The use of apps to promote energy saving: a study of smart meter–related feedback in the Netherlands

Geelen, Daphne; Mugge, Ruth; Silvester, S.; Bulters, Annemieke

doi:10.1007/s12053-019-09777-z

Cited by 38 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Even though there are no reports of long-term results on how to sustain the accomplished energy savings, many works have identified that, without proper engagement strategies, once habituation sets in (after as little as four weeks), there is a considerable loss of interest from the end-users in the feedback devices (e.g., [85][86][87][88]). However, it is evident from the literature that, through visualizing smart meter data in a timely and intuitive way, consumers become increasingly literate in understanding their domestic energy consumption, and in particular on how unintentional behavior can lead to unnecessary consumption [89,90].…”

Section: Providing User Feedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Watt’s up at Home? Smart Meter Data Analytics from a Consumer-Centric Perspective

et al. 2021

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The key advantage of smart meters over traditional metering devices is their ability to transfer consumption information to remote data processing systems. Besides enabling the automated collection of a customer’s electricity consumption for billing purposes, the data collected by these devices makes the realization of many novel use cases possible. However, the large majority of such services are tailored to improve the power grid’s operation as a whole. For example, forecasts of household energy consumption or photovoltaic production allow for improved power plant generation scheduling. Similarly, the detection of anomalous consumption patterns can indicate electricity theft and serve as a trigger for corresponding investigations. Even though customers can directly influence their electrical energy consumption, the range of use cases to the users’ benefit remains much smaller than those that benefit the grid in general. In this work, we thus review the range of services tailored to the needs of end-customers. By briefly discussing their technological foundations and their potential impact on future developments, we highlight the great potentials of utilizing smart meter data from a user-centric perspective. Several open research challenges in this domain, arising from the shortcomings of state-of-the-art data communication and processing methods, are furthermore given. We expect their investigation to lead to significant advancements in data processing services and ultimately raise the customer experience of operating smart meters.

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Section: Providing User Feedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Watt’s up at Home? Smart Meter Data Analytics from a Consumer-Centric Perspective

et al. 2021

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“…In research on the use of smart meter-related feedback applications to stimulate energy conservation, which have similarities with our control condition, the Powersaver Energy Dashboard, inconsistent outcomes are reported. In a study of Geelen et al [23] a large sample of Dutch households (n = 519) were divided into an intervention group that had an energy dashboard and control group that did not have that. Results show no significant difference in reduction in electricity and gas consumption between both groups over a long period.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Household Energy Conservation Intervention: a Game versus Dashboard Comparison

Fijnheer

Oostendorp²,

Veltkamp³

2019

IJSG

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This paper presents the results of a study, comparing a game versus a dashboard with respect to energy conservation in the household. In a pretest-posttest design, an empirical study tested whether change in attitude, knowledge, engagement and behaviour with respect to energy conservation in the household was different for participants playing Powersaver Game compared to a control condition where participants used an energy dashboard with the same content, but excluding game features. The aim of this game (developed using an iterative user-centered game design methodology) is to influence household energy consumption by means of electricity and gas usage in the long-term. The intervention time was at least 5 weeks and pre and post measures were based on 21 days intervals. All energy conservation activities that the application provides (e.g. washing clothes on low temperatures) take place in the real world and feedback is based on real time energy consumption. This real data into the game approach aims to optimize the transfer between the game world and the real world. Energy consumption significantly changed in the game condition compared to the control condition, and the difference between both conditions is more than 33% after the intervention. In the game condition, knowledge about energy conservation was significantly increased, although no significant differences in increase of attitude and engagement were found. We conclude that Powersaver Game is effective in transfer of energy conservation knowledge, which leads to energy saving behaviour on the long term. However, it cannot be concluded that playing the game leads to a greater change in attitude, probably because attitude scores of the participants were high from the start.

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“…), each one with its own interface and possible additional options besides the standard energy monitoring, such as user alert in case of energy over-consumption, provision of energy tips, etc. (Geelen et al, 2019 [23]) 1 . To the best of our knowledge, the only contribution on the usage of smart energy apps is that one of Geelen et al (2019) [23], who carried out a quasiexperiment in the Netherlands to assess whether the provision of a smart app monitoring system to a treatment group effectively led to energy savings compared to a non-treated group 2 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of energy tracking application use at the city level: Evidence from France

et al. 2020

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This paper investigates the determinants of smart energy tracking app usage by citizens residing in French cities. Our framework is inspired by the extant strands of literature on smart cities and smart home technology adoption, but also contributing to them as smart energy applications reveal specificities that need to be incorporated; the latter include, for instance, the distinction between adoption and frequency of use, or the consideration of additional determinants such as privacy or environmental concerns. For our study, we build an original survey and rely upon citizen-level data, testing a Zero-Inflated Ordered Probit (ZIOP) model which allows to differentiate between adoption of the smart energy app and its frequency of utilisation. Our empirical findings reveal how the drivers related to smart city characteristics mainly affect the decision of adoption of energy tracking apps. Conversely, the more individual characteristics related to the perceived benefits of using energy tracking apps, dwelling type, and privacy concerns, primarily affect the frequency of utilisation. Our results bear policy implications on the issue of privacy, premising additional research on energy challenges in the utilization of energy apps in smart versus non-smart environments.

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The use of apps to promote energy saving: a study of smart meter–related feedback in the Netherlands

Cited by 38 publications

References 24 publications

Watt’s up at Home? Smart Meter Data Analytics from a Consumer-Centric Perspective

Watt’s up at Home? Smart Meter Data Analytics from a Consumer-Centric Perspective

Household Energy Conservation Intervention: a Game versus Dashboard Comparison

Determinants of energy tracking application use at the city level: Evidence from France

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