It is often stated that electricity systems need further development in order to include the ambitious amount of renewable energy. Smart Grids are seen as an enabler for an electricity market with increased benefits for both consumers and environment. From a system level perspective, many advantages could be achieved by implementing these innovative technologies. Smart Grids are expected to be more flexible and could result in that expensive investments can be avoided. Furthermore, implementing smart metering could give consumers possibilities to obtain a better understanding of their own electricity consumption. The information could also help consumers to react on price signals by adjusting their consumption patterns. Increased knowledge usually increase awareness and could therefore be positive for energy efficiency activities.
In order to investigate the potential for increased consumer participation in the electricity market with respect to demand-response and micro generation, a new evaluation method is proposed. In the project “Increased consumer power on the Nordic electricity market” large-scale energy intervention scenarios are being applied.
The purpose of this it paper is to describe this methodology, its’ relation to other methods and the foreseen benefits to increase knowledge on the potential of demand-side participation in wider areas (e.g. cities and regions). In the experiment different social, economic and environmental incentives are evaluated in order to understand how they influence electricity consumption behaviour in the short term. The design of this new methodology is based on vast experiences of energy consumption surveys in residential consumer segment, feedback studies, focus groups and other consumer interaction methods.
paper id: A10653