The impact of aggregated demand response to energy communities: Results of a community survey in Spain

Abstract

This article presents a study which links the technical, awareness, motivation and behavioural factors affecting the adoption of demand response programmes, aggregation and other domestic energy efficiency measures. The aim is to statistically correlate those factors (and variables) to better understand the role of each one of them played in the effectiveness of future design and deployment of energy efficiency and sustainable energy community initiatives. The data for this study was collected from 102 general population responses to an online categorical multiple response survey (https://putdr2test.web.uah.es/) carried out between November 2022 and March 2023. We apply chi-square test of association, contingency tables, and clustering and k-nearest neighbours algorithms to the dataset, amongst other statistical and machine learning methods, paying special attention to the data preprocessing. Despite the lack of strong associations between those variables as revealed by our experimentation, it showcases a number of four patterns in which factors like the consumer motivation dominate the effective participation in RD initiatives and pilots. Three conclusions can be drawn. The technical dimension is not the weakest, resulting in a promising opportunity to raise awareness of the tangible benefits achieved by using more efficient technologies and engaging in new energy initiatives to motivate the change. Moreover, inconsistent, incomplete or imprecise media, market and regulatory messages can lead to a decline in confidence and loss of motivation among consumers, even between the environmentally concerned ones. To that end, we encourage strategies that relate energy efficiency with quality and innovation, not with effort and a loss of comfort, to overcome the barrier of ignorance and reluctance towards change.