Takanori Ida, a professor at the Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University, Koichiro Ito, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, and Makoto Tanaka, a professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, announced on March 3 that the request for power saving was valid but not long-lasting.On the other hand, it was also clarified that the power saving effect will be sustained if the electricity rate is raised in a specific time zone.
After the Great East Japan Earthquake, the power crisis has been called out.In response to this, the research group participated in a project of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in order to work on a field experiment of power saving, and among the smart community projects developed in the four areas of Yokohama City, Toyota City, Keihanna Gakuken City, and Kitakyushu City. Two experiments were conducted, one in the summer of 4 (2012 days) and the other in the winter of 15-2012 (13 days).Among them, we took up the experimental results of about 21 households in Keihanna Science City in the southern part of Kyoto Prefecture, and compared and examined effective efforts for power saving.
Specifically, smart meters and home energy management systems (HEMS) were installed free of charge in all 700 households.After that, the participating households were randomly assigned to a group that only requested power saving, a group that introduced variable electricity charges, and a control group that did not do either.Then, from the data on the amount of electricity used by time zone, the peak cut effect of how low the amount of electricity used by the power saving request group and the variable electricity rate introduction group was measured compared to the control group.
When we analyzed whether the power saving effect would be sustained by the way of working to recommend power saving, the first summer power saving request had an effect of 8%, but the effect soon diminished and habituation (become accustomed to the intervention and the effect diminished). ) I found out.On the other hand, the introduction of variable electricity prices consistently maintained a 17% effect.As a result, it was found that the power saving request was effective in the short term, but the effect soon diminished.In the future, it has become clear that in the event of a power crisis, it will be necessary to take other measures rather than requesting power saving.
Paper Information: [American Economic Journal: Economic Policy]: Moral Suasion and Economic Incentives: Field Experimental Evidence from Energy Demand
