The effect of demand response on purchase intention of distributed generation: Evidence from Japan

Participation in demand response (DR) may affect a consumer's electric consumption pattern through consumption load curtailment, a shift in the consumption timing or increasing the utilization of distributed generation (DG). This paper attempts to provide empirical evidence of DR's effect on DG adoption by household consumers. By using the original Internet survey data of 5442 household respondents in Japan conducted in January 2015, we focus on the effect of the time-of-use (TOU) tariff on the purchasing intention of photovoltaic systems (PV). The empirical results show the following: 1) current TOU plan users have stronger PV purchase intentions than the other plan users, 2) respondents who are familiar with the DR program have relatively higher purchase intentions compared with their counterparts, and 3) when the respondents are requested to assume participation in the virtual TOU plan designed for the survey, which resembles plans currently available through major companies, 1.2% of the households have decided to purchase PV. In addition, we provide calculations of TOU's impacts on the official PV adoption and emissions reduction targets, and discuss policy recommendations to increase recognitions and participations in TOU programs.