smart demand: lessons from water

Smart Demand:Lessons from Water

Dr Ben Andersonb.anderson@soton.ac.uk

Sustainable Energy Research Group

Faculty of Engineering and the Environment

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The Menu

The problem(s) with water

Water ‘practices’

The problem with ‘demographics’

Lessons from water

Implications for smart energy

Source: DEFRA, 2008

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The problem(s) with water…

Over abstraction

It costs to clean– Energy (carbon)

Supply– Patchy (no grid)– Locally variable

Demand– poorly understood

Source: DEFRA, 2011

With no action

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Source: DEFRA, 2011

What do we know?

Domestic water demand is rising

Mean daily consumption– ~= 150 l/person/day– ~= 140 l/person/day (2030)?

More single households– more total volume

And– Consumption = ƒ(occupancy)– But look at the ranges!

But that’s about it…Source: ESRC Sustainable Practices Group Water

Survey, 2011

www.sprg.ac.uk

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Well… almost ‘Expected’ appliance use

– On average

Actual appliance consumption– Mean l/day– For a few micro-measured

households

So…– Consumption = ƒ(occupancy) +

ƒ(appliances)

But

Source: Shove & Medd, 2005

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The trouble with averages…

5 ‘average’ households– but they do different things

So to reduce demand…– What to target?– Who to target?– How to target them?

Source: Shove & Medd, 2005

Now…– Consumption = ƒ(occupancy * wpd) + ƒ(appliances *

wpd)– Where wpd = What People Do

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But what do people do?

Does this tell us?

Social practices– Habits– Routines– Neither fully conscious nor reflective– Constraints & inter-dependences– “Why people don’t do what they ‘should’”

(Jim Skea, 2011)

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Washing practices

2011 survey– N = 1800

“7 a week”

7 showers + 1 bath

Do washing practices cluster?

Source: ESRC Sustainable Practices Group Water

Survey, 2011

www.sprg.ac.uk

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Washing practice clusters

Dimensions– Frequency– Diversity– Technology– Outsourcing

Source: ESRC Sustainable Practices Group Water

Survey, 2011

www.sprg.ac.uk

Whole sample

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Washing practice clusters

Dimensions– Frequency– Diversity– Technology– Outsourcing

Explain– ~ 20% l/day variation Source: ESRC Sustainable Practices Group Water

Survey, 2011

www.sprg.ac.uk

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But…

Cluster membership– is not easy to predict

Low Frequency Showering

Attentious Cleaning

High Frequency Bathing

Low Frequency Bathing

Out and About

Age Number of children Household Composition Gender

Number of earners

Number of cars Accommodation

Tenure Environmental values

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Lessons from water: Volume ~= ƒ(occupancy) +

– ‘Attitudes’ are not that relevant

Appliances provide a substrate for…– What people do - social practices

Help to explain variation () Across ‘similar’ households With similar appliances And similar accommodation

Are habitual, routine & not fully conscious nor reflective

So difficult to change

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Hot water!

You can eco-tech all you like– But it’s what people do with it that matters

Implications for Energy

Source: A.S. Bahaj, P.A.B. James (2007) “Urban energy generation: The added value of photovoltaics in social housing” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 11: 2121-2136

H4 -high, peaky demand - potential for shifting?

H2 - low demand - little potential for shifting?

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Hot water!

You can eco-tech all you like– But it’s what people do with it that matters

Smart Demand needs a handle on– Habits, routines– Barriers, constraints and flexibility– Networks of demand

And ways of ‘auto-targeting’ interventions– That don’t rely on ‘demographics’ + ‘values’– Smart Monitoring?

Implications for Energy

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Thank you

Dr Ben Anderson (b.anderson@soton.ac.uk)

www.energy.soton.ac.uk– SPRG

Sustainable Practices Research Group www.sprg.ac.uk

– DANCER Digital Agent Networking for Customer Energy

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