Domestic energy demand and energy poverty

I have been working on and writing about domestic energy demand and energy poverty since 2009, in the context of a number of projects. As with all of my research and evaluation work, I have made sure that – as well as being theoretically informed and methodologically rigorous – my work is also relevant and useful in policy and practice. As a result, I have - on and off - advised policy teams in government, since 2009.

Key projects

Community Energy for Energy Solidarity (CEES)

This project focused on the role of energy communities in tackling energy poverty. The project was funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme (2021 to 2024), focusing on six European energy communities across. My role on the project was evaluator.

Project website.

Evaluation reports.

Smart Communities: working together to save energy?

This project examined the proposition that community action could be an important component in efforts to reduce domestic energy consumption. The project drew on the principles of action research, and involved the use of participatory approaches with multiple local partners and households. Smart Communities was funded by ESRC (2011-2014) and I was the Co-Investigator.

Read more here.

CHARM

CHARM examined the potential of energy consumption feedback – that allows the householder to compare themselves with the average or norm – to support energy demand reduction. CHARM was funded by EPSRC (2009-2012) and I was the senior research in 2009-2010.

British Gas Smart Energy Report

This 2014 project consisted of an evaluation of the British Gas online and app-based energy consumption feedback and energy saving advice system, Smart Energy Report. The reporting also involved making recommendations for future development. The work was funded by British Gas, and I worked with Ruth Rettie and Tim Harries.

Low Carbon Community Challenge

This 2010-11 project was funded by Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and led by GfK-NOP. My role was to provide expert advice on the full range of evaluation tools that GfK-NOP used to evaluate a set of LCCC-funded projects.

Key themes/outputs

Energy communities and energy poverty

Evaluation of the six CEES projects shows that when they have adequate resources energy communities are able to implement projects that are highly valued by households and can produce positive change in household's energy know-how (see below). At the same time, the evaluation highlights the range of challenges that energy communities encounter when they begin this work and reminds us of the role of governments in ameliorating energy poverty.

Evaluation reports

Energy know-how

A key finding of Smart Communities was the inadequacy of energy literacy approaches to energy demand reduction efforts; these tend to focus on facts about climate change and energy reduction tips. Our work highlighted the importance to households of energy know-how: practical and skills-based knowledge that is as specific to the household as possible, and of the highly social and experiential means by which this knowledge is best shared and developed.

Read the full paper here.

This work has proved highly valuable to BEIS, and is the key conceptual resource in its work with Ipsos MORI on energy reduction advice approaches.

Read the Ipsos MORI report here (see page 3).

See the BEIS energy advice project website and resources here.

Energy consumption feedback (smart meters) and community action

While acknowledging the limitations of energy consumption feedback as a route to energy demand reduction, this Smart Communities paper – in Energy Policy (2014) – highlights the ways in which community action and communications approaches can complement feedback approaches.

Read the full paper here.

Community action on energy

This paper - published in People, Place and Policy - examined the potential and challenges of local, community action as a route to greater action on energy demand.

Read the full paper here.

The ‘hard work’ of energy demand reduction

This working paper highlights the ‘hard work’ that householders have to put into energy demand reduction. This paper challenges the notion – common in behavioural approaches to the issue – that the main challenge is getting people to the point where they want to reduce their energy consumption.

Read the full paper here.

Working together to save energy?
The final report of the Smart Communities project contains a full down of what we did, how we did it and why. The report also highlights the ways in which the project action was helpful and not helpful, focusing particularly on the role of: community action, energy consumption feedback, social norms, knowledge and know-how, and regular communication.
Read the report here.

Disciplinary matters

As those who have been working on energy demand reduction for a while will know, this area of research and practice has been the topic of some robust interdisciplinary exchanges. I wrote a PSI blog in 2016 which comments on this debate. In brief, my contention is that – although behavioural science approaches can be very productive in many areas – energy demand is different due to the complexity, difficulty and repeated nature of the changes that are required. The blog argues for greater emphasis on more sociological and ethnographic approaches to understanding energy demand and energy demand reduction.

Read the blog here.

The social norm approach and energy demand reduction

This paper came from CHARM and its writing was led by Tim Harries. While acknowledging a range of challenges, the paper concludes that energy consumption feedback can support energy demand reduction.  
Read the full paper here.