Exploratory analysis of family-related activities during peak electricity periods

Máté Lőrincz, Timur Yunusov and Jacopo Torriti

Abstract

Price-based interventions (such as Time of Use tariffs) are designed to shift the timing of certain everyday activities to mitigate peak electricity demand. On the one hand, it is argued that timing activities outside the peak hours would decrease the demand, easing the stress on the grid. On the other hand, recent literature suggests that householders are more likely to ignore timing of activities – due to convenience or due to activities considered ‘non-negotiable’ during peak hours. One way to address this conundrum is to investigate how family-related activities during the peak times hang together and the extent to which they are performed together at a specific time of the day. The starting point of this research is that working hours and school times shape the dynamics of peak demand, leaving less time for families to do more during these time periods and also making it difficult to shift activities to other times of the day. We aim to explore the timing and sequences of activities, comparing how they vary at different temporal scales (e.g. workdays vis-à-vis school holidays). In conclusion, we argue that any effective shifting of family-related activities will need to look beyond the meter (such as de-synchronized effects of school holidays), potentially collecting information regarding both energy and non-energy data in order to understand the connection, coordination and organization between activities which constitute electricity demand.

Banner photo credit: Alireza Attari on Unsplash