Behavioral Economics Research on Demand Response of Energy Consumption with the aim of Social Implementation of Smart Grid Technology

Project Period 2013/10/1~
Type of Project Strategic Basic Research Programs (CREST)
EMS　横レイアウト　カラー　360dpi
Project Description We design energy consumption model based on behavioral economics, which focuses on the limits in human rationality. We search for solutions to various problems in practical implementation of smart grid technology, by critical appraisal of knowledge of demand response obtained so far in the literature.
More specifically, our main research theme is how to overcome the two major psychological economics obstacles to the spread and implementation of demand response. Because of the relatively short research period of the project (1.5 years), we plan to focus on finding the solution of aforementioned issues by making use of field experiments and questionnaire survey on offices and/or households, and by analyzing existing demand response data.
Issues
1. Incentive design to overcome the first obstacle: status quo bias.
In order to overcome the status quo bias in household decision-making, we offer customized design of optimal economic incentive for each household.

2. Upgrade proposal for the migration from manual demand response to Automatic Demand Response.
It is necessary to propose a roadmap for the upgrade migration to Automatic Demand Response, which includes automatic learning of household consumption pattern and advanced decision-making of home appliances priorities, leading to substantial economic saving under electricity dynamic pricing system.
Purchase and replacement of HEMS/ADR-supported appliances are usually necessary for the upgrade to Automatic Demand Response, and may result in considerable economic liability to households. It is therefore important to provide the customers with detailed and customized upgrade plan based on specific energy consumption pattern, so that the migration can be well accepted both psychologically and economically, and eventually lead to household electricity saving behavior.
Activity Report AY2013
・The empirical analysis of the effectiveness of ADR for Building Energy Management System(BEMS)We determined the demonstration site with our cooperative firm from October to December 2013.From January to March 2014, we set up in the demonstration site the Open-ADR based Evaluation System
for energy saving requests/effects, and we implemented trial operations without sending (Open-ADR based) saving requests.

・The implementation survey of ADR for Home Energy Management System(HEMS)

We began consulting with Yokohama-city and Toshiba Corporation as potential research partners in October, and we investigated survey research plan.
From January to March 2014, we designed the survey questionnaire for both households who have already installed HEMS and those who have not yet installed.
Summary 　 Research Report[pdf] (in Japanese)

The economic impact evaluation research project of demand-response on Next-Generation Energy and Social Systems

Project Period 2010/4/1～2015/3/31
Type of Project New Energy Promotion Council (NEPC)
Activity Report

(in Japanese)