THE ADDED VALUE OF HOUSEHOLD LEVEL ANALYSIS IN ACTIVE DEMAND: USING PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS IN UNDERSTANDING CHANGING ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR

Active Demand [AD] pilots are now being setup and performed all over the globe and particularly in Europe. This approach is seen as one of the solutio ns that will facilitate the stability of electricity systems. The essence of AD is that flexibility is sought on the demand side of the supply and demand equation. AD has as a consequence that consumers, and in this paper these are households, are requested to change their electrici ty consumption behaviour, both in volume and time. The ADVANCED project is a EU funded research initiative that has as goal to understand and share the factor s involved in AD. This research combines technical an d social scientific approaches in one project. The identification of determinants of household behavio ur change requires a methodology and measurement instruments. In this paper we elaborate on the methodology and a few key measurement features. We introduce new Key Performance Indicators [KPIs] of behaviour change based on actual hourly electricity consumption behaviour and associate these with psyc hsocial concepts to explore determinants of the inte nded behaviour changes. We demonstrate how this works an d conclude that standardisation of methodology and instruments across AD pilots would greatly enhance the understanding of what facilitates Active Demand.