Forests,fuelwood and livelihoods—energy transition patterns in eastern Indonesia

The central thesis of the energy ladder model is a unidirectional transition from primitive to advance fuel with increased affluence of households. Although now largely discredited, this assumption remains a foundation of laissez-faire policies that anticipate energy transition resulting spontaneous forest recovery with economic development. Our results suggest that such policies can undermine broader policy objectives and actually worsen forest conditions in rural Indonesia. Based on a case study of forest margin communities in eastern Indonesia, we demonstrate that fuel subsidy reform did little to reduce rural household demand for fuelwood, while dramatically increasing fuelwood demand for processing agricultural products. Our results show how household decisions related to fuel sources are affected by non-economic considerations and external factors, such as opportunities to sell fuelwood. We argue that policy interventions that encourage energy transition of households do not necessarily improve forest conditions, as household fuelwood use may be a symptom, rather than a driver of deforestation and forest degradation. Thus policies to improve forest conditions should focus more on addressing the market environment of forest-margin communities, providing energy alternatives to small industries that are often the larger consumers of fuelwood.     

Keeping energy visible? Exploring how householders interact with feedback from smart energy monitors in the longer term

This paper reports on how, over a 12-month period, UK householders interacted with feedback on their domestic electricity consumption in a field trial of real time displays or smart energy monitors. Drawing on the findings of 11 follow-up qualitative interviews with householders involved in a ‘Visible Energy Trial’, the paper suggests that: (i) over time, smart energy monitors gradually become ‘backgrounded’ within normal household routines and practices; (ii) the monitors do increase householders’ knowledge of and confidence about the amount of electricity they consume; (iii) but, beyond a certain level and for a wide variety of reasons, the monitors do not necessarily encourage or motivate householders to reduce their levels of consumption; and (iv) once equipped with new knowledge and expertise about their levels of electricity consumption, household practices may become harder to change as householders realise the limits to their energy saving potential and become frustrated by the absence of wider policy and market support. The paper concludes by reflecting on the policy and research implications of these findings in relation to future transition pathways to a low-carbon economy.     

Domestic LPG interventions in South Africa: Challenges and lessons

A majority of grid-connected households in South Africa use electricity for cooking and heating tasks. This thermal intensive use of electricity has a high load factor and is a contributory factor of electricity demand outstripping supply at peak demand periods. The government has promoted liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as an alternative thermal energy source for household cooking and heating. This study evaluates the long-term successes, challenges and social impacts of an LPG intervention project that was piloted in Atteridgeville Township, a typical low-income suburb. The data was gathered through one-on-one household interviews with a sample of the beneficiaries. The results indicate that seven years after the LPG intervention, about 70% of the beneficiaries continue to use LPG and report that the intervention has improved their welfare. Fast cooking is cited as the key tangible benefit of LPG technology in households, followed by saving on electricity bills. The project would have achieved more success through better community engagement, including strict beneficiary selection criteria; a long-term LPG distribution and maintenance plan; and inclusion of recurring monthly LPG subsidies for indigent households. The study discusses the subset of factors necessary for successful rollouts of similar energy projects.     

Energy consumption by gender in some European countries

Household total energy use has been estimated in numerous studies in recent decades and differences have mainly been explained by levels of income/expenditure. Studies of gender consumption patterns show that men eat more meat than women and drive longer distances, potentially leading to higher total energy use by men. In this study we calculated the total energy use for male and female consumption patterns in four European countries (Germany, Norway, Greece and Sweden) by studying single households. Significant differences in total energy use were found in two countries, Greece and Sweden. The largest differences found between men and women were for travel and eating out, alcohol and tobacco, where men used much more energy than women. We suggest that these findings are policy relevant for the EU, which aims to mainstream gender issues into all activities and to lower its total energy use.     

Responsiveness of low-income households to hybrid price/non-price policies in the presence of energy shortages: evidence from Colombia

At the beginning of 2016, Colombia was experiencing an energy shortage, and in order to avoid mandatory power cuts, the government launched an unexpected hybrid price/non-price energy-saving policy. In this paper, I evaluate how low-income households in a major Colombian city respond to this policy. Using hourly household electricity consumption data, I find that, on average, households reduce electricity consumption by 4.5% as a result of the policy. It is striking that even low-income households, who consume relatively small amounts of electricity, respond to energy-saving policies and engage in conservation behaviors in the short term. In my analysis, I also find that the effect is stronger the higher the household pre-treatment electricity consumption levels and smaller among poorer households. However, the heterogeneity in terms of income level vanishes once I control for household pre-program electricity consumption levels. Finally, my point estimates are comparable to the impact estimates of policies that are similar to the one I analyze in this paper.     

Efficient and inefficient aspects of residential energy behaviour: What are the policy instruments for change?

The empirical part of this study is based on a survey of 600 Swedish households and a number of interviews where questions about residential energy behaviour and possible policy instruments for change were raised. The study provides insight into current behavioural patterns and gives a bottom-up perspective on the realistic perspective potentials for change and ways to achieve them. Residential energy use accounts for a fifth of the total in Northern nations and patterns of behaviour may influence levels of energy use to the same extent as choice of appliances. The study revealed those behavioural patterns that are efficient and those that need to be improved for energy conservation. Several policy instruments for change were identified in the study and they include combinations of information, economic measures, administrative measures and more user friendly technology as well as equipment with sufficient esthetic quality. Policy instruments that have fostered energy efficient behaviour in Sweden include the massive information campaigns during the oil crises in the 1970s as well as energy labelling of appliances. Still, many households are “energy-unaware” and several energy efficient behaviours are motivated not by energy conservation concern but of a perceived lack of time. This shows that it is important to have a broad perspective in energy conservation, to evaluate trends and to use policy instruments timely to support or discourage them.     

Watts your usage? A field study of householders’ literacy for residential electricity data

Smart metering studies typically focus on quantifying behavior change. However, little is known about how users understand energy information and analyze and interpret feedback from energy data visualizations. To investigate this, we gave 13 participants from nine UK households an electricity power clamp meter. Prior to installing and using the device, we conducted interviews with participants to gauge their understanding of their home electricity consumption and found that participants varied considerably from limited to substantial energy literacy. Two weeks after the clamp meter had been installed, we conducted a contextual inquiry in which we asked participants to explain the web-based time series visualization of their recorded electricity data. We found that the visualization proved unfit: participants relied on memories and suggested likely routines, while widely being unable to reliably identify specific events in the data visualization. In follow-up interviews 3 months later, we found that participants’ understanding of their home electricity consumption had hardly changed. Finally, we invited participants to generate ideas how smart electricity feedback could be optimized. They named different forms of disaggregation, higher temporal resolution, and interactivity as design requirements. In summary, these results suggest that people find home energy data very difficult to understand and link to everyday actions and behaviors.     

Organizing prosumers into electricity trading communities: Costs to attain electricity transfer limitations and self‐sufficiency goals

Among household electricity end users, there is growing interest in local renewable electricity generation and energy independence. Community‐based and neighborhood energy projects, where consumers and prosumers of electricity trade their energy locally in a peer‐to‐peer system, have started to emerge in different parts of the world. This study investigates and compares the costs incurred by individual households and households organized in electricity trading communities in seeking to attain greater independence from the centralized electricity system. This independence is investigated with respect to: (i) the potential to reduce the electricity transfer capacity to and from the centralized system and (ii) the potential to increase self‐sufficiency. An optimization model is designed to analyze the investment and operation of residential photovoltaic battery systems. The model is then applied to different cases in a region of southern Sweden for year 2030. Utilizing measured electricity demand data for Swedish households, we show that with a reduced electricity transfer capacity to the centralized system, already a community of five residential prosumers can supply the household demand at lower cost than can prosumers acting individually. Grouping of residential prosumers in an electricity trading community confers greater benefits under conditions with a reduced electricity transfer capacity than when the goal is to become electricity self‐sufficient. It is important to consider the local utilization of photovoltaic‐generated electricity and its effect on the net trading pattern (to and from the centralized system) when discussing the impact on the electricity system of a high percentage of prosumers.     

Price elasticities of residential electricity demand: Estimates from household panel data in Bangladesh

We collect a household level panel dataset to estimate the price elasticities of electricity demand for different types of urban households in Bangladesh. We use an instrumental variable estimation strategy which exploits exogenous variation in average electricity prices induced by a value-added-tax shock. The results indicate significant heterogeneity in price elasticities by electricity consumption levels. We conduct a number of simulations under alternative policy scenarios to illustrate how incorporating the heterogeneous nature of price elasticities into pricing policy can help decrease electricity demand-supply mismatch and inequality in electricity consumption. The results have important policy implications for developing countries aiming to address major energy issues by implementing tariff reforms.     

Impact of energy subsidies on energy consumption and supply in Zimbabwe. Do the urban poor really benefit?

Twenty percent of Zimbabwe's urban poor households are still to be connected to the grid. The majority of these households are poor. There are several reasons why the Zimbabwe urban poor are still not connected to the grid, the most important one being the household incomes and the cost of different sources of energy. In order to facilitate wider usage of electricity by the poor, the policy makers have introduced a subsidy policy.

The objective of this paper is to ascertain the extent to which the poor urban households could afford the cost of electricity with or without subsidies. This gives an indication on whether contrary to the current thinking, subsidies are decisive for the affordability of electricity by the urban households. The paper also examines the distribution of the subsidies, amongst the different urban household income categories and other economic sectors. Furthermore the impact of such subsidies on the utility's finances is assessed.     

Finding faults and influencing consumption: the role of in-home energy feedback displays in managing high-tech homes

In the context of reducing household greenhouse gas emissions, in-home energy feedback displays have been trialled as a mechanism to assist households to monitor and change energy-use behaviour. As we move towards technology-rich zero-energy homes, the challenge of managing energy use and electricity generation systems will increase and a new role for in-home feedback displays may emerge. This paper describes the in-home display and monitoring systems installed in a near-net zero-energy residential estate and provides a summary of the energy-use data generated by the systems. It also draws on 25 in-depth interviews to discuss the residents’ attitudes towards, and experiences interacting with, the in-home feedback display and energy management system. Residents describe how the feedback displays assist them to understand their end-use energy behaviour, reduce net energy use and assess whether household appliances and renewable energy systems are operating correctly. The role of energy system fault identification is highlighted by many interviewees, where the feedback displays provide the means to monitor system performance, identify system failures and maintain low-energy-use outcomes.     

Social habits and energy consumption in single-family homes

Personal interviews (response rate = 96.1%) were made with both men and women in an area of 76 similar, all-electric single-family houses (November 15 to December 1, 1981). The total variation in energy consumption in the area is explained by differences in social habits (water consumption, about 50%; ventilation habits, about 35%; indoor temperature, about 15%) among the households. The consumer sociological variables chosen for this study statistically explain more than 60% of total variation in household energy consumption. A relation has been found between attitude to energy consumption and household energy consumption with r = 0.48. The households display no knowledge that they themselves consume about one third of total energy used. When major energy saving activities are undertaken by the households, the motive is often energy consciousness. When minor energy-saving activities are taken, the motive is an economic one. The male energy-related role is of greater importance for the variation in household energy consumption than the female role.In a discussion, the importance of distinguishing between household energy consumption and household energy use in order not to affect the welfare of the households when energy saving actions are undertaken, is maintained.     

The barriers to energy efficiency in China: Assessing household electricity savings and consumer behavior in Liaoning Province

This article investigates the barriers to energy efficiency at the residential sector within one province in China and explores patterns of household electricity consumption. The article presents the results of a survey questionnaire distributed to more than 600 households in Liaoning Province, field research at various Liaoning government agencies, and research interviews of Liaoning government officials to determine the efficacy of their energy efficiency efforts in China. It then investigates the extent that electricity consumers have taken advantage of energy efficiency opportunities relating to more efficient lights, water heaters, appliances, air-conditioners and heaters, and better energy-efficiency labels. The article also assesses the degree that electricity users have become more aware about electricity prices and their levels of consumption, and touches on the connection between rising levels of income and electricity use. It concludes by providing recommendations for how to improve efforts to promote conservation and reduce electricity load growth in Liaoning Province and beyond.     

The importance of comprehensiveness in renewable electricity and energy-efficiency policy

Based on extensive research interviews and supplemented with a review of the academic literature, this article assesses the best way to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. It begins by briefly laying out why government intervention is needed, and then details the four most favored policy mechanisms identified by participants: eliminating subsidies for conventional and mature electricity technologies, pricing electricity accurately, passing a national feed-in tariff, and implementing a nationwide systems benefit fund to raise public awareness, protect lower income households, and administer demand side management programs. Drawing mostly from case studies in the United States, the article also discusses why these policy mechanisms must be implemented comprehensively, not individually, if the barriers to renewables and energy efficiency are to be overcome.     

Demographics,energy and our homes

The projected growth in households in the UK is a key factor in future domestic energy consumption, particularly electricity consumption. While every household needs a home and its heating, lighting and appliances, increasing incomes have historically led to significantly higher appliance ownership, higher expectations of levels of energy service and greater usage. In the past this trend was combined with increasing household numbers to drive growth in domestic electricity demand. Official projections for population growth and household composition indicate significant drivers for future growth in energy demand. Curbing this will require policies to reverse the tendency for energy–efficiency improvements to be overwhelmed by growing numbers of households, more widespread appliance ownership and increased service expectations.     

Income and energy use in Bangladesh: A household level analysis

We examine how energy use at the household level moves with income in Bangladesh. Using the 2010 wave of Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey data, our analyses indicate a U-shaped relationship of both electricity use and other types of energy use (combined) with household expenditure. The findings imply that as income grows households increase their energy expenditure less than proportionally, up to a threshold level of income. Beyond the threshold income, energy use increases as a proportion of income, particularly for electricity use. We identify the threshold (turning point) for both electricity and other types of energy use. Based on the current level of expenditure and its growth, reaching the turning point would require 17years for the former category but only 7years for the latter group.     

Unintended outcomes of electricity smart-metering: trading-off consumption and investment behaviour

Smart-metering allows electricity utilities to provide consumers with better information on their energy usage and to apply time-of-use pricing. These measures have been shown to reduce electricity consumption and induce time-shifting of demand. Less is known about how they affect residential energy efficiency investment behaviour. We use data from a randomised-controlled trial on a sample of almost 2500 Irish consumers, conducted over a 12-month period to investigate the effect of smart-metering and residential feedback on household investment behaviour. The results show that exposure to time-of-use pricing and information stimuli, while reducing overall and peak usage, can also have the unintended effect of reducing investment in energy efficiency measures within the home. Our findings indicate that households exposed to treatment were less likely to adopt any energy saving measure (23–28 % on average), and those households adopted less energy saving features than those in the control group (15–21 % on average). This result highlights the potential for behavioural interventions to have unintended consequences on behaviours other than those specifically targeted. Furthermore, it underlines the importance of examining a wider range of outcomes and allowing longer time-scales when evaluating this type of experiment.     

Beyond free electricity: The costs of electric cooking in poor households and a market-friendly alternative

The South African government is introducing a poverty-reduction policy that will supply households with a monthly 50 kWh free basic electricity (FBE) subsidy. We show that FBE distorts the energy choices of poor households by encouraging them to cook with electricity, whereas alternatives such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) can deliver a similar cooking service at a much lower cost to society. An alternative energy scheme, such as providing households with clean energy credits equivalent in value to the FBE's cost, could deliver additional energy services worth at least 6% of total household welfare (and probably much more) at no additional public cost; those benefits are so large that they would cover the entire cost of LPG fuel needed to implement the scheme. The analysis is extremely sensitive to the coincidence of electric cooking with peak power demand on the South African grid and to assumptions regarding how South Africa will meet its looming shortfall in peak power capacity. One danger of FBE is that actual peak coincidence and the costs of supplying peak power could be much less favorable than we assume, and such uncertainties expose the South African power system to potentially very high costs of service.     

The impact of microhydroelectricity on household welfare indicators

The use of small-scale off-grid renewable energy for rural electrification is now seen as part of the sustainable energy solutions. The expectation from such small-scale investment is that it can meet the basic energy needs of a household and subsequently improve some aspects of household welfare. However, these stated benefits remain largely hypothetical because there are data and methodological challenges in existing literature attempting to isolate such impact. This paper uses field data from microhydro schemes in Kenya, and propensity score matching technique to demonstrate such an impact. We find that on average, households connected to microhydroelectricity consume 1.5 l less of kerosene per month compared to households without any such electricity connection. In addition, non-connected households spend 0.92 USD more for recharging their cell phone batteries per month in comparison to those who were using microhydroelectricity service. Finally, school children from households that are connected to microhydroelectricity were found to devote 43 min less on evening studies compared to those without electricity. The findings provide interesting insights to some of the claims made for or against use of off grid renewable energy for rural electrification.     

Managing the future megacity: an appraisal of knowledge about energy challenges and energy-saving attitudes among households in Dhaka

Energy saving is now an important household priority in Dhaka. Energy crisis especially electricity crisis is one of the most important sufferings of the residents in Dhaka. As tackling such immense problem requires initiatives from both government and household ends, this study focuses on appraising the energy saving attitudes of the households in Dhaka to help government in designing and implementing appropriate policy options. Using a sample of 400 households, surveyed in a cross-section of locations in Dhaka, the study reveals that there is an encouraging level of homogeneous knowledge about energy challenges and various dimensions of energy-saving attitudes. Furthermore, the price of the energy-saving appliances is considered as one of the most important impediments in achieving a more comprehensive energy-saving response among the household is quite well match with the socioeconomic characteristics of the majority of the residents in Dhaka.