Provider Can Remotely Limit the Use of
Certain Major Home Appliances and You Cannot Choose
to Reverse This Course of Action

Day
14 C Rate
ent/
kWh

* Peak Rates Applied Moday to Friday Only, Excluding Public Holidays

figure 2. An example of ToU tariffs designs for a smart meter trial in Ireland that ran
1 January-31 December 2010. Note that all prices excluded VAT. (Data derived from:
CER, Electricity Smart Metering Customer Behaviour Trials (CBT) Findings Report.
Dublin: Commission for Energy Regulation, 2011.)
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2017