Incentivising households to lower their electricity consumption is increasingly used as a tool to create a more flexible electricity demand. Previous reviews estimate that electricity savings of 6.4–7.4% can be achieved through monetary, informational and behavioural incentives. This papers argues that a more realistic estimate is of a 1.9–3.9% reduction in consumption based on the most recent experimental data, from both peer-reviewed and grey literature sources. Using data from 52 studies published during the “Smart Grid Era” (2005 onwards), the effects of incentives from 128 observations, amounting to 713,002 households, are analysed. The results show that individual and real-time feedback as well as personalised advice on how to save electricity are more effective than feedback on electricity costs and general electricity savings tips which lead to relative increases in consumption. Despite improvements in the quality of more recent studies, the analysis highlights the importance of methodological rigour in carrying out and reporting effects of incentives: an absence of a control group, of socio-demographic data, and the self-selection of participants into treatment leads to overestimation of effects.

中文翻译：

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住宅节电的价格、信息和推动因素：元分析

鼓励家庭降低用电量越来越多地被用作创造更灵活电力需求的工具。之前的审查估计，通过货币、信息和行为激励措施可以实现 6.4-7.4% 的节电。本文认为，根据同行评审和灰色文献来源的最新实验数据，更现实的估计是消耗量减少 1.9-3.9%。使用“智能电网时代”（2005 年起）期间发表的 52 项研究的数据，分析了来自 128 次观察（总计 713,002 户家庭）的激励效果。结果表明，个人和实时反馈以及个性化的节电建议比电费反馈和一般节电提示更有效，后者导致消费相对增加。尽管最近研究的质量有所提高，但该分析强调了方法学严谨性在执行和报告激励措施的影响方面的重要性：缺乏对照组、社会人口数据以及参与者自行选择参与治疗对效果的高估。